One of the major difficulties that we have in the world is stress. The anxiety of everyday living causes stress. Stress has interesting affects on our physical body. Basically, stress constricts, it makes our blood vessels smaller, and brings about high blood pressure. Stress has a lot of other affects on us. The body reacts to stimulus very similarly to the outside world. When a storm brews and goes through the neighborhood, a lot of different things happen. Sometimes trees go down, sometimes electricity goes out, there are definitely affects on our physical comfort and our physical well being from the storm that comes through our neighborhood.
In our lives there are storms that come through, and they create various difficulties for us. In the same way that a wind, a strong wind, can knock a tree down, one of these storms in our lives can make us react differently than we do under calm situations. The dilemma for man is how do we de-stress, how do we react to all these difficult situations, and not feel the anxiety that comes with so many of them? Anxiety is something that we can feel in our being, it will tingle from our toes to our head, it will make us uncomfortable. Sometimes anxiety makes it hard to breathe, sometimes it makes it hard to focus, it can totally put us in a state of discomfort and fear.
We believe in faith. But in moments of anxiety, faith is further away for most of us than when things are calm. It is easier to believe and have faith when everything is going according to plan. When our plans are awry, and situations seem out of control, a certain kind of panic sets in, a certain kind of chaos sets in. Within this panic and chaos comfort is rare to find.
The Prophet Muhammad, Sallallāhu ‘alaihi wa sallam, (may the peace and blessings of God be upon him) left Mecca and was on his way to Medina. The Quraish in Mecca, this is the tribe that the Prophet Muhammad was from, found that he was missing, and they began to chase after him. The Prophet Muhammad was with a man named Abū Bakr, and they were traveling through the dessert. Abū Bakr was constantly aware of the fact that they were being pursued, and that their lives were in danger. There was a certain amount of trepidation that Abū Bakr was showing each step of the way. The Prophet Muhammad said to him, “When the two of us are traveling with the third party, the Lord, there is no need for fear, and there is no need for trepidation.”
For those who do not know the story, Abū Bakr found a cave, he and Muhammad went inside the cave. Spiders then spun a web covering the doorway of the cave so that those who were pursuing them would see the opening to the cave and would assume no one went through there because the spider web existed. The Prophet Muhammad remained hidden.
