This is the saying of Allah...

This is the saying of Allah, Mighty and Majestic be He, in His Book, ‘Until when the apostles despaired and they thought that they were indeed told a lie, Our help came to them’ (Quran 12:110).” Nahj al-balāgha[^4]: Regarding the vicissitudes of time (the mischiefs that are to occur and the absence of lawful ways of livehood): May my father and my mother be sacrificed for those whose names are well-known in the sky and not known on the earth. Beware!

You should expect such things as adversity in your affairs, the breaking of relations, and the rising up of inferior people to befall you. This will happen when the blow of a sword will be easier for a believer than to secure one dirham lawfully. This will happen when the reward of the beggar is more than that of the giver. This will be when you are intoxicated, not by drinking, but with wealth and plenty, when you are swearing [oaths] without compulsion and are speaking lies without compulsion.

This will be when troubles hurt you as the saddle hurts the hump of the camel. How long will these tribulations be and how distant the hope [for deliverance from them]? Ghaybat al-Shaykh[^5]: Aḥmad b. Idrīs, from `Alī b. Muḥammad b. Qutayba, from al-Faḍl b. Shādhān, from Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Abī Naṣr, from (Imam) Abū l-Ḥasan, peace be on him, who said: “By Allah!

What you desire will not happen until you are separated and sifted; until no one remains from you except few.” Then, he recited, ‘Or do you think that you will be left [as you are] while Allah has not yet made known those of you who have struggled hard and those who have patience.’[^6]” Ghaybat al-Shaykh: From Jābir al-Ju`fī who said: I asked (Imam) Abū Ja`far, peace be on him, “When will your relief (faraj) occur?” He answered, “It is far! It is far!

Our relief will not occur until you are screened out, then you are screened out [again], and then you are screened out [again]—and he repeated it three times—until Allah, the Exalted, removes the impure (al-kidir) and keeps the pure.”[^7] Ghaybat al-Shaykh[^8]: From him (meaning Muḥammad b. `Abd-Allah b. Ja`far al-Ḥimyarī), from his father, from Ayyūb b. Nūḥ, from al-`Abbās b. `Āmir, from al-Rabī` b.

Muḥammad al-Muslī, from (Imam) Abū `Abd-Allah, peace be on him, who said: By Allah, you will be broken like the breaking of glass; glass can be restored and it takes its original form. By Allah, you will be broken like the breaking of earthenware and earthenware cannot be restored to its original form.