When the Struggle Will Not Let Up

A word first

She is up at two in the morning with a child who has a fever. She worked a full shift today and she works again tomorrow. There is no one to hand the baby to. No one to take a turn. The rent is due, the car is making the noise again, and the only person who will notice everything she did today is asleep on her shoulder.

He is trying. He prays, mostly on time. He stays away from what he used to do. He works, he comes home, he tries to be patient with his children and gentle with his wife. And it keeps coming. The job falls through. The child gets sick. The money runs out a week before the month does. He looks at men doing everything wrong who seem fine, and a quiet question starts in his chest: I am doing my part. Why does it keep hitting me?

If either of those is you, this page is for you. Not to tell you the struggle is easy. It is not. To show you that Allah sees it, that the best of people walked through it before you, and that He brings His servants through.

✦

You were made for this

لَقَدْ خَلَقْنَا ٱلْإِنسَٰنَ فِى كَبَدٍ

Laqad khalaqnal-insana fi kabad

We have certainly created man into hardship.

Al-Balad 90:4

Kabad is toil, effort, labor that does not stop. Allah did not say man meets hardship now and then. He said man was created into it. The struggle is not a sign that something went wrong with your life. It is the shape of a human life. Every person you envy is carrying something you cannot see.

أَحَسِبَ ٱلنَّاسُ أَن يُتْرَكُوٓا۟ أَن يَقُولُوٓا۟ ءَامَنَّا وَهُمْ لَا يُفْتَنُونَ

Ahasiban-nasu an yutraku an yaqulu amanna wa hum la yuftanun

Do people think they will be left alone because they say: we believe, and they will not be tested?

Al-Ankabut 29:2

Faith does not exempt you from the test. Faith is what the test is checking. And the Prophet ﷺ said: if Allah wants good for someone, He tries him. The hardship is not proof that He has turned from you. It can be the opposite.

Sahih al-Bukhari 5645

✦

The mother in the valley

The first single mother in our story is the mother of a nation. Ibrahim ʿalayhi as-⁠salām brought Hajar and her baby Ismail to a valley where no one lived and nothing grew, near where the Kaaba stands. He left them a bag of dates and a skin of water and turned to go. She followed him and asked again and again: where are you going, leaving us in this valley with no one and nothing? He did not look back. Then she asked: has Allah commanded you to do this? He said yes. She said: then He will not abandon us. And she went back to her child.

The water ran out. She grew thirsty, and her baby began to writhe from thirst, and she could not bear to watch. She climbed the hill of Safa and looked for anyone. No one. She ran down into the valley like a person in desperate trouble, climbed Marwa and looked again. No one. Seven times she ran between them. Then she heard a voice, and she saw an angel at the place of Zamzam, digging with his heel until the water came up.

Sahih al-Bukhari 3364

The Prophet ﷺ said that her running is the origin of the walk the pilgrims make between Safa and Marwa. Millions of people every year, kings and laborers, retrace the steps of a mother alone in a valley trying to keep her child alive. Allah made her struggle a rite of worship.

Sister, look at what she did. She trusted Allah: then He will not abandon us. And she ran. Seven times. The help did not come on the first run. It came on the seventh. Your running counts. Every shift, every night feed, every lunch packed with nothing left for yourself. Allah is recording steps no one else sees, and He has made a whole religion remember a mother's.

✦

The woman under the palm

Maryam ʿalayhā as-⁠salām was alone when her labor came. No husband beside her, no family, and a town that would accuse her. The pain drove her to the trunk of a palm tree.

فَأَجَآءَهَا ٱلْمَخَاضُ إِلَىٰ جِذْعِ ٱلنَّخْلَةِ قَالَتْ يَٰلَيْتَنِى مِتُّ قَبْلَ هَٰذَا وَكُنتُ نَسْيًۭا مَّنسِيًّۭا

Fa-aja'ahal-makhadu ila jidh'in-nakhlah, qalat ya laytani mittu qabla hadha wa kuntu nasyan mansiyya

The pains of childbirth drove her to the trunk of a palm tree. She said: I wish I had died before this and been forgotten, completely forgotten.

Maryam 19:23

One of the most honored women Allah ever created said: I wish I had died before this. If you have ever felt that, you are not faithless. You are human, and the Quran preserved her words so you would know it. Then came the answer.

فَنَادَىٰهَا مِن تَحْتِهَآ أَلَّا تَحْزَنِى قَدْ جَعَلَ رَبُّكِ تَحْتَكِ سَرِيًّۭا ۝ وَهُزِّىٓ إِلَيْكِ بِجِذْعِ ٱلنَّخْلَةِ تُسَٰقِطْ عَلَيْكِ رُطَبًۭا جَنِيًّۭا

Fa-nadaha min tahtiha alla tahzani qad ja'ala rabbuki tahtaki sariyya. Wa huzzi ilayki bi-jidh'in-nakhlati tusaqit 'alayki rutaban janiyya

Then he called to her from below her: do not grieve, your Lord has placed a stream beneath you. And shake the trunk of the palm toward you, and ripe, fresh dates will fall on you.

Maryam 19:24 to 25

Look at the order. First, do not grieve: your Lord has already provided. Then, shake the tree. A woman exhausted from labor could not shake a palm tree hard enough to drop its fruit. Allah asked her for the movement, and He sent the dates. That is how help comes to the struggling: you do the small part you can, and Allah does the part you cannot.

✦

The man in the shade

Musa ʿalayhi as-⁠salām fled Egypt with nothing. No home, no work, no money, no one. He reached a well in Madyan and saw two women holding back their flock, waiting for the men to finish. Tired as he was, he watered their animals for them. Then he went and sat in the shade, and said:

فَسَقَىٰ لَهُمَا ثُمَّ تَوَلَّىٰٓ إِلَى ٱلظِّلِّ فَقَالَ رَبِّ إِنِّى لِمَآ أَنزَلْتَ إِلَىَّ مِنْ خَيْرٍۢ فَقِيرٌۭ

Fa-saqa lahuma thumma tawalla ilaz-zilli fa-qala rabbi inni lima anzalta ilayya min khayrin faqir

So he watered their flock for them, then turned back to the shade and said: My Lord, I am in need of whatever good You send down to me.

Al-Qasas 28:24

Brother, that is your prayer. A man at the end of himself who still helped someone else first, then sat down and told his Lord the truth: I need whatever good You send. Within days he had shelter, work, and a wife (Al-Qasas 28:25 to 27). The help came while he was doing good in a hard season, not after the hard season was over.

And the Messenger of Allah ﷺ himself. Allah reminds him: did He not find you an orphan and give you shelter? Did He not find you lost and guide you? Did He not find you in need and make you free of need?

أَلَمْ يَجِدْكَ يَتِيمًۭا فَـَٔاوَىٰ ۝ وَوَجَدَكَ ضَآلًّۭا فَهَدَىٰ ۝ وَوَجَدَكَ عَآئِلًۭا فَأَغْنَىٰ

Alam yajidka yatiman fa-awa. Wa wajadaka dallan fa-hada. Wa wajadaka 'a'ilan fa-aghna

Did He not find you an orphan and give you shelter? And He found you lost and guided you. And He found you in need and made you free of need.

Ad-Duha 93:6 to 8

Orphan, then sheltered. Lost, then guided. Poor, then provided for. Allah tells His Messenger ﷺ to look back at his own life and see the pattern. Look back at yours. You have been brought through before. The One who did it then has not changed.

✦

What your struggle is worth

Your mother, your mother, your mother

A man asked the Prophet ﷺ who most deserves his good company. He said: your mother. Then who? Your mother. Then who? Your mother. Then who? Your father.

'A'ishah gave a poor woman who came with her two daughters the only thing she had, one date. The woman split it between her girls and ate nothing herself. When the Prophet ﷺ heard, he said: whoever is tested with daughters and treats them well, they will be a shield for him from the Fire.

Three times before the father. That is the weight Allah gives to what a mother carries. The date you split and did not eat is seen.

Sahih al-Bukhari 5971 · Sahih al-Bukhari 1418

The dinar you spend on your family

Abu Hurayrah reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: of a dinar you spend in the path of Allah, a dinar you spend to free a slave, a dinar you give to the poor and a dinar you spend on your family, the greatest in reward is the one you spend on your family.

And he told Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas: you will be rewarded for whatever you spend seeking the face of Allah, even the morsel you put in your wife's mouth.

The rent, the groceries, the shoes your son outgrew in three months. A man who works himself tired to provide is not outside worship. He is in it. Every bill paid with an intention is written.

Sahih Muslim 995 · Sahih al-Bukhari 56

Good in every affair

Suhayb reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: how wonderful is the affair of the believer. All of it is good. If something good reaches him, he is grateful, and that is good for him. If harm reaches him, he is patient, and that is good for him.

There is no wasted day in the life of a believer who keeps turning to Allah. The easy days are gratitude. The hard days are patience. Both are being paid.

Sahih Muslim 2999

Small and steady

'A'ishah reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: the deed most beloved to Allah is the one done consistently, even if it is small.

In a hard season you may not have much to give. A few minutes of Quran. Two rak'ahs. One honest dua. Keep it small and keep it going. That is what Allah loves most, and it is what will still be standing when the season turns.

Sahih al-Bukhari 6464

✦

The help is near

أَمْ حَسِبْتُمْ أَن تَدْخُلُوا۟ ٱلْجَنَّةَ وَلَمَّا يَأْتِكُم مَّثَلُ ٱلَّذِينَ خَلَوْا۟ مِن قَبْلِكُم ۖ مَّسَّتْهُمُ ٱلْبَأْسَآءُ وَٱلضَّرَّآءُ وَزُلْزِلُوا۟ حَتَّىٰ يَقُولَ ٱلرَّسُولُ وَٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ مَعَهُۥ مَتَىٰ نَصْرُ ٱللَّهِ ۗ أَلَآ إِنَّ نَصْرَ ٱللَّهِ قَرِيبٌۭ

Am hasibtum an tadkhulul-jannata wa lamma ya'tikum mathalul-ladhina khalaw min qablikum, massat-humul-ba'sa'u wad-darra'u wa zulzilu hatta yaqular-rasulu wal-ladhina amanu ma'ahu mata nasrullah, ala inna nasrallahi qarib

Or did you think you would enter Paradise without facing what those before you faced? Poverty and hardship touched them, and they were shaken until the Messenger and the believers with him said: when is the help of Allah? Truly, the help of Allah is near.

Al-Baqarah 2:214

Even the Messenger and the believers with him asked: when? You are allowed to ask it too. And the answer was not a lecture. It was a promise: the help of Allah is near.

وَٱلَّذِينَ جَٰهَدُوا۟ فِينَا لَنَهْدِيَنَّهُمْ سُبُلَنَا ۚ وَإِنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَمَعَ ٱلْمُحْسِنِينَ

Wal-ladhina jahadu fina la-nahdiyannahum subulana, wa innallaha la-ma'al-muhsinin

And those who strive for Us, We will surely guide them to Our ways. And Allah is with those who do good.

Al-Ankabut 29:69

Strive, and He guides. Do good, and He is with you. The mother doing her best alone and the man trying to be good in a hard season are exactly who this verse is about.

✦

What to say

The prayer of Musa

رَبِّ إِنِّى لِمَآ أَنزَلْتَ إِلَىَّ مِنْ خَيْرٍۢ فَقِيرٌۭ

Rabbi inni lima anzalta ilayya min khayrin faqir

My Lord, I am in need of whatever good You send down to me.

Say it when the money is short, the job is gone, or you simply have nothing left.

Al-Qasas 28:24

Allah is enough for us

حَسْبُنَا ٱللَّهُ وَنِعْمَ ٱلْوَكِيلُ

Hasbunallahu wa ni'mal-wakil

Allah is enough for us, and He is the best One to trust in.

Ibrahim ʿalayhi as-⁠salām said it in the fire, and the Prophet ﷺ said it when an army gathered against him. Say it over the stack of bills and the sleepless night.

Sahih al-Bukhari 4563

✦

What to do

1. Make your intention for Allah every morning. The work, the cooking, the driving, the bills: let it all be for Him, and it is all written.
2. Keep one small deed steady. A page of Quran, two rak'ahs at night, one dua you never skip.
3. Say the prayer of Musa ʿalayhi as-⁠salām when you are empty: Rabbi inni lima anzalta ilayya min khayrin faqir.
4. Ask for help without shame. Your masjid, your family, a neighbor, a sister you trust. Hajar ran to the hills looking for someone. Looking for help is not weakness.
5. Look back at what you have already been brought through, and write it down. When the next wave comes, read it.
6. Rest when you can. A mother or father who collapses cannot carry anyone. Your body is a trust too.
7. If the weight has become too heavy to carry, talk to a doctor or a counselor. That is a means, and the means are from Allah.

Hajar ran seven times before the water came. Maryam ʿalayhā as-⁠salām shook a tree she could not shake. Musa ʿalayhi as-⁠salām sat in the shade with nothing and asked. Keep running. Keep shaking the tree. Keep asking. The help of Allah is near.

✦

Sources. Al-Balad 90:4, Al-Ankabut 29:2, Maryam 19:23, Maryam 19:24 to 25, Al-Qasas 28:24, Ad-Duha 93:6 to 8, Al-Baqarah 2:214, Al-Ankabut 29:69 and Al-Qasas 28:25 to 27: the Arabic is the Uthmani text, checked against api.alquran.cloud. The English is a plain rendering, checked against Sahih International. Sahih al-Bukhari 56, 1418, 3364, 4563, 5645, 5971 and 6464, and Sahih Muslim 995 and 2999. Both collections carry the name Sahih, authentic. The English of each hadith is a plain rendering of its Arabic. Every ayah and hadith checked on November 11, 2026.