The benefits of the saying of Allah the Exalted: “They said, ‘Our Lord, increase the distance between our journeys.’ And they wronged themselves, so We made them a talk of the people and scattered them everywhere. Indeed, in that are signs for every patient and grateful one.”

In this is evidence that these people did not have patience with these blessings, but rather they sought their removal and change. Is this statement by the tongue or by action? In other words, did they actually say , or did their wronging of themselves and their disbelief become the cause for the distance between these villages, where they were destroyed, corrupted, and ruined? The first is the apparent meaning of the text: that they actually said it, so Allah increased the distance between them.
And among the benefits of the noble verse is that when these people became heedless of the blessing and were unable to be patient with it, they added to that the wronging of themselves through disbelief, as in His saying: .
And among its benefits is that these people became a talk for the people after them, and this is a type of disgrace and shame, and may Allah protect us from it, that a person’s affair becomes famous until he becomes a talk for those after him. Yes, and for this reason He said: .
And among its benefits is also that these people, whom Allah had blessed with unity in their villages and tribes, were scattered everywhere, dispersed in the lands, and separated, as in His saying: .
And among its benefits is that what Allah Mighty and Majestic does with the disobedient and the wrongdoers is a sign for those who take heed, whether it is hardship in which they are patient, or ease in which they are grateful, as in His saying: .
And among its benefits is the virtue of patience and gratitude: patience in hardship and gratitude in ease. A person is always afflicted with these two trials, either hardship or ease. Allah the Exalted said: [Al-Anbiya: 35]. And the successful one is the one who gives every situation what is obligatory for it. In hardship, it is obligatory for him to be patient and wait for relief, and let him know that if Allah Mighty and Majestic decrees hardship for him so that he may be patient, then that is a blessing from Allah upon him. How is that? Because patience, as I have informed you, is a high degree and a high station. The station of the patient is among the highest of what there is of patience, among the highest of the ranks and stations. This degree and rank or station, if there is nothing in which the servant is tested, then what? He will not attain it. There must be harm and there must be calamities upon which a person is patient until he thereby attains the degree of the patient. And likewise, gratitude is a high degree that is not attained except by one whom Allah has guided. For if Allah tastes a person with blessings after hardship, the predominant thing for him is that he boasts, rejoices, and becomes heedless. But if he adds to that gratitude in ease and patience in affliction, he attains thereby the degree of the patient and the grateful. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . And waiting for relief is assistance in patience, for if a person despairs and does not wait for relief, the world becomes narrow for him and the calamity is doubled for him. But if he waits for relief believing in it, the matter becomes easy for him.