Remember the story of the companion Umm Sulaym (رضي الله عنها), what an amazing thing about how a wife is with her husband. Her husband, Talha, was out working, and it so happened that day that their son, 10 years old, died.
She had a decision to make: when he comes home should she tell him right away, or should she just bear it and make him happy first and then when he is comfortable and settled in, then tell him? She thought to herself that she’s going to take the weight of this tragedy upon herself. And she’s not gonna tell him, and she didn’t want him to spend the entire night crying because that would really be hurtful to her, she could not bear the fact that her husband would be crying all night because of their son.
So Talha (رضي الله عنه) comes in and asks his wife Umm Sulaym about his son, how’s he doing? She said, “He’s relaxed, he’s at peace.” Talha didn’t think anything of it, thought he probably went to sleep, he’s ok. She then beautified herself, and they spent the entire night together.
After Talha was relaxed, she said to him, “O Abu Talha, imagine if we had some neighbors, that they had some trust that they had placed with us, should I return the trust to them?” Talha didn’t suspect anything, so he said “sure, if there’s some trust you took, you should return it.” So she said, “We have a trust, this trust has been with us for 10 years”–look at how smart she is, using metaphors about her son–and Abu Talha said, “10 years? That should be returned sooner, that has more of right to be returned immediately.”
So she says, “Allah has now taken back His trust, so seek your reward from Allah (سبحانه وتعالى) by being patient about your son’s death.” Abu Talha was livid, he got very upset, he thought, she waited the entire night to tell me? until Fajr came.
Without saying a word to her, he raced to Rasoolullah (صلي الله عليه وسلم) at the time of Fajr and complained to him – “look, this is what my wife did, look at how mean this was and how …” Rasoolullah (صلي الله عليه وسلم)–after he was finished–smiled and said “Is this the one who’s footsteps I hear in Paradise?” – Is this the woman who’s footsteps I hear in Paradise? Meaning that what she had done was the right thing, to please her husband despite the tragedy that had happened.
And for that he heard her footsteps in Paradise.
May Allah make us all among the sabireen, the ones who are patient and attain Paradise through it, ameen!