Commentary: In this verse, Allah consoles his patient servants in their trials by announcing that He Himself is the substitute and the replacement of that which they have lost and which was pleasing to their natural dispositions. In effect, being patient consists in constraining the soul to accpet that which is repugnant to it. The soul experiences an aversion for everything which is not in accord with its predisposition in the present instant, even if it knows that it will be beneficial for it later on...
Allah has thus announced to those who patiently bear the loss of that which pleases them -- health, riches, greatness, security, possessions and children -- that "He" [for this is the proper sense of the pronoun huwa rendered above as "that" in conformity with the way the verse is usually understood] is better (khayr) for them than that which they have lost; for they know that "He" [who is the Name of the supreme absolutely unconditioned Essence] is their inseparable reality and their necessary refuge, and that the pleasing things that they have lost were pure illusions...
He who has found Allah has lost nothing, and he who has lost Allah has found nothing.
(Mawqif 220, pp. 45-47)
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