“Every blessing that does not bring you closer to Allah is an affliction.”

Another saying of Abu Hazim, recorded in Ibn Abi al-Dunya’s book on gratitude and quoted by Ibn al-Qayyim in ‘Uddat as-Sabirin. It turns the usual test around: the question is not whether something is a blessing, but what it is doing to you. The same wealth, health or talent can be either, depending on which way it moves the one who has it.