“Many a calamity leaves a man no room to breathe, yet with Allah lies the way out. It closed in, and just when its links were locked tight, it gave way — though I had thought it never would.”

Two lines from the Diwan attributed to al-Shafi‘i, among the most quoted verses of hope in Arabic. The second line turns on the moment of greatest pressure: relief arrives exactly when the chain is at its tightest, which is how the Qur’an frames it too: “Indeed, with hardship will be ease” (94:6).