Abu Qilabah (d. 105 AH) was a famous Successor and student of Anas b. Malik. Once, he visited a soldier who had fallen from his house and broken both his legs. He told him, "I hope this is for your benefit and good."
The soldier said, "O Abu Qilabah! And what benefit and good is there in having both my legs broken?!"
He said, "What Allah has protected you from through this must be better [for you]."
Three days later, the governor of Iraq sent for all the soldiers to go intercept the caravan of Hussein b. Ali b. Abi Talib at Karbala; this soldier said to his commander, "I cannot go, can't you see my situation?!" So he was excused.
A week afterwards, the news came of the massacre of the grandson of the Prophet (salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam), at which the soldier said, "May Allah have mercy on Abu Qilabah! He was so true - it was better for me that my legs were broken [that to be a part of that massacre]."
Lesson of the story: always put your trust in Allah, for what He has decreed for you will be for your own best, even if you don't realize it at the time.
[Taken from Ibn al-Jawzi's Sifat al-Safwa, 1/120].
