A powerful narration:

وخرجه الطبراني من حديث أنس عن النبي (صلى الله عليه وسلم): يقول الله عز وجل: إن من عبادي من لا يصلح إيمانه إلا بالفقر وإن بسطت عليه أفسده ذلك , و إن من عبادي من لا يصلح إيمانه إلا بالغني ولو أفقرته لأفسده ذلك, و إن من عبادي من لا يصلح إيمانه إلا بالصحة ولو أسقمته لأفسده ذلك, و إن من عبادي من لا يصلح إيمانه إلا بالسقم ولو أصححته لأفسده ذلك. و إن من عبادي من يطلب بابا من العبادة, فأكفه عنه, لكيلا يدخله العجب, إني أدبر عبادي بعلمي بما في قلوبهم, إني عليم خبير

The Messenger of Allah (sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam) said, “Allah `azza wa jall said: ‘Verily, from amongst My slaves is he whose faith cannot be rectified except by being inflicted with poverty, and were I to enrich him, it would surely corrupt him. Verily, from amongst My slaves is he whose faith cannot be rectified except by wealth and affluence, and were I to deprive him, it would surely corrupt him. Verily, from amongst My slaves is he whose faith cannot be rectified except by good health, and were I to make him sick, it would surely corrupt him. Verily, from amongst My slaves is he whose faith cannot be rectified except by disease and illness, and were I to make him healthy, it would surely corrupt him. Verily, from amongst My slaves is he who seeks worship by a certain act but I prevent that from him so that self-amazement does not enter his heart. Certainly, I run the affairs of My slaves by My Knowledge of what is in their hearts. Certainly, I am the All-Knower, All-Aware.‘” [Reported by al-Tabarani. See also al-Silsilah al-Dha’eefah by al-Albani]

I was typing up my thoughts on this hadith until I realised that it was so deep that books could be written on it! So I’ll leave it as it is, for you all to digest it…

Edit: It was brought to my attention that this narration was actually graded as being weak by al-Albani in his ‘al-Dha’ifah’ collection. I originally picked it out from Ibn Rajab’s book ‘Jami’ al-‘Ulum wal-Hikam which stated that it was in the ‘al-Sahihah’ collection as opposed to the Dha’ifah but digging through the latter just now, I found that it was there instead.

My heartfelt apologies for not going through the original sources myself before posting the narration (good thing my teachers don’t know I have such a careless blog!). However, there is still a lot of benefit to be gained from it and the meaning of the hadith rings true. May Allah reward the sister who clarified the sihha of the narration for me!