All praise is due to Allah for every year and for whatever happens to us.
I am reminded of beautiful lecture by Sheikh Hamza Yusuf, of which I have quoted a short portion below:
" Allah says in the quraan -
“…And few of My servants are grateful. (shakur) ” [Quran 34: 13]
The 'shakur' are the ones who are grateful for calamities and tribulations - not just blessings, i.e. he feels grateful when horrible things happen to him.
At best, most people are patient or resigned. But the 'shakur' actually says Alhamdulillah (All praise is due to Allah) - because he knows that
Allah only does good for His believer.
There is a hadith in Sahih Muslim:
The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him):
“How wonderful is the affair of the believer, for his affairs are all good, and this applies to no one but the believer.
If something good happens to him, he is thankful for it and that is good for him.
If something bad happens to him, he bears it with patience and that is good for him.”(Narrated by Muslim, 2999).
As they say in the hood: 'Its all good'.
^ What they need to learn is that if you are a believer, its all good. If you are not a believer - its all bad, even the good!
And if we really do believe this, then we enter into a state of gratitude, EVEN for the tribulations - ALHAMDULILLAH.
Ibn Abbas said -
'No matter how bad it is, it could be worse.'
....If you attempt to enumerate the bounties of Allah, you will never enumerate it. " (End Quote)
So, brothers and sisters - there should be no need to 'grade' our years.
It is ALL GOOD, Alhamdulillah - even what we perceive as 'bad'.
Do we realise how MUCH Allah (subhanawataála) LOVES us.
He is not trying to harm His creation by the trials that we face - because He LOVES us, and He is THE MOST MERCIFUL.
Its up to us to decide how we chose to view each tribulation that we face - if it has been a means of drawing us closer to Allah, then Alhamdulillah - then this has been a blessing in a disguised form. If it has been a means of drawing you further away from Allah, then perhaps its a punishment (a lesser one, here on this dunya) - but still, Allah desires that you turn to HIM.
@ Darth Ultor, I pray that you would oneday acknowledge the existence of the One Creator - the One who has created you from nothing, and who continues to sustain you out of His love and mercy. Then you too, will understand the beauty of the state of the believer, as described above.
Edit: for those who may wish to listen to the rest of this beneficial lecture insha Allah:
http://www.clickislam.org/server2/Hamza Yusuf/The-Stations-of-Gratitude.mp3