TESTS WE GO THROUGH IN
OUR LIVES
by Abul '
"It
is Allah who has created death and life so that he may test who among you is
best in deed. And He is the All-Mighty, Oft-Forgiving". [al-Mulk 67:2]
The Prophet (saw) used to recite the
whole surah before going to bed. He said about
this surah: "This, containing thirty
verses, intercedes for a person till his/her sins are forgiven" [Ahmad, Tirmidhi]. He has also said, "I love that it be in the
heart of every believer" [Hakim]. This surah
is also recited while putting down the dead in the grave.
Some explanations of this ayah suggest
that this ayah means that our lives will be full of tests and trials till death
(the final test). The rest of the surah talks
about the consequences of failing or passing the tests and concepts that will
help us ace those tests.
To
benefit from this surah we need to understand
the nature and characteristics of test and trials that Allah will put us
through.
Nature
of the tests
First of all,
we should know that Allah does not only put non-believers through tests but
also the believers. Otherwise the prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, would
not have gone through numerous tests throughout his life. We will be no
exception. Allah tests His beloved servants the most.
Secondly, we should know that Allah tests us
through both hardship and ease. Allah tests us using things that we like to
possess and also with things that we do not. Allah tests us using hardships
like death, financial, physical, and academic difficulties. He tests us through
luxury, good health, and academics successes.
When
Allah tests us using hardships He
wants to see if we ask Him alone for help and relief or do we turn to others
beside Him. He tests us through ease to see if we thank Him for the blessings
or do we claim that it was because of our own doing.
We
should know that our eyes, hands, legs, strength, and beauty are all means to
test who among us is good in deeds. If we use our eyes to look at nakedness, if
we use our hands to touch things that we are not supposed to touch, if we use
our feet to go to places that we are not supposed to go, if we use our strength
to oppress others, if we use our beauty to lure others to commit sins then we
surely have failed the test. But if we use our eyes to read the Qur'an, Hadith, and Islamic literature, if we use our hands to help
others, if we use our feet to go to masajid,
if we use our strength to work in the way of Allah like doing Da'wah, if we preserve our beauty by adorning the hijab and loose dresses and thank Allah for all his
bounties on us, then we have aced the test and will be rewarded both in this
world and the hereafter.
Thirdly, we
should know that tests are
not always direct i.e. they do not always affect us personally. For
example, what is happening in places like
That
is why we hear Muslims in the West making comments like "Those
Palestinians deserve it, they have deviated from Islam", "They aren't
good Muslims", etc. We fail to realize that the condition of our brothers
and sisters in
Through
these indirect tests Allah wants to test how much pain we feel for those
brothers and sisters, how much we spend for them, how much have we done to end
their miseries. He wants to see if we speak out in their support or not.
Most important of all Allah wants to
test if we learn lessons from their situation or not. We need to learn lessons
of sacrifice, patience, sincerity, and determination from them. We also need to
learn from their mistakes so that we do not repeat them.
When
we look at the struggles they go through, both young and old, we cannot say
we're too young to work for Allah's cause. We cannot say we are too busy to
spend time or too poor to spend money. Because if young children of
Fourthly, we
should know that tests are not always tangible. Tests can also be through mediums that we cannot touch
like our knowledge, intellect, wisdom, and time. Allah gives those to some of
us to see how well we use them, if we do at all. He wants to see if we use our
knowledge to help improve the conditions of the Muslims or not. He wants
to see if we use our wisdom and intellect to invite others to follow Islam
completely or not. He wants to see if we spend time for His cause or not.
Those
of us who possess any knowledge of Islam should propagate it to others. It is
our responsibility. If we fail to do that then we have failed the test.
Lastly,
we should keep in mind that we always have the opportunity to ask Allah's
forgiveness if we fail any of those tests. That is what the last portion of the
ayah points to that "Allah is the All-Mighty and Oft-Forgiving". Do
not despair of Allah's Mercy. Indeed, Allah forgives sins abundantly.
Test
preparation
After
knowing the nature of the tests that Allah puts us through, we need to equip
ourselves with the tools and
methods that will enable us to ace those tests, insha-Allah:
The first and foremost beneficial tool
is the Qur'an. We need to understand it as much as we
can. We should study it every day because we face tests from Allah every day.
The Qur'an is the textbook to prepare us for the tests.
The second tool is the history of the
prophets, especially Muhammad, peace be upon him, since we have
almost all of his life recorded and the history of Sahabas
(companions) and the rightly-guided Muslims.
The third tool is 'Ibaadah
(worship) through Salah (prayers), Sawm (fasting), Hajj (pilgrimage),? Zakah (charity), etc.
They are like homework to prepare us for the tests. They
give us the moral strength to pass the tests Allah puts us through.
The fourth tool is our company of
righteous people. They will comfort us when we face calamities and will remind
us of our duties when we are relatively comfortable. It is
very difficult to go through some tests alone. Like we do with academic tests,
we need to be with those who remind us of Allah and of our responsibilities.
Righteous companions are like study groups to help us pass the tests.
May Allah help us all to pass the tests He
puts us through so that we may be successful in this world and in the hereafter.