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| Cyclical Tests & Trials
Uzma Mazhar Allah Ta'ala has told us that we will be
tested in every aspect of our lives... family, wealth, health, work, etc.
Everything about life is a test.
He tests us through each other, and He tests us with lack as well
as prosperity. The stories of
past generations in the Qurān are about how they were tested, failed
and the consequences of their actions, and are meant as lessons for us.
(We as a nation and individually, are doing almost all of the
deviant acts that the previous nations were guilty of.) Sūrah al Baqarāh 2.155 - 157 Sūrah al Baqarāh 2.245 Sūrah al Arāf 7.168 Sūrah al Anām 6.53 Sūrah al Ankabūt 29.2 The nature of tests is such that it
constricts and restricts, it stops us in the middle of our doings; all our
energies become focused on the problem/obstacle. It throws us out of
our comfort zone. We start looking for ways to deal with it, to make it go
away fast. It takes a toll on our mental, emotional and physical
resources. Our response to the problem depends on these resources.
How we handle a problem depends on our coping skills and abilities. Depending on the severity of the test
eventually we deplete our resources and lose hope.
We get to a point where nothing seems to work, nothing we do seems
to pull us out of the mess. We
whine and complain, we argue and resist, we bargain and cajole and we try
everything to make the problem disappear. When everything else fails, feeling
helpless and hopeless, as a last resort, we turn to Allah Ta'ala.
Then He, in His mercy relieves us and opens our way for us. However, if we are mindful that tests are a
part of life, that there is a purpose and wisdom in them, that they are
meant as a lesson for us to bring out the best in us; our attitude toward
them will be different. Instead
of trying to avoid them we would confront them face on, to see what lesson
it brings for us. This
generates an attitude of acceptance and opens up our minds and hearts to
learn. Sūrah al Baqarāh 2.155 - 157 Sūrah al Arāf 7.168 Each trial teaches us to depend on
Allah Ta'ala and to look to Him for all our needs. It teaches
us humility and increases our faith/taqwā (God-consciousness).
It teaches us how to develop the right attitude of humility and
trust toward Allah Ta'ala. Human beings are an interesting species....
we don't learn unless we are put in dire straits... we are stubborn and
self-absorbed in our own doings. We prefer to believe that we are
right, we justify even the wrong actions as being right... we are quite
delusional ;-) And Allah Taala is aware of these mind-games we
play with ourselves. Sūrah al Najm 53.32 - 34 So each trial brings us closer to Allah and
helps develop faith/trust in Him... that is the opening... opening
our hearts for His love and mercy. Being forgetful we soon move on,
get busy and forget Him and His lesson... so the cycle starts all over
again. Allah Ta'ala has told us that misfortune is
cyclical; it comes and goes. Each test is for the purpose of our
growth and purification. Each trial teaches us about ourselves...
our level of faith and trust, our strengths and weaknesses. So each
trial increases our taqwā, reliance and awareness of God. On one
hand it humbles us and on another it gives us incredible strength to bear
difficulties with His help. Every mistake is worthy of learning our
lesson from it as it highlights the weak areas and the loopholes that
still remain in which we get hooked, and then dragged down repeatedly if
we dont learn from it. Sūrah 3.138 - 142 If we can keep this in mind our reaction to
difficulties change... it becomes almost exciting to see how we grow and
what degree of closeness/love/taqwā we achieve. The focus shifts...
instead of wailing and whining about the problem we look toward the
reward, which is inherent in each difficulty. Allah Ta'ala says that
'with each difficulty comes ease' and that is the reward. Ease being
the peace and contentment... not necessarily the problem being removed.
But with this peace our attitude toward the problem changes... it is no
longer a source of pain but of peace, contentment, faith and trust. Just as doctors tell their patients to have
faith in their treatment even if it hurts... how much more faith do we
need to have in Allah Ta'ala who has all the power. To a patient the
doctor may seem merciless when they ask them to explore their pains, their
weakness... yet the doctor knows the relief that will come from it.
In the same way Allah Ta'ala knows what good will come from the tests and
trials He puts in our paths. So our faith should be in the tests and
the good they bring in us... our inner selves. Another way to understand is that He is Jamāl
and Jalāl: the loving kindness and the awesome... it is said that we are
in His two fingers and He turns our qalb (heart)... from closeness to
distance... each opposite revealing more about the other. Without
one we cannot understand the other. Without ugliness we cannot appreciate
beauty, without darkness we cannot know light, without cruelty we cannot
respect kindness/love, without constraints we cannot understand freedom,
etc. These kinds of tests don't happen only at
the individual level, I believe they also happen at the social, national
and global level. Allah Ta'ala tells us that we have been created
into nations to learn from each other, to compete with each other in
goodness, not hatred or negativity. He also says that each nation
has a limited term, and that if they don't straighten up there will be
negative consequences. The Muslim nations have been deteriorating
for a very long time, we are being tested in many different ways...
poverty, emotional slavery, abuse, natural disasters, sickness,
ignorance... and the worst of all is the 9/11 disaster in the US at the
hands of Muslims. What could be more cruel, senseless and inhumane?
Absolute abuse of Islam in the name of Islam by Muslims on innocent
people... just goes to show how little Muslims really understand Islam.
For Muslims it is a wake-up call to straighten up. Allah Ta'ala
tells us that He withdraws His blessings from us if we don't change
from within. Governments and politicians have been abusing Islam
for a very long time; we have allowed it to continue and also participated
in it by our continued silence. Granted it was a small group of
people but even one is too many. Allah is constricting the life of
Muslims to wake them up... I pray and hope we have the honesty, courage
and insight to learn from our own stupidity and ignorance. We cannot afford to forget that He is al Qābid
and al Bāsit; He constricts/restricts and expands/opens us for a purpose. © 2005 UzmaMazhar@hotmail.com |