In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
A question that troubles the minds of those whose faith is not yet firmly rooted in their hearts, concerns the bad events and tragedies that affect the people both good and evil. What’s more, we often see afflictions that touch the good people and spare the bad people. The good suffer from fear and want, while the bad, despite their repeated crimes and their denial of Allah, seem to revel with impunity in happiness, abundance and security. (…)
Allah tests those He loves for one of these four reasons:
- To get that person to think of Him, for the one who turns away from the remembrance of Allah is forgotten by Allah and distanced from His grace.
- To purify ones sins so that on Judgement Day that person’s judgement is of the lightest.
- To raise that person’s degrees and levels in Paradise.
- To test the unjust as the one who shows animosity to those beloved by Allah, Allah has promised to break them as stated in the words of the famous Hadith.
Whoever Allah wants to lose irretrievably, Allah lets that person run blindly in his misguidance and the Chaitan embellishes his evil deeds, dangles false hope and deceives concerning the Mercy of Allah.
Allah extends the rope more and more so as to enter this person into His harsh punishment when and where that person least expects it and then to throw that person violently into Hellfire with no hope of exit.
When they asked the Prophet (peace and salvation of Allah upon him) who were the most tested (afflicted) people on earth, he said: “The Prophets and the Saints, then the test decreases with the degree of the purity of man”.
Author: Dr. Salaheddine Keshrid