Trials and
Tribulations Expose People’s Realities
Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَىٰ)
mentions in His Book: {Allah will not leave the believers in the state in
which you are now, until He distinguishes the wicked from the
good. Nor will Allah disclose to you the secrets of the ghaib (unseen), but Allah chooses of His Messengers whom He
pleases. So believe in Allah and His Messengers. And if you believe and fear
Allah, then for you there is a great reward.} Aali ‘Imran 3:179
Al-Allamah al-Sa’di (رَحِمَهُ اللهُ)
said: “Meaning, it is not from Allah’s wisdom to leave the believers in your
current state of confusion, without clear distinction, until He makes
clear the wicked (khabith) from the good (tayyib), the believer from the hypocrite, the truthful from the liar. Likewise, it is not from His Wisdom to reveal to His servants knowledge of
what is hidden from them (i.e. by allowing them to know what people hold in
their inner souls). For this reason, His infinite Wisdom necessitates
that He tests His servants and trials them with different tribulations to
distinguish the one who is wicked from the one who is good…” Tafsir al Sa’di, Surah Aali ‘Imran.
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Al-Allamah Salih al-Fawzan حفظه الله said: “…and this is from the wisdom of Allah, that He tests the people of eeman
with the people of falsehood, so the patient, striving one who is firm upon his
religion can become distinct from the one who has with him hypocrisy or has
with him doubt;
so each can be distinguished one from another. If it were not for trials, the people of truth
would be indistinguishable from the people of falsehood. Allah allows these
trials to occur due to a tremendous wisdom, so if the people were left (without
this),
truth would be mistaken for falsehood, and a person would think that all people are upon the truth.
However, when tribulations take place, the people split into two groups: a people of truth who remain
firm and a people of falsehood who deviate and go astray, and this is so Allah
can distinguish the wicked from the good, and that He pits the wicked against one another…We do not know
the people of sharr (evil) except when fitan (i.e. trials and
tribulations) take place;
we do not know the unseen. The One who knows the unseen is Allah. We do not
know the unseen.We have the notion that all people are tayyibeen (i.e.
upon goodness). Why, because
they are silent;
however, when
tribulations occur, the people of misguidance are exposed and the people of
hypocrisy and the people who have diseases of the heart are exposed, and the
current state of affairs is the best example of this…”Sharh Fatwa al
Hamawiyyah of Shaykh Salih al Fawzan.
And
the Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) said: “The fitan (tribulations) will be exposed to the hearts
of the people like a woven mat, one reed after another. The heart that takes them in will
receive a black spot,
and the one that rejects them will receive a white spot. Thus, there will be
two types of hearts: one like a smooth stone that will not be harmed by the
tribulation,
as long as the heaven and earth endure; and the other will be black and dusky and like an overturned
vessel that neither recognizes good nor rejects evil, except what suits its
own desires.” Collected by Muslim (144).
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Written
& Compiled by Ustaadh Anwar Wright حفظه الله تعالى
