Sunday, May 31, 2020

Note: People Are Tests For One Another


💐 In The Name Of Allah The Most Gracious The Most Merciful
💌 Allah Subhaanahu wa Ta'aala created us as tests for one another. You are one of Allah's tests for me just as I am one of Allah's tests to examine your faith/Imaan, patience and contentment. Some people may test us by unintentionally toying with our emotions. Some people's presence make us slightly jealous of what they have which we lack or they trigger in us inferiority complex issues. Maybe they're a lot taller than us, more good-looking, proficient at communicating in multiple languages, received numerous award certificates to indicate intellectual competence, or they're more fluent in Arabic language and eloquently smooth at public speaking. Others are a fitna in the sense that they made us unwillingly catch intense feelings. We find them uncomfortably attractive, magnetic and intriguing yet this kind of appeal only leads to confusion and emotional disturbance. Every time we see their name or face online and offline our attraction for them merely escalates no matter how hard we try to suppress how we feel about them.
Tests regarding people usually come in the form of either liking them a lot so we're struggling with human attachments and vile temptation, or we seriously despise them that we struggle with avoiding the urge to backbite about them, think of them negatively, or do something awful along the lines of injustice and oppression.
To pass these tests Inn-sha-Allah, we must train ourselves to be patient, accept Allah's Qadr/Destiny with grateful contentment, and strive to stay away from anything that could lead to fitna and acts that are clearly haraam/forbidden.
Even Prophet Yusuf 'alaihis salaam, no matter how decent he was as a human being, was not exempted from the jealous hatred of his half-brothers and the obsessive infatuation of the pharaoh's wife Zulaykha (who later transformed positively when she realized her mistakes). However Alhamdulillah Prophet Yusuf 'alaihis salaam survived by maintaining his noble character and Taqwa.
📖 Abdullah Ibn Amr RadhiAllahu 'anhu narrated: We were gathered around the Messenger of Allah SallAllahu 'alaihi wa sallam while he mentioned tribulations (fitna/fitan), saying, “If you see that people have disordered their commitments, diminished their trusts, and are as jumbled as this,” and he interlaced his fingers. I stood to come near him and I said, “How should I act if that happens?” The Prophet Muhammad SallAllahu 'alaihi wa sallam said, "Stay in your house, control your tongue, accept what you know is good, reject what you know is evil, take care of your affairs specifically and abandon the affairs of the common people."
Source: Sunan Abī Dāwūd 4343
Grade: Sahih (Authentic) according to Al-Arna’ut