Mercy Of Allah : Ability To Change

Why Does Allah Test Us

Nothing lasts forever. Not pleasure, nor pain.

Similarly, Allah (SWT) tells us

This Ayah has, many times, been translated and understood incorrectly. We usually translate it as 'after hardship comes ease'. But that is not the correct translation, nor what the Ayah says.

The Ayah says (ان مع العسر بسرا), not (ان بعد العسر بسرا). So what that means is that 'with' hardship is ease: 'With' your hardship is ease. It is at the same time. Thus, we should always think that when we are going through hardship, no matter how hard it is, that we still have ease. We still have something, that Allah (SWT) that has given us, from His mercy, to help us.

If we take a moment to think about this, and bring to mind a time in our life that we went through a hardship. And when we think about that time, we usually look back and think of it as all bad. It was just all bad. But the truth is, if we really examine it, it was not all bad. There was some ease, even within that hardship.

For example, you may have had some trouble with one aspect of your life but there was another aspect of your life that was good. You were healthy, maybe your family was healthy, you had a roof over your head – you still had some ease to give you help with that hardship. You still had (لا اله الا الله), you still had your 'Iman' (faith), perhaps. And if you still have (لا اله الا الله), you still have everything.

Our problem is that, when we go through hardship, it is very difficult for us to see that. And what we do is focus on the problem itself, this is one of that main mistakes we do when we go through a hardship. When we encounter something that is difficult, the first hing that usually happens is we have to 'brace ourselves': how am I going to deal with this? How am I going to handle this? And then we start to feel anxiety and worry; we start to preoccupy ourselves with how to solve the problem, how we're going to get through it. And what ends up happening is that we focus on the problem itself. We start to become preoccupied and obsessed with the problem itself.

Soon enough we're thinking about the problem in every prayer (salah). So now, instead of looking to the one who can solve our problem, and seeking Him to help us, we try to solve the problem ourselves. What we've done here, is shifted our focus from the One who solves all problems, from the One who can mend anything that is broken, to that which is broken itself.

We start to shift, and this is the problem. We have a problem, or difficulty, but instead of the heart focusing on Allah (SWT), and seeking His help, and putting trust in Him – we instead, shift the focus of the heart on the issue itself. And soon enough, it actually takes over our mind and heart; this is what causes anxiety, and feeling overwhelmed.

Here's a secret, and through this we have to unlearn the way we think about tests. Allah (SWT) tells us in the Quran that He will test us. As soon as something hits us, even if we are good believers, we think 'Okay, I'm being tested and have to be strong now'. But the mistake that we make, is that we think of Allah (SWT) as a professor.

When a professor gives us an exam, he hands us the exam, and then he steps back and watches to see if we're going to fail, if we're going to pass, and maybe he even wants us to fail. When we are in an examination room with a professor – are we allowed to raise our hand and ask for help? No, because that would be called cheating. And that's how we think about Allah (SWT).

We think that when we are given the examination, we have to do this ourselves because Allah is testing us, watching us, He wants to see how we can do, so we have to depend on ourselves: I have to depend on me, or something else of the creation. And that is our mistake: we think we can't raise our hand and ask for help. While that is the actual purpose of the test.