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Question: We are told that
we should remain patient at times of hardships. But how can we decide that
the hardships are imposed on us as checks or punishments from Allah?
Answer: Even
if one is going through a difficulty as a punishment for doing something
wrong in the past, it is still a test, and should, therefore, be endured
with patience. In other words, a condition of tribulation is always a test
from God Almighty. Sometimes, it is meant only to be a test that comes
to enable the individual to get higher rewards and reach higher levels
of spiritual excellence. On other occasions, it is sent because one had
done something wrong in the past and God Almighty wanted the individual
to be reminded of it and to enable the individual to go through it and
get his sins washed away and also to earn higher rewards.
It is sometimes quite obvious to the individual who is
going through testing times that he had done something wrong for which
he is being punished. In such a case, he should seek forgiveness from God
Almighty. However, if it is not clear whether a difficulty has come to
remind and punish or just to test a person, it is always advisable that
the individual should keep thinking of the possible wrongs he might have
committed in the past which may have been responsible for the trial to
have been sent.
Let us also not forget that whether
it is prosperity or poverty, both are trials from God Almighty. It is wrong
to imagine that we are only tried by God Almighty when we go through difficulties.
The Qur’an says:
As for man, whenever his Lord tries him by honouring
him and by giving him good things, he says: ‘My Lord has honoured me’.
But when He tries him by restraining his means, he says: ‘My Lord has disgraced
me’. No. (89:15-17)
The expression ‘No’ in the last part of
the passage is clarifying that it is a misleading understanding that worldly
successes are a source of honour and worldly tribulations are a source
of disgrace. No, they both are nothing but manifestations of the trial
of this worldly life.
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