Journey

 “Do the people think that they say, ‘We Believe’ and they will not be tested?“ [Quran 29:2]
There comes a time in our lives when we claim that we are ‘believers’ of Allah SWT, we worship Him, we practice our Deen, we offer Salah on time, we read Quran every day, we start to give charity. 
We feel ourselves special as if we are doing a favor to Allah SWT and He owes us favors.
We start developing a sense of arrogance in our hearts that we are much closer to Allah SWT than anyone else around us.

Deep down in our heart we start to undermine our friends, colleagues and family, just because we falsely ‘think’ we are on right track with our relation with Allah SWT and He is bound to fulfill all our desires now. We start believing He has accepted all our prayers, our charity and our worship.

Here starts the real test of a true believer when he is faced with hardship. At that moment, he must prove the true test of his relationship with Allah SWT and the faith he has in his heart. Allah puts him into a situation on-purpose, just to check is he going to pass this exam or was he just verbally claiming to be a true perfect believer. He must prove himself by his actions in times of hardship.

I keep hearing this sentence since childhood “Nothing comes easy in life” and I somewhat believe in it. All the accomplishments and goals that we achieve in this worldly life, do require a lot of struggle and hard work.

The same way, if we apply this sentence into our spiritual life, how can we even think that we can get the true taste of faith (tawakkul in Allah SWT) and a strong connection with Allah so easily without any test, calamity, or pain?

I think, a believer who is firm in his faith, when he is faced with a calamity or a test in his life, if we visualize his actions and behavior, it would be like he is jumping into the ocean without having a life jacket, with a strong belief that Allah SWT will save him, without having any anxiety, depression, stress, complaint, or disappointment in his body language.

Another important thing to consider is, when the purpose and the end goal is clear, then we should leave the rest to Allah SWT when we are faced with a test or trial. We have no control over our bodies, our health, our circumstances, our surroundings, our situations, our fate, our outcomes, our decisions, our future. He is the one who is All-Knowing [Al-Aleem].

– Rabia Tariq