When Our Relationship with Allah Is Tested

The True Nature of Allah's Tests

The tests from Allah apply to all experiences in life — the good experiences and the bad experiences. And one of them is not better than the other or worse than the other. They're actually the same.

This one is ابتلاء (ibtila) and that one is ابتلاء (ibtila). This one is a tough test and that was a tough test. But there are two different kinds of tests to check one thing: Did my relationship with Allah get impacted depending on whether I'm being blessed or I'm being restricted? Did that actually change?

The Early Surahs and Their Power

In the early years of the mission of the Prophet ﷺ, Allah revealed to him surahs that were shorter in size. Most of the early surahs of the Quran are not very long. And each surah is a unified message. It is a way of delivering — you could think of it as almost the entire essence of Islam in one way or the other.

Some of the foundational principles of Islam in a very short, packaged kind of way. So that the first people who were listening to this message, even if they had a few minutes or a few seconds to listen to it, they would get the big picture. The details of this religion came over time. But the fundamentals came in this very summarized, succinct kind of way.

It was so succinct that even the jinn in Surah Al-Jinn and in Surah Al-Ahqaf heard the Quran for a little bit. They just heard a little bit of the Quran and they understood the essence of the religion. They understood the fundamentals of the religion and they talked about their reaction to what they heard. And you can tell that even though they were exposed to very little of the Quran, their understanding became very comprehensive.

And this is one of the powers of the Quran and one of the great miracles that Allah has given us in His Book — that even a single surah was enough to guide a human being. Because it was like the seed. The seed contains in it the power to understand the entire tree. So your understanding will grow and enhance and mature, but the fundamentals are in place.

Lessons from Surah Al-Fajr

Something like this is happening in Surah Al-Fajr, and I will share a brief reminder with you today in this khutbah from Surah Al-Fajr. Allah begins this surah by talking about great powers in history that were much more powerful than the Quraish.

The Rasul ﷺ is talking to the people of Makkah, and the most powerful people in Makkah are the wealthy elites and the tribal leaders of Makkah who thought that this message that is talking about everybody being equal — the poor have rights, the slaves have rights, women have rights, and you can't push the orphan around however you want — was unacceptable.

Like, how can we treat these people as equal? We're used to being treated as superior. Our wealth makes us superior. Our family name makes us superior. And these people serve us. These people are less than us. They don't even look us in the eye. How do you want us to accept this message and think of — I should think of myself as this person who works for me, or the slave of mine?

For example, even Umar (radiAllahu anhu) in one report says, we're talking about women in Makkah, he said, كُنَّا لا نَعُدُّ النِّسَاءَ شَيْئًا (We used to think women were nothing). That was their mentality in Makkah.

And now they are hearing this message about the يتيم (yateem, orphan), about the مسكين (miskeen, poor person), about the customer who is being cheated. Where is all this coming from? Why should I care? So they thought themselves as too high.

The Destruction of Arrogant Nations

So what Allah does in Surah Al-Fajr from the very beginning is He talks about nations that came in the past who are much more powerful than the Quraish. If you actually look at the history, the Quraish may feel very powerful in this small region. But they don't have any pyramids. They don't have any castles or palaces. They don't have any amazing ruins like the nation of Aad and Thamud or Fir'aun. They don't have anything even close to that.

Have you not seen how your Lord dealt with Aad — Iram of the pillars — the likes of which was never created in the land? And Thamud who carved out the rocks in the valley? And Fir'aun, owner of the stakes? Those who transgressed in the lands.

There are much more powerful people than you that came and went. So if you think you're superior, well, you're nothing compared to those people. They were much more superior. Speaking of the same thing, if you think you're politically superior, you cannot compare to their politics. If you think you're superior in wealth, your wealth is nothing compared to what Fir'aun's servants may have had — more wealth than you. You're nothing compared to their wealth. If you think your houses are nicer than everybody's house in Makkah, your houses don't even amount to a mud pile in ancient Egypt. I mean, those are some incredible architecture of the past.

And Allah says, those people, but you have something in common with them: الَّذِينَ طَغَوْا فِي الْبِلَادِ — they rebelled in the land. They were rebellious against Allah. They stood up to Allah and they defied Allah's command, just like you're doing. They did this with Musa (alayhi salaam) and Salih (alayhi salaam) and Shu'aib (alayhi salaam). They did this with their prophets, and you're doing this with Muhammad Rasulullah ﷺ.

This you have in common. The wealth, you don't have in common. The power, you do not have in common. But the stupidity, you have in common. And people much more powerful than you paid that price already.

Allah unleashed His whip on them and He gave them one whip of the punishment, and those powerful, magnificent empires that were around for centuries and centuries all but disappeared. Basically, they got annihilated. So if you have this idea that nobody can touch you because everybody around you is less than you, then you're assuming that there's no one else. But there is Allah who's always above you. You will be put in your place. This is the warning that Allah was giving in the beginning of this surah.

The Two Tests: Blessing and Restriction

But then, right after this, Allah uses the word فَـ (fa) — therefore. The فَـ can be considered سَبَبِيَّة (sababiyyah). What فَـ does in Arabic is it makes a direct connection between what came before and what came after. So there's a logical connection between the two things.

So the first subject I just described to you — now the second subject seems like it's not related to the first subject at all, even though there's a فَـ there. And the purpose of the فَـ is subject one is connected to subject two. I just explained subject one. Now let's look at subject two.

Allah talks about the individual human being. And an individual human being that does not reject Allah. Someone who actually believes in Allah. Someone who believes in Allah. In fact, so much so, that they believe in only one God. They even have توحيد (Tawheed). So Allah is not even talking about like the Fara'ina who believed in multiple gods, for example. And even among the Quraish, there were people that believed in all kinds of shirk ideologies.

But Allah here is talking about someone who says, no, no, no, there's only one God. But their concept of that God, their attitude towards that God is corrupt. And so let's first understand what this subject is.

Allah says: As for the human being, when we put him through a very difficult test, through a very difficult test. Now, when you hear about someone — Allah is testing this person, he's going through a really hard test, Allah is testing this person — you might think this person lost their job, or they got sick, or they had a death in the family, or they're going through a very difficult situation, or they're stuck in a war zone, or they're in danger. All these negative things, you would say this is a test.

But in this ayah, Allah completely reverse engineers our concept of test. He says, as for the human being, when his Lord tests him — and through that test, therefore, He honored him, He gave him a great deal of honor in this world, respect. Everybody respects this person. Allah has granted this person كرم (karam). وَنَعَّمَهُ — And He showered him with luxuries. He gave him lots and lots of things to make life easier and easier.

نِعْمَة (ni'mah) is not just blessing. نِعْمَة in Arabic comes from softness, نُعُومَة (nu'umah), which means something that makes life easier. Everything in this person's life is easy. This person has the easiest life, the easiest family situation, the easiest business, the easiest way to make money, the easiest physical health. Everything is easy in life. أَكْرَمَهُ وَنَعَّمَهُ.

The ayah didn't begin, "as for the human being that Allah blesses." Allah said, the one who Allah tests, an extreme test, ابتلاء. It's not بَلَاهُ, it's ابْتَلَاهُ. This is صيغة الافتعال (sighah al-ifti'al), it's for مبالغة (mubalagha), it's extreme. An extreme test, and what's the test? You get a lot of respect, life is good.

Nobody in Arabia ever thought that when life is good, that's an extreme test. This is a new idea. But it is connected to what we just learned, because the people that Allah just described that were destroyed were very well respected. And they had amazing blessings like nobody else before them had. You know, they had things that nobody had even imagined up until then.

And so now Allah is not just talking about — that was about nations, but Allah says, this rule isn't just for nations, it's also for individuals. So Allah could have connected nations to nations and said, فَأَمَّا الْقَوْمِ إِذَا مَا ابْتَلَاهُمْ فَأَكْرَمَهُمْ وَنَعَّمَهُمْ, because the conversation, subject one, was not about individuals, it was about nations. But subject two, it's not about nations, it's about individuals.

And this is Allah's way of telling us that there's actually a deep connection. What we learn about nations of the past doesn't just apply to nations, it also applies to individuals. Surah Al-Fajr is teaching us this way of thinking about history.

Somebody reads about Fir'aun, and they think, oh, that's Fir'aun, only the president should learn or the prime minister should learn from the example of Fir'aun because he was a leader and the president or the prime minister is a leader. So the example applies leader to leader. Or this government should learn from the example of that government, which is true, but the Quran is changing our narrative of history, our understanding of history. All of us will learn that history and think, maybe I have some Fir'aun in me too. I have some Aad and some Thamud in me also because Allah blessed them a lot.

The Immature Relationship with Allah

But then, I told you, the example of this person that Allah is giving is someone who believes in Allah. And Allah made their life good. And then He says, فَيَقُولُ رَبِّي أَكْرَمَنِ — this person has a good life, is filled with blessings, and he responds to these blessings.

You would think Allah is going to criticize this person and He's going to say, well, all of these blessings, I don't have to be grateful, this is my own doing. Like Qarun says, for example, إِنَّمَا أُوتِيتُهُ عَلَىٰ عِلْمٍ عِندِي — everything I have is because I have this amazing knowledge, that's what allowed me to be this successful. That is not what this ayah is saying.

This person actually acknowledges that this all came from Allah. فَيَقُولُ رَبِّي أَكْرَمَنِ — My Rabb is the one who honored me. Allah gave me all of this. That sounds like a good thing. If Allah gave you honor, Allah gave you blessings, and you acknowledge that it's Allah who did it for you, this is actually pretty accurate. Why is this a problem? Allah is describing it as if this is a problem, which at first glance seems confusing. But if you understand the entire picture, it starts becoming clear.

And also in another scenario, as for when we test him again, another test — فَقَدَرَ عَلَيْهِ رِزْقَهُ — and we put a limit on how much they will receive. He puts a limit on his health. He puts a limit on her wealth or the blessings in family. He puts a limit on some of the luxuries and comforts. Now it's not open-ended, everything is all the doors are opening up, all the opportunities are becoming easier. Now life is becoming more and more difficult, constricted and tight.

فَقَدَرَ عَلَيْهِ رِزْقَهُ فَيَقُولُ رَبِّي أَهَانَنِ — Then he says, my Rabb, He's the one who's humiliating me. Allah is the one who opened all these doors of rizq. And now he's saying, Allah is the one who humiliated me.

What are we actually learning from this ayah? We're learning that people used to have an immature relationship with Allah. An immature relationship with Allah. What is that immature relationship? When life is good, Allah is good. God is good. الله بره حسنة — this is Allah's blessing. Everything is Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah.

As soon as life gets bad, I don't know what Allah is doing with me. I don't even know what punishment he's giving me. I don't know what — what have I done? What did I do that's even so bad that Allah just keeps putting me in this situation, in this situation. Ya Allah, what is this? But Alhamdulillah. I mean, they say Alhamdulillah, but they don't sound like Alhamdulillah. They sound like, oh, come on, Ya Allah. Come on. Enough already. You know. My Rabb is humiliating me.

Why is he humiliating? So your relationship with God is good, your relationship with Allah is good, when things are on my terms. If they're on my terms, things are good. Me and Allah, we're good. Alhamdulillah. The moment things are not on my terms, my relationship with Allah goes bad. So it's actually depending — my relationship with Allah depends on my situation.

So it's like your relationship depends on the weather. Meaning it's an unstable relationship. It's not a consistent relationship. Relations change. Life changes. You're not always going to stay a young man, you'll become an old man. You're not always going to be healthy, one day you'll be sick. You're not always going to be alive, one day you're going to die. Or someone you love is going to die. This life is about constant changes. And if those changes are going to change your relationship with Allah, well, then you're heading down on — this immature relationship opens the door to other kinds of corruption.

This itself seems like, okay, it's not a very well thought out, deep relationship with Allah. As these minutes are running down, the thing I want you to take away from this up until now is that the tests from Allah apply to all experiences in life. The good experiences and the bad experiences. And one of them is not better than the other or worse than the other. They're actually the same.

This one is ابتلاء and that one is ابتلاء. This one is a tough test and that was a tough test. But there are two different kinds of tests to check one thing: Did my relationship with Allah get impacted depending on whether I'm being blessed or I'm being restricted? Did that actually change? That would be the test, the passing of the test or the failing of the test.

It has nothing to do with how much Allah loves me or how much Allah wants to guide me, because Allah loves all of his prophets but they went through very difficult lives. But the other prophets who went through very easy lives like Dawood (alayhi salaam) and Suleiman (alayhi salaam) were given lots of kingdom and lots of rule. So having wealth and having power and having good things does not mean Allah likes you more. And not having them does not mean Allah likes you less. That's not how this works. That is an immature understanding.

The Real Meaning of Honor and Humiliation

But then Allah now explains, who has Allah honored and who has Allah actually humiliated? Because he's complaining, Allah has humiliated me. And Allah then says, كَلَّا — not at all! This one word is, your entire understanding is wrong. This is not how your relationship with Allah should work. Not at all.

Actually, لَّا تُكْرِمُونَ الْيَتِيمَ — you don't honor orphans. You don't honor orphans. وَلَا تَحَاضُّونَ عَلَىٰ طَعَامِ الْمِسْكِينِ — and you don't encourage yourselves and other people to feed others that need food. People that are poor. You're not part of that problem.

Look, there are people in every society that are not doing so well. There are people in your neighborhood that are not doing so well. But you're like, so long as I'm doing okay, my people are doing okay, my demographic is doing okay, my fellow colleagues are doing okay, my political party is doing okay, then who cares? That's their problem. They brought it on themselves. لَا تَحَاضُّونَ عَلَىٰ طَعَامِ الْمِسْكِينِ — the people that are suffering or have less than you, they are not your concern. You don't even care about that. That's not what motivates you. That's not part of your thinking. It's not a problem for you. Everyone's looking out for themselves.

Honoring the Orphan

By the way, I didn't dive into honor the orphan. Why would Allah even say honor the orphan? First of all, you don't even know who the orphan is. They don't have a sticker on their face that says, hey, orphan over here. You don't have that. You don't have to have a video of starving children and say, oh, these are the orphan. There could be an orphan sitting here in the audience. You don't know.

The only way to know is you actually get to know people around you. And then you find out who lost a father. That's the only way you know. And once you know, it's as if this religion is saying, when you find those people, you go out of your way to show them dignity and respect. Why? Because those were the people that had no protection from anyone else. And in the Arab world, in the ancient world, your dignity came from your father. They've lost their father. So now you have to go out of your way to make them feel like they're valued. They're respected. They mean something.

What happens in every society where you have these juvenile detention facilities and youth that are homeless or they got abandoned by their parents and they get put up in these places? Nobody respects them. They get thrown around by the system and they end up in crimes. Because nobody honored them. Nobody valued them. Nobody saw the potential within. لَا تُكْرِمُونَ الْيَتِيمَ وَلَا تَحَاضُّونَ عَلَىٰ طَعَامِ الْمِسْكِينِ — this is your insensitivity, but it gets even worse. And this is where we're going to conclude.

The Love of Wealth

وَتَأْكُلُونَ التُّرَاثَ أَكْلًا لَّمًّا — and you even eat inheritance. Even when a family member dies, and you had a share, and your sister had a share, and your mother had a share, and your uncle had a share, people had a share, you take everybody's share because you can. What are they going to do about it? They're not even here. They're not even in the country. And they can't afford, so I'm going to take all of it.

تَأْكُلُونَ التُّرَاثَ أَكْلًا لَّمًّا وَتُحِبُّونَ الْمَالَ حُبًّا جَمًّا — and you have this intense, permanent love of money. You have this — meaning your relationship with God goes up and down, but your relationship with money is permanent. That's the stable relationship you have. And this is the worst thing.

Now, what Allah has done here is shown, when someone says, Allah has honored me and Allah has humiliated me, Allah says, this has nothing to do with having honor and having humiliation. But when you violate these things, when you don't honor the orphan, when you don't care for those that are poor, when you even consume inheritance, when you have an unfiltered love of wealth, money first, everything else second — when you develop that, then you have no honor. Then Allah truly has humiliated you.

Then truly, even if people respect you, because if you take people's money, then you can build the nicest house in the neighborhood. The best thieves have the nicest cars. The best crooks have the highest positions. They have the most expensive clothes. They have the most exotic vacations. They look like they're on top in society. I come from America. I have no idea if I can think of any example of this. But this is the idea. The more you steal from people, the more on top you look. The more on top you look.

Even the example of Qarun in the Quran. He was committing crimes against his own people, and yet he had the nicest house, nicest ride, all the servants. When he used to drive by with his horses and his decked out clothes and his entourage of servants — يَا لَيْتَ لَنَا مِثْلَ مَا أُوتِيَ قَارُونُ — man, I wish I were with this guy. Wow. That guy.

So in the eyes of the poor, that's the most respected person. And in the sight of Allah, that is the most humiliated person. Everybody else in Allah's eyes has respect, except that person. Except that person.

And so this is how Allah is teaching us. Nations before you thought that those amazing structures they built and those governments they built, that will give them respect. Just like you think money will give you respect. But both of you are making the same mistake.