Sunday, March 15, 2020

Apostate prophet becomes capricious; Why test people?

In answer to the video "The Sick Reason Why Allah Created Humans According to Islam"

Tests, trials and hardships do not unveil something unknown to Allah as shown earlier. He is the Omniscient
29:10-11"Does not Allah know best all that is in the hearts of all creation? And Allah most certainly knows those who believe, and as certainly those who are Hypocrites".
All of creation is predetermined to attain its intended purpose of basic existence, guided to a specific destination 87:2"who created and proportioned; who determined and guided". But man is different from the rest of creation. His level of consciousness and plane of existence, as compared to the rest of the living entities, testifies to him having a higher purpose. He is in such uncontested position of mastery over the earth and what is in it, that it is only natural that he be called to account. Man, as is evident by his own nature, is not only entrusted with wordly responsibilities, but also with moral consciousness. His own conscience, his self-reproaching, chiding inner self, his quest for justice and his awareness of good and evil 75:1-15,91:8 should be a more than enough rational evidence for the necessity of perfect, complete, moral and material justice
16:39"So that He might make manifest to them that about which they differ, and that those who disbelieve might know that they were liars".

This is where the tests, the hardships come into play, puting mankind's moral consciousness to practice. These tests come in countless forms, including in the revealed Law. It serves as the best guiding path, the most straight, by which one can overcome the situations where spirituality and morality are compromised. It guides through the occasional, cyclical storms of life, until the times of ease
2:155,94:5-6"So, with every difficulty there is relief. Indeed, with every difficulty there is relief".
So there always is a solution to difficulties, a way by which one can come out enlightened.
Like the fire extracts the precious metals from the ore and the torrent washes away the swelling foam 13:17, humans go through tests and hardships, a purging process that seperates truth and good from falsehood and sin. It is an inner 3:143,179 and outward process 2:143,149,3:167,18:12 offering mankind the chance of bettering, humbling themselves 23:76 and mending their ways
13:17"thus does Allah compare truth and falsehood; then as for the scum, it passes away as a worthless thing; and as for that which profits the people, it tarries in the earth; thus does Allah set forth parables".
Similar imagery is drawn in the Hebrew Bible when speaking of the process of seperation in this world, through blood and destruction, of the wicked from those willing to reform themselves, a process that sometimes causes good elements to be extracted while at other times only the waste and worthless elements remain
Jer5:29,9:6,Ezek22:18-22"The house of Israel has become dross to Me; all of them are copper and tin and iron and lead in the midst of a furnace; dross of silver have they become. Therefore, so said the Lord God: Because you have all become dross, therefore behold, I gather you together into the midst of Jerusalem. And I shall gather you, and I shall blow upon you with the fire of My anger, and you will be melted in its midst. As silver is melted in the midst of a furnace, so will you be melted in its midst, and you shall know that I, the Lord, have poured out My fury upon you". 


The result of that testing will be found wide open before us on Judgement Day leaving man with no excuse regarding what he "would have done" or not in any situation. God knows who will pass or fail the test, however if He decided not to make mankind go through these tests and only reward or chastise according to His knowledge, people might easily object. But with the tests, God can present the result for the people for them to convict themselves
"Read your book; your own self is sufficient as a reckoner against you this day".
The tests therefore serve us as our own evidence testifying to our wordly deeds, on Judgement Day 99:6,78:40,16:92.
The testing is therefore an established divine system that does not spare anyone in this world. Adopting the right behavior such as patience and certainty of the temporality of life and the ultimate return to Allah 2:155-7 is the key to Islamic success. The word muflihoon, derived from the farmer, is often used in reference to this long and difficult labor until one finally sees the fruit of his efforts. Once the realm of tests expires, patience in adversity, the ultimate feature of the believer in this world, becomes an inconsequential effort 
52:16"[Enter to] burn therein; then be patient or impatient - it is all the same for you. You are only being recompensed [for] what you used to do".
Worldly benefits and hardships are both considered means of moral trial in the Quran. Neither are related to God's approval or disapproval of a person but rather obey to a precise, intricate, all encompassing knowledge and wisdom which some select might be given a glimpse of 3:179,42:12,89:15-20. These trials purge the heart, ignite God-consciousness and sense of gratitude, humble the self and cause the person to mend his evil ways
3:154,7:94,8:26,13:26,14:37,32:21,7:168"and We tried them with blessings and misfortunes that they might turn".
It is a hard and difficult process for all human beings and only those who show righteousness to others, who remain patient, steadfast and spiritualy aware come out succesful 5:93,70:19-35, deserving of God's grace 4:66-70,30:44-45.
These trials allow especially the sinner 7:163-4, through light punishments, in degrees, in natural consequence of their misdeeds, to stimulate their morality before the greater and comprehensive reckoning 16:47,32:21,52:47. This was the case in Muhammad's time, as his opponents were inflicted with hardships with the objective of awakening them 54:45-6. Hardships should make one realize that one is not in total control of his own destiny. There is a Higher, all-encompassing Power that operates in the most intricate aspects of life. Some are spiritually revived through these wake up calls, and others continue in their heedlessness, oblivious of the higher realities, until their hearts are sealed
23:76,7:94,6:42-3"We seized them with distress and affliction in order that they might humble themselves. Yet why did they not, when Our punishment came to them, humble themselves? But their hearts hardened and the Shaitan made what they did fair-seeming to them".
What is worse than transgression and disbelief is the continuation and persistence along that path, despite God puting in one life obstacles meant at making one reflect
3:112"..they have incurred wrath from Allah; and wretchedness has been stumped upon them. That is because they went on rejecting Allah's Signs...they disobeyed, and went on transgressing".
The prophets sent to the Israelites repeatedly lamented over that careless attitude, in which they persisted even while undergoing the harshest trials that were aimed at cleansing and humbling them
Hos7:10"And the pride of Israel was humbled before him, and they did not return to the Lord their God, and did not seek Him despite this" Amos4:9-11"I smote you with blast and with yellowing; the increase of your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees the shearing locust has devoured, but you have not returned to Me, says the Lord. I sent a pestilence upon you after the manner of Egypt; I slew your young men with the sword, with the captivity of your horses, and I caused the stench of your camps to rise, and in your nostrils, but you have not returned to Me, says the Lord. I have overthrown some of you like God's overthrow of Sodom and Gemorrah, and you were like a brand plucked from burning, but you have not returned to Me, says the Lord". In a psalm attributed to Moses, the concept is summed up Ps90:3"You bring man to the crushing point, and You say, "Return, O sons of men.""

As already pointed, hardship and favors are indiscriminately allowed to occur in one's life, and they are in fact 2 sides of the same coin. Their objective is to scrap and cleanse the human heart, with the purpose of allowing him the opportunity to grow spiritually. This test distinguishes good from evil to the extent that no one would be able to refute the fate he deserves. 

In a social sense, the test purges the believers from the liars and/or hypocrites by gradually deleting the apparent, shallow virtues
3:140-143"We bring these days to men by turns, and that Allah may know those who believe and take witnesses from among you..And that Allah may purge (liumahis) those who believe and eradicate (yamhaq) the unbelievers. Do you think that you will enter the Garden while Allah has not yet known those who strive hard from among you, and (He has not) known the patient? And certainly you desired death before you met it, so indeed you have seen it (even) while you look (at it)".
These verse come in the context of the battle of Uhud where the believers suffered many casualties and felt humiliated that they had been overwhelmed on their own ground. It starts by explaining that it is a Divine practice to turn the fortunes among men, without restriction to any one group whether they are the righteous seeking the hereafter or the disbelievers who only want this world
39:52,34:35,17:20"Of the bounties of thy Lord We bestow freely on all- These as well as those: The bounties of thy Lord are not closed (to anyone)". 

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