Allah Said in Surat Al 'Imran, v. 186: {"You shall certainly be tried and tested in regards to your wealth, as well as your lives..."}

For some people, it's poverty. For some, it's mental or physical disease. For some, it's the loss of a loved one. For some, it's prison. But for all, it's a promise from Allah that each and everyone of us will have a test of one type or another at some point in life. It doesn't matter if you're as evil as a murderer or as righteous as a Prophet, Allah has set aside for your your portion of difficulty in life. In fact, if you look at the variety of difficulties that the Prophets faced, it will seem to you almost as if Allah is giving us precedents as to how to cope with every potential difficulty that could befall us today:

• Adam's son murdered the other
• Nuh's son was a disbeliever, and drowned
• Ibrahim faced an oppressive father
• Yusuf was falsely imprisoned for years
• Ayyub was stricken with diseases of all kinds
• Ya'qub lost two of his sons temporarily (Yusuf and Benyamin)
• Prophet Muhammad faced poverty, threats to his life, lost children at an early age, lost Khadijah, lost his uncle, grew up without parents, was expelled from his land (peace be upon them all)

So, there is no difficulty or test any of us can face today that has not to some degree been faced by one of the Prophets. There are a number of benefits to this fact:

• We have a blueprint available for each type of test or difficulty as to how to deal with it & how to carry ourselves facing it;
• By having the most beloved of people to Allah stricken with your same test, you cannot ask 'Why me?' while you are less beloved;
• By having the most beloved of people to Allah stricken with your same test, you can deduce that facing this test successfully is an aspect of human perfection;
• It gives you something in common with a Prophet;
• Your love and admiration for the Prophets will grow when you have a firsthand taste of a difficulty that they tasted on a greater scale;
• Your sense of reliance on Allah skyrockets because you know that He aided His Prophets while they faced the same test, and He will also aid you if you have taqwa of Him;
• By confirming that even the Prophets are stricken with difficulty, the Lordship of Allah over all the Creation is further emphasized;

So, while the promise of difficulty in this verse might appear negative, we can gain much from the inevitable tests of life, especially if we connect them to our belief in the Prophets of Allah.

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Tariq Mehanna
Plymouth Correctional Facility
Isolation Unit - Cell #108