Page 34 - The Secret Behind Our Trials

THE SECRET BEHIND OUR TRIALS
wealth, and make them promises! The promise of Satan is
nothing but delusion." (Surat al-Isra', 62-64)
As it says in the verse, Satan will try anything to divert people
from the true path and prevent them from being thankful to Allah
and from living a good moral life. As a result, he will bring the ma-
jority of people over to his side by using the voice of the lower self.
For this reason, when people undergo hard times, Satan will always
make them think selfishly about themselves and how to secure their
own advantage by presenting self-sacrifice, compassion, and mercy
as negative options:
O humanity, eat what is good and lawful on Earth. Do not
follow in the footsteps of Satan, for he truly is an outright
enemy to you. He only commands you to do evil and inde-
cent acts, and to say about Allah that which you do not
know. (Surat al-Baqara, 168-69)
For all of these reasons, Muslims who are facing difficulties,
frustration, or disaster must act according to their conscience so that
they will not join Satan. By following Satan, selfishness, oppor-
tunism, addiction to pleasure, hypocrisy, and many other negative
qualities are given a chance to arise and corrupt the Qur'an's moral-
ity. Sincere Muslims listen to their conscience and always follow the
way of goodness. As the Qur'an says, it is important that good
morals be shown when "the matter is resolved upon":
Once the matter is resolved upon, being true to Allah would
be better for them. (Surah Muhammad, 21)
The majority of people know that faithfulness shown in times
of trial indicates superior morality and swear that they will be faith-
ful and strong in such times. But when the trial comes, their behav-
ior does not match their earlier promises and they react negatively
when touched by the least frustration. They become angry all of a

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