The Test Paper

As for man, when his Lord tests him by exalting him and bestowing favours on him, he says: ‘My Lord is bountiful to me.’ But when He tests him by restricting his subsistence, he says: ‘My Lord humiliates me.’

No! But you show no kindness to the orphan, nor do you urge one another to feed the poor. Greedily you lay your hands on the inheritance of the weak, and you love riches with all your hearts.

No! But when the earth is crushed to fine dust, and your Lord comes down with the angels, in their ranks, and Hell is brought near—on that day man will remember his deeds. But what will memory avail him?

He will say: ‘Would that I had done good works in my lifetime!’ But on that day none will punish as He will punish, nor will any bind with chains like His.

O serene soul! Return to your Lord joyful, and pleasing in His sight. Join My servants and enter My Paradise.

(The Quran 89:15-30)

Man is confronted in this world with two kinds of states, sometimes of gaining, sometimes of losing. Both these conditions are in the nature of tests. They are designed to judge man on the response he makes to these situations. If on gaining, a man becomes vain and proud, and on losing, he suffers from negative feelings, then he has failed in the test.

A very different kind of person is one who, on gaining, bows before God in thankfulness, and, on losing, bows again to express his humility. It is the second of these two who has been called a ‘serene soul.’

Whatever man receives in this world in the form of wealth, or in any other form, are all tests of one kind or another. These have no value in themselves; they are a means to another end. That is, man should make use of these things in such a Way that, in the times to come in the eternal world, they may become the means of his salvation.