THE MUSLIM's ATTITUDE REGARDING TRIALS IN THE LIGHT OF THE EVER-GLORIOUS QUR'AN AND PROPHETIC TRADITION

The word "fitnah" may denote supplication to Allah Almighty not to render our enemies overwhelm and have victory on us and not to lead us astray from the right and truth in our sayings and actions because, then, other people will contempt and deride our religion not seeing in us a good example or a straightforward conduct. One verse that referred to this meaning is: 'Moses said: " O my people! If ye do (really) believe in Allah, then in Him put your trust if ye submit (your will to His)". They said: "In Allah do we put out trust. Our Lord make us not a trial for those who practise oppression; and deliver us by Thy Mercy from those who reject (Thee)."' (Surat Yunus: 84- 86).

This verse means that Moses (peace be upon him) said to true believers in his people by way of ensuring their faith, after seeing oppression inflicted upon them: O people! If you truly believed in Allah and verily submitted yourselves to Him, then, on Him only depend and hold only to His side and care: Whoever depends on Allah and seeks His guidance, Allah always supports him and leads him to victory.

The Qur'an then tells us that those true believers of the people of Moses (peace be upon him) answered him sserting their deep belief saying: "In Allah do we put out trust. Our Lord make us not a trial for those who practice oppression" meaning that in their reply to their prophet Moses (peace be upon him) they said that they depended on and trusted Allah alone in all their matters, so Allah Our Lord ! we are asking you not to place us in defeat weakness in front of those oppressors by giving them power over us because then, they would think they are on the right path and that we are deluded and following the wrong pathfor - in their allegations- if we were right they would not have power and be victorious over us. They added to this supplication another more explicit one seeking this hope in shunning away disbelievers and their mischief from them. They said: "and deliver us by Thy Mercy from those who reject (Thee)", meaning that Our Lord we do not only ask You not to make of us a trial for them, we further ask you to deliver us from their evil and from the mischief of disbelievers.

We also ask you to give our ord supremacy over theirs. Imam Al-Shaukany (may Allah be pleased with him) said that the form of supplication they used to implore to Allah is an evidence that their concern about the supremacy of religion was greater than that their concern about their own safety. A similar form of supplication is the following verse: " Our Lord! Make us not a (test and) trial for the unbelievers, but forgive us,our Lord! For Thou art the Exalted in Might, the Wise." (Surat Al-Mumtahana: 5). This verse came after Allah Almighty told is about Abraham (peace be upon him), and his allies of true believers to disbelievers from his people: " we are clear of you and of whatever ye worship besides Allah: we have rejected You, and there has risen, between us and you, enmity and hatred for ever,- unless ye believe in Allah and Him Alone..." (Surat Al- Mumtahana: 4)

The supplication in the Surat asserts this meaning of the word "fitnah", meaning "trial" and its past participle " maftuun" meaning " a person suffering a trial" or "under trial". Etymologically the verb "fatana" means to "melt silver". The meaning of the verse is a prayer to Allah by the believers not to render them under trial and torture by those disbelievers by giving them authority and power over them and then they would not be able to meet or forbear. Another possible interpretation for the verse is: Our Lord do not make a trial of us for your enemies and ours. If You would try us by making them torment us, they would think that they are on the right path and that we are deluded. They would proclaim that if we were right, they would not gain victory over us. Some of our scholars have another point of view regarding the meaning of this verse. They hold that "fitna" in this verse means turmoil and discordance among the Muslim group and that Muslims would be so corrupt that they are not fit to set an example for others in good deeds.

Accordingly the meaning would be: Our Lord do not let our words and actions be so bad as to make disbelievers loathe to convert to our religion. For, at that time, they would think that if our religion were true and sound its influence would have shown on its followers who should, by then, be so far from backwardness, disagreement and discordance. To sum it up, the word /fitna/ in this verse and in the above verse from Surat Yunus "Our Lord make us not a trial for those who practice oppression" bear two possible meanings: First, a supplication from believers not to render them a position of weakness or defeat in relation to disbelievers. Second, to protect them from wrongdoing, ill-sayings and any act that goes against good manners. This is because if they held grudges, conflicts and hatred towards each others and went astray from the right, justice and cooperation in charity and piety, people following religions other than Islam will despise them and loathe to follow their religion. They would rather think that if theirs were a true religion, they would not be in such a state.