What is life? (a personal view)

So when we are in deep pain he thinks that s good for us ?because at that time i want to die to stop the pain

How eternity have an end ?

I am sorry, I did not understand your question fully. When you said "he" are you referring to God?

... it's Woody Allen man and his twisted unique fantastic sense of humor!

Yes

Ok so it s a joke

not being grumpy and having a positive world view.

Yes.

eternity , the word it s self don t have an end.

that is what you think it s life?

Yes.

We agree, this life is an ultimate test for us.

Does Islam offer a reason for why this is necessary beyond just obedience to Allah? I could not understand the severity of it until I understood that.

I will divide my response into two sections.

First I want to explain why Allah created us and sent on earth:

We know Allah knows everything. He knows the future and he knows who will end up in heaven and who will be in hell. Now let's assume that Allah creates us and straight away put everyone in their respective places in heaven and hell based on His knowledge alone.

The people who will be thrown into hell fire would say," what have we done to deserve hell ?"

Would that be fair ? Would that be Just. Because after all they haven't done anything yet and only proof is that's Allah knows everything.

That's the reason Allah created us and sent us on earth so that we can be tested first before he would punish or reward. Once our test is over, we will be witness of our own deeds and will not have an excuse to question Allah's Justice.

I think it was necessary to discuss before I discuss why we are tests in this world.


One must remember that tests in our lives are only for our benefit. These test don't benefit Allah in any means as He is free of all needs.

Allah tests us in this life for several reasons and few of those are below:

1. Tests are the means by which Allah distinguishes between us, because they help to expose faith and lack of faith. Allah states in the Qur’an:



2. Allah tests us to purify us and wash our sins. Prophet Muhammd PBUH said:

No calamity befalls a Muslim but that Allah expiates some of his sins because of it, even if it were the prick of a thorn. [Bukhari, Muslim]

Here I also want to mention that people who are tested most are the prophets and that is why the prophets will have a very high status in heavens. So instead of seeing tests as a punishment from Allah, this shows that in fact, Allah wants to save us from punishment – i.e. the punishment of the hereafter which is much worse than any test faced in this world.

3. A test can sometimes replace a worse misfortune
A test can be a form of protection from something that might have befallen us. Or being deprived of something might, in fact, be saving us from something that is not good for us, even though we don’t have the knowledge to realize it at the time. Allah tells us:


Therefore the test which might seem so awful to you at the time is, in fact, a blessing. For example if I miss flight due to traffic accident, then I may be upset about it but if I later find out that the flight I missed has been hijacked then I will thank for miss the flight due to that accident.

4. Tests are given to us to strengthen our faith

Prophet Muhammad PBUH said:



Allah wants to refine us, out of His love and mercy, so that we can attain not just Paradise but the highest rank of the Prophets and the righteous. Tests expose our faults and weaknesses to ourselves – and that awareness enables us to be more focused and proactive in rectifying those aspects of our character.

Thats why you will see that people who reject Allah and are far away from beliving in any God will have very small or may be no tests. Their heaven is this world and they have nothing to enjoy in Hereafter.

So when im in pain or in trouble , it s because god is testing me ,?

Yes, testing you as well as others around you who may be the source of pain you received.

The thing to remember is that the trial you or any of us will go through will happen regardless. If someone stays patient and trust in Allah then those trials become easy and one also get reward for being patient. If one complains, then the test will still be the same but one will feel that it was too hard for him/her and one also loose an opportunity to gain any reward. Instead by complaining and cursing Allah, one may get further away from the right path.

So if a 2 year old human is in pain everyday with a disease , he s being tested, when this infant don t even know what is happening .how you can test a 2 year old human being ? What s his fault ?

There are different type of tests we get in our lives. Some tests are easy and some are very difficult. The reward for our tests is based on the difficulty of our tests. A simple example is that if you compare the exam of your high school to that of doctorate degree, we know the exam for high school is easier and the reward for that is high school diploma vs exam for doctorate which is tough but reward for that is higher as one gets PhD.

Some people are born rich and some are born poor. Some people are born healthy and some are born with some disorder or illness. As you can see the test for each one is different. Allah says in the Quran:



The suffering of babies is really a test for their parents. Allah wants to see if the parents will still keep their faith in Allah if he takes the life of their kid. Allah is the giver of life and He is the one who created us and to whom we will return. may be Allah wants to give parents of sick kid a very high reward if they keep their faith in Allah even when the child goes through the pain which parents can’t bear? As for as kid goes, it is quite possible that he not be feeling as much pain as we think. Even he does feel the pain, Know that the pain in hereafter is much worse than pain in this world. Kids who die before puberty go into heaven directly. They have suffered pain in this world which was to test their parents but Allah reward them with heaven without testing them in their adulthood. Allah is all knowing and all powerful and He does what is best for us.

About the tests, I largely agree with you, in particular, that they are for our benefit and that we can to some degree, opt out of the most severe if we chose .

But I want to emphasize that if the test is from God, the benefit is Not in the suffering itself, but the absolute reality of learning the specific thing God is trying to lead you to. If you don't see that then your suffering is in vain. There is no virtue in suffering itself. You can torture yourself to death and gain nothing.

I can't be sure if this is what you are saying also, but my complaint with much of Christianity is the idea that this is merely a test of our belief. If absolute belief in God alone were enough, Satan himself
would go to Heaven.

It s very bad that a kid is suffering for a test , you have to be in that pain to know what im trying to say .

The victim really don t care about what it s god plan at that time, we re not playing here ,it s a serious thing and urgent , very urgent , he will only want the pain to stop .

The parents have the fault that he is in pain , they created him .

I wish I could understand your state of mind...you can't possibly believe in Satan...is just, beyond belief that a person like you sufficiently enlightened and coherent is so entangled in a life long indoctrination that a figure like "Satan" is still considered real. Honestly, some ways of thinking are so alien to me that I just drop my jaw and gaze in disbelief...some of you people are one of the great mysteries of the Universe.