The Qur’an For All Humanity
The Test Paper
~ 88 ~
O serene soul! Return to your Lord joyful, and
pleasing in His sight. Join My servants and enter
My Paradise.
(The Qur’an 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,
