I’ve been in formal education for years… 21 years at last count (wow I’m getting old!) and I was beginning to think that maybe I’ve had enough of all this studying lark. Actually it isn’t the study that bothers me because I quite like learning new stuff, its the constant exams.In American schools, the two most terrifying words for most kids are “Pop Quiz”. These are mini tests that the teacher suddenly springs on the unsuspecting children. The idea is that if you have been a conscientious student then you ought to be prepared for an exam at any moment. You have been doing the homework, right?!Now obviously noone likes the bigger exams either, but at least you know they are coming and maybe you can pretend to work for them.

Then comes the day of the exam… and you’re stressing… “Oh my GOD! This is it, if I fail then I’m just gonna cry coz my whole career depends on this exam, and my parents are gonna slap me!”. Even keeping breakfast down becomes a struggle.

Now I’m sure you all know where this is headed

Amongst all the interviews and exams, do you remember the last time you felt like Allah was testing you? Maybe it was when you last had to pray outdoors and some kids were pointing and laughing at you. Maybe it was when you first decided to wear the jilbab, certain that it was a fard, but feeling like you were going to stick out like a mole on the face when you sit down on the train. For some it is when they decide to give up their old sins of jahiliyya and break up with their girlfriend, knowing full well that she was going to cry when you told her that you love Allah more than her. A common one is during “discussions” with parents, when they want you to follow a cultural tradition - usually free mixing at weddings - that is haram. These events make you feel the struggle between haram and halal, aware that it is all being written in your record.

InshaAllah none of us decide to do a haram action. Planning haram actions not only exposes you to the sin of that action, but can easily become shirk: you’ve decided that you know better than the Creator of the Universe. Shirk is like making a extended stay reservation in the black flames of Hellfire.

What we ought to be equally aware of is the so-called “little” sins. All those times that we don’t feel like we’re being tested. We couldn’t be further from the truth:

Do people imagine that they will be left to say, ‘We believe,’ and will not be tested?
We did test those before them, and Allah will certainly know those who are true from those who are false.
Do those who practise evil think that they will get the better of Us? Evil is their judgment!

(Surat al-’Ankabut, 2-5)

I really recommend that we all read the tafsir of this surah. In fact verse (ayah) eight specifically discusses one of the examples given above.

We’ve all heard the whispering (waswas) of the shaytaan. He’s permanently condemned to hell, and he wants company. His only skill is in chatting nonsense into our hearts (Surah an-Nas, 4-5) but we have to make the decision all by ourselves. What he is trying to do is con you into believing that you have ages left to live, knowing full well that you could die and any second, and that you don’t know when your time is up. If he can convince you to do a “little” sin, maybe “just a second glance” at a munkari, and make it your last action before you die, that’s it. Game over.

That’s so important that it’s worth repeating: you don’t know when your time is up and what your last action is going to be.

Please, my dear brothers and sisters, remind one another each and every time that you meet. The sahabah understood this issue well, and if two or more of them met, they would never depart without reciting Surat Al-’Asr.

You are being tested right now. Did you pass?

Anything wrong is from me, and everything correct is from Allah, subhanahu wa ta’ala. Wa Allahu ‘alim.