Tested According to Faith

And this is a form of balāʾ, a form of testing, that Allah (swt) places upon the prophets. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said that Allah (swt) tests the prophets with the most severe tests, and then the righteous, and then the next best, and then the next best. The stronger and firmer you are in your dīn, the more difficult the test of Allah (swt) upon you will be.

It is just like school. When professors or teachers write tests, they write a group of easy questions, questions of average difficulty, and then they put in a few tough questions here and there to separate out the top of the class. So you have a group of easy questions that the majority will answer. Then you have another group of questions that fewer will answer, and that separates the D from the C. Then you have questions that separate the C from the B, then questions that separate the B from the A, and then one or two questions that separate the A-plus from the A-minus. So everyone receives questions according to his level, and that puts them in their ranking. If you made all the questions easy, everyone would get a hundred.

You have to set the questions in a gradual, step-by-step level of difficulty to separate these students. It is the same with the tests Allah (swt) places on us in the dunyā. If your īmān is weak, Allah will give you a simple exam. If your level of īmān is strong, you will receive a more difficult exam.

And the tests the prophets of Allah (swt) go through are more severe. They are more severe not only in their trials and their daʿwah, but even in their illness. ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd was visiting the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) during his final illness. He put his hand on the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), and his temperature was so high. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: yes — I suffer the fever that two men among you would suffer. The fever on the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was double. Why? Because of the rank of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), he had to go through more difficult tests from Allah (swt).