Tests in life are pretty similar. They pull something out of us. For example with me intelligence is a sensitive area in my heart. So when someone I care about insults my intelligence, that is a big test for my heart. It is a test to see if my will gives in to the lower base desires of anger, arrogance, and hate. Will I lash out and scream at the person? Will I do something subtle to belittle them and make them hurt as much as I do inside? Will I hold it all in and resent them for a significant period of time? Or, can I just let it go? It sounds simple, like most things do, but for me, it's a very hard thing to do (I would imagine for others as well). Sometimes as a man, the hardest thing for us to do in the heat of the moment, is to do nothing at all.

Much of this has to do with Fortitude as we have discussed before. Tests are the urges and desires of yourself and others who take you away from the path to your Creator, the key to unlock the infinite secret behind your spiritual masculinity. Gravity will always pull down. Strength is defined by how much one can resist the pull. This past year was full of tests for me. Looking back, I truly got to see some of the baser parts of my self. I got to see how I function when I have fear. I got to see myself angry and resentful beyond my own imagination. I was privileged (yes, privileged) to see people blatantly try to deter me from my path to complete masculinity, and more importantly, my Creator. It was a trying time. It was one of those years where you sincerely wonder if your marriage will last, your career, everything.

Somehow, by the grace of God, we made it through. It was great preparation for what was to come. All tests are a preparation. They are a preparation right up to the end of your life. One could ask, "why so much preparation when you are going to die? Why so much preparation for the last second of your life?" The most important second of your life is not your first, but your last. Everything you do before you leave is a manifestation of what is to come. Your character is shown and defined by the last moments in your life. The last moments of what is in your heart, how you feel, the peace, the security, ther preparation to leave this world, that is the most important second of your life. All the tests, trials, and tribulations that we have spoken of are to prepare you, like packing items in a suitcase for a journey. This journey will take you to your true masculinity, your true self and your true creator. So do know that tests build your character. They build the internal paradise of peace brick by brick so that you will see the external one with utmost clarity.

©2012 Halim Naeem.com. All Rights Reserved.

When God speaks of certain things happening to men, He, many times gives us a story. What we must understand is that this story is an indicator of what will happen to people who are like those men he speaks about. In other words, that is a sign for our destiny. The word of God is alive. But it is not alive in the manner that we percieve life. It is alive in an infinitely deeper way than we can perceive. The word of God is our destiny. However, destiny is infinite, so how does that apply to us as men?

God has given us the ability to choose which category of destiny that we want to be in. If you think about it, there are formulas in science. The purpose of a formula is to show the relationship between different things through symbols.  Thus, if you combine 2 and 2, then on the other side, you get 4.  Destiny works in a similar fashion. God says in the Quran "Is there any reward for good, other than good?" So if one does good on one side, then good will happen to him on the other side. Now we all hear this saying, "why to bad things happen to good people?" My question would be, why do we perceive it as such? Nothing bad ever happens to those who do good. The 'bad' things that we pereive happening are a test from Allah to bring that person closer or it may be a cleansing of previous sins out of God's love for us, or it can be people with corruption in their hearts acting with ill will. I would not say bad things happen to good people. I would say bad people happen to good people. This is because bad people have to the choice to be bad, but no matter what they do, it still elevates the good people closer to God.

The examples of bad people acting upon the best of people are endless. In fact, the better you are, the more malice comes at you. This is apart of destiny. As men, we must develop to put ourselves in the best of categories. Then we will be given our responsibility as human beings to maintain and care for the creation as Allah told us. Let us look at the five greatest people and what bad people tried to do to them. Imagine being mocked and ridiculed by your own people for over 900 years. Thats what Noah went through in trying to bring the truth. Imagine your own father and family along with your own people in your village making a fire so big, that it burned the birds flying in the air. Imagine if they made that fire just to throw you in because you told your people there is one God. This is what happened to Abraham.

Imagine your whole country trying to kill you because you stopped a man from beating up a poor man. Imagine having to walk, yes walk from Cairo to Jerusalem. This is what Moses had to do. Imagine after curing people and telling them the truth, your people try to crucify you, and you have evil people trying to infultrate your disciples. This is what Christ Jesus went through. Imagine going through all the above and losing your father before you were born and your mother when you were six, your true love and your father figure in the same year, lose ALL of your sons, your brave uncle. Imagine losing all of those people and risking your life constantly through onslaughts of your enemies because you tell the people there is one God. This and so much more is what Muhammad (peace be on him) went through. People who were not prophets, but were elevated in their faith went through the same things. The french threw Amadou Bamba (one of the greatest scholars in W. African history)  in a fire, but it did not kill him. Nor did it kill him when they threw him at lions and other predators (they miraculously became tame for him). They firebombed Malcolm X's home. They whipped chunks of skin off of Ahmad ibn Hanbal (r).  Bad people poison, jail, blackmail, assassinate, and whatever else it takes so good cannot exist in the world.

This is destinty. Allah has certain things happen to us because it is his word and his promise. Our choice comes into play by choosing which category (or 'adventure' we want to have) through developing our selves and our masculinity.  The adventure we choose is up to us. How it plays out and wheather or not we choose to stay in that adventure is also up to us. The elevation and supremacy over the creation that we will have, and the status in the garden of Eden with all other elevated men and women, we will let God take care of that. Do know that if we try as hard as we can, Allah and destiny will have our backs.

©2012 Halim Naeem.com. All Rights Reserved.