Chapter 2: Surat Al-Baqarah (The Cow), verses 153-157

Translation:

Believers, fortify yourselves with patience and prayer. God is with the patient. Do not say that those who are slain in the cause of God are dead; they are alive, although you are not aware of them. We shall test your steadfastness with fear and hunger, with loss of life and property and crops. Give good news to those who endure with fortitude, who in adversity say: ‘We belong to God, and to Him we shall return.’ God’s blessing and mercy will be upon them; they are rightly guided.

Tafsir (Commentary):

One who has adopted religion in the real sense of the word has truly discovered God. He lives in a permanent state of thanksgiving and remembrance of his Lord. Happiness and bliss come with such a life, though they are only to materialize in full and in their true form only in the next eternal world. This world has not been created for reward: it has been created for the trial of man. Here obstacles have been placed in the path of those who seek to serve their Lord, so that the earnest can be distinguished from those who are lacking in zeal. These obstacles present themselves in the normal situations of life—human impulses, family requirements, worldly interests, temptation, social pressure—these are the things that provide the real test of life. First one has to realize in what manner one is being tested; then one has to avoid the pitfalls by remembering God and thanking Him for the blessings of life.

There is only one way to succeed in the trials of life, and that is through patience and prayer. This entails attaching oneself to God and conscientiously adhering to the path of truth, enduring all the setbacks that afflict one on the way. Those who do not waver from the path despite its difficulties—who stay with God even when no worldly benefit seems to accrue therefrom—these are the ones who will finally emerge successful from the trials of life. God has reserved the eternal blessings of the next life for those who show themselves willing to sacrifice this life for the next.

Those who make the greatest sacrifices are the dedicated souls who attempt to preach the word of God. Suffering and affliction are their lot because of their hearers’ negative response to the criticism and admonition which are inseparable from such preaching. There are few in this world who en*** being reproved and warned. The sincere preacher also incurs the animosity of mercenary individuals who have used the name of religion to set themselves up as preachers in order to provide themselves with an income. The sincerity of the true preacher being a threat to the statics of the worldly ‘preacher’ the former has to suffer the latter’s adverse reactions. Becoming a preacher of God’s word, then, is tantamount to putting one’s hand into a fire. One who takes this task upon himself is exposing himself to prejudice, economic ruin and even expulsion from his own land. He is placing both his life and property in the utmost peril. It is inevitable that one who follows God’s path will be persecuted in this world. But it is those who lose all for God’s sake who are the true finders; it is those who give their lives for Him who inherit life everlasting. For those who do not seek to make their paradise in this ephemeral world, God has prepared an eternal paradise in the next.