The Muslim May Be Oppressed, but He Is Not Lowly in the Sight of Allah as Long as He Remains a Believer Upholding the Truth

The Muslim May Be Oppressed, but He Is Not Lowly in the Sight of Allah as Long as He Remains a Believer Upholding the Truth

A Shari’ah Reading of the Difference Between Trial and Lowliness, and Between Being Oppressed and Being Weak

This article addresses a contemporary illusion that links the oppression of Muslims with their being lowly in the sight of Allah. Drawing on the Qur’an, the Sunnah, and the lives of the prophets, it argues that true honor rests on faith and steadfastness, not on the outward signs of worldly power.

One of the most dangerous ideas that creeps into some souls in times of hardship is the assumption that the weakness of the Muslims, their oppression, or the harm and restriction they suffer is proof that they are lowly before Allah, while the power, authority, or worldly abundance enjoyed by others is proof of honor and divine approval. The article calls this one of the greatest errors in understanding Allah’s patterns (sunan) and one of the clearest flaws in reading both revelation and reality. Trial is not the same as lowliness, worldly empowerment is not the same as honor, and Allah’s scale is not the scale of people. True honor rests on faith, God-consciousness, and steadfastness, and true lowliness comes from turning away from Allah, distance from His command, and corruption of the heart, not merely from hardship, loss, or harm. This meaning must therefore be stated clearly, so that divine realities are not measured by worldly appearances, so that the Muslim is not seduced by the glitter of visible power, and so that he is not defeated inwardly when he is oppressed outwardly.

Trial Is a Divine Pattern, Not an Anomaly

Among the greatest sources of firmness in hardship is knowing that trial is not incidental or a surprise outside what faith entails, but an established divine pattern among the people of truth. Allah says: “And We will surely test you with something of fear and hunger and a loss of wealth and lives and fruits, but give good tidings to the patient, who, when disaster strikes them, say, ‘Indeed we belong to Allah, and indeed to Him we will return.’ Those are the ones upon whom are blessings from their Lord and mercy. And it is those who are the [rightly] guided” (al-Baqarah 2:155–157). And He says: “You will surely be tested in your possessions and in yourselves. And you will surely hear from those who were given the Scripture before you and from those who associate others with Allah much abuse. But if you are patient and fear Allah, indeed, that is of the matters [worthy] of resolve” (Al ‘Imran 3:186).

Trial, then, is not a sign that divine care has been withdrawn, nor proof that the path is false. It is part of Allah’s patterns of nurturing and purification, a means of distinguishing the ranks, purifying souls, and raising degrees. The Sunnah confirms this. Sa’d ibn Abi Waqqas asked, “O Messenger of Allah, which people are most severely tested?” He said: “The prophets, then the next best and the next best. A man is tested according to his religion: if he is firm in his religion, his trial is severe; if there is weakness in his religion, he is tested according to his religion. Trial continues to afflict the servant until it leaves him walking on the earth with no sin upon him” (reported by al-Tirmidhi, 2398, Ibn Majah, 4023, and al-Darimi, 2825, in their wording). This shows that high standing with Allah does not mean safety from testing; testing may even follow from elevated rank. In another hadith: “How wonderful is the affair of the believer, for all of his affair is good, and that is for no one except the believer. If something pleasing befalls him, he is grateful, and that is good for him; and if harm befalls him, he is patient, and that is good for him” (reported by Muslim, 2999). The believer’s trial is therefore not read like the trial of others, because his relationship with hardship is one of servitude, patience, and seeking reward, not merely one of pain and brokenness.

Not Every Trial Is an Honor, but Trial Is Not Proof of Lowliness

Here the article adds an important qualification to prevent misunderstanding. Not every trial that befalls a servant is a sign of elevation and divine choosing, just as not every abundance granted to him or to others is a sign of gradual seduction and humiliation. Trial may raise one’s degrees, expiate one’s sins, or purify, distinguishing the truthful from the pretender. It may be a warning and a mercy by which Allah brings the servant back to His door. And when it is accompanied by turning away and persistence in sin, it may be a punishment for sin. A trial is therefore not judged by its outward form alone, but by the surrounding indications and by what it produces in the servant, whether return or distance, reform or corruption. The specific principle the article intends, however, is that the mere occurrence of trial to a truthful believer who upholds the truth may not be taken as proof that he is lowly before Allah.

True lowliness does not lie in poverty, illness, or outward oppression. It lies in the servant becoming lowly before Allah through his disobedience, his turning away, and the corruption of his inner self, until he is deprived of the sweetness of guidance, left to himself, or has his heart sealed. That is the lowliness a servant should truly fear.

Being Oppressed Is One Thing, Being Weak Is Another

One of the most precise points to establish is that being oppressed (istid’af) is not the same as weakness (du’f). Oppression may be imposed on the believer from outside: he may be besieged, harmed, driven from his home, overpowered by the forces of falsehood, or denied the means of empowerment. This happened to the prophets, to the Companions, and to righteous people in every age. Weakness, by contrast, is when the soul is defeated from within: when it surrenders to the awe of falsehood, loses its trust in Allah, looks at itself and its religion with contempt, and lets its identity dissolve under the pressure of reality or the dominance of the prevailing power.

So the believer may be oppressed while being honored through Allah, firm upon the truth, steady in principle, strong in argument, and present in heart, while another may have wide authority and visible power yet be defeated within, empty of certainty, and cut off from the truth. This is why the honor that comes from faith is among the things the Muslim needs most today. It protects the heart from psychological defeat and prevents it from reading reality by the scale of material power alone. This honor is not noise or empty claims. It is the heart’s being filled with the glorification of Allah, trust in His promise, and certainty that the believer’s true worth comes from his faith, not from how people classify him or where he stands on the ladder of worldly power.

The Life of the Prophet ﷺ: The Most Complete Answer to This Illusion

Whoever wishes to see the falsehood of linking trial with lowliness need only reflect on the life of the Prophet ﷺ. He was called a liar and mocked, and accused of being a soothsayer, a madman, and a poet. The entrails of a slaughtered camel were placed on his noble back while he was prostrating. He was harmed in his body, in himself, and in his Companions. He lived a life of hardship, tied a stone or two to his stomach from hunger, slept on a mat until it left marks on his side, and died without the family of Muhammad ﷺ ever having eaten their fill of wheat bread for three consecutive days.

Was any of this proof that he was lowly before his Lord? Far be it from him ﷺ. It was rather part of the perfection of his being chosen, the manifestation of his complete servitude, the establishment of proof against creation, and a lesson to the Ummah that honor is not found in the adornments of life or in a path free of harm, but in steadfastness upon the truth, a sound relationship with Allah, and patience in bearing the burdens of da’wah. His life is thus a great foundation in this matter: whoever reflects on it knows that trial can coexist with the highest of ranks, and that outward hardship does not contradict elevated standing with Allah.

The Lives of the Prophets: The Divine Measure Is Not the Human Measure

This meaning is reinforced by the lives of the prophets, peace be upon them. Ibrahim, the Friend of Allah, faced a people who combined mockery, denial, and violence against him, and who finally tried to burn him. The trial was severe, but the outcome was a sign of divine honor when Allah made the fire coolness and safety for him. The point of honor in his story is not only that he was saved, but that he held firm to tawhid when all of creation conspired against him.

Shu’ayb’s people said to him: “And indeed, we consider you among us as weak” (Hud 11:91). This is explicit testimony that people may misread the people of truth, seeing them as weak by the standards of tribalism, clan, and social power, while they are otherwise in the sight of Allah.

Yusuf faced a succession of trials: the plotting of his brothers, the darkness of the well, the humiliation of slavery, and unjust imprisonment. Yet his true standing with Allah did not change and his rank did not fall. He came out of these trials firmer in certainty and clearer in tawhid, and the outcome was empowerment after long testing. Were the hardships he faced a mark of lowliness, or a path to the fullness of honor and divine choosing?

Musa faced Pharaoh’s tyranny, mockery, and contempt, until Pharaoh said: “Or am I [not] better than this one who is insignificant and hardly makes himself clear?” (al-Zukhruf 43:52). This is the logic of tyrants in every age: they measure honor by gold, prestige, and visible power, and assume that whoever has few outward means has become lowly. The Qur’an came to nullify this measure at its root.

Lut faced a society in which values had been inverted, so that the corrupt found the pure burdensome and the upright became strangers amid general deviation. Even so, Lut did not change course, did not call the indecency by any other name, and did not keep silent about evil on the pretext of a weak situation or the power of society.

All these examples testify that the truth may be outwardly oppressed without losing its honor before Allah, and that the strangeness of its people does not indicate that it is false, nor that they are lowly before their Lord.

The Companions: Inheritors of Steadfastness

The lives of the Companions, may Allah be pleased with them, confirm this meaning in a remarkable practical way. They tasted poverty, emigration, torture, exclusion, the loss of loved ones, and separation from their homelands, and none of this weakened their faith. It only increased their adherence to Allah’s religion, their sincerity in seeking, and their steadfastness on the path. Among the clearest examples is Mus’ab ibn ‘Umayr. He had been one of the most comfortably raised young men of Makkah, then left all that comfort for Allah, moving from the luxury of this world to the roughness of the path, until he was martyred at Uhud and not enough shroud could be found to cover his whole body. Is Mus’ab to be read through the worldly goods he lost, or through the religion he held firm to and the rank, precedence, and truthfulness he attained? This example alone is enough to show the Muslim that the measure of worth is not what a person owns but what he holds firm upon, and that whoever lets the adornment of this world become insignificant to him for Allah’s sake will never be insignificant to Allah.

Worldly Abundance May Be Respite or Gradual Seduction

On the other side, one must not be deceived by the worldly glitter and means of power held by the people of falsehood. Abundance is not always a sign of approval, just as hardship is not always a sign of displeasure. Allah says: “And let not those who disbelieve ever think that [because] We extend their time [of enjoyment] it is better for them. We only extend it for them so that they may increase in sin, and for them is a humiliating punishment” (Al ‘Imran 3:178). And He says: “So when they forgot that by which they had been reminded, We opened to them the doors of every [good] thing until, when they rejoiced in that which they were given, We seized them suddenly, and they were [then] in despair” (al-An’am 6:44). How many an expansion appears to be a blessing but is in reality a respite, and how much worldly empowerment is in truth gradual seduction. It is a mistake to read all this superficially and make material dominance alone the measure of approval and merit.

This is strongly confirmed by what the Qur’an establishes in Surat al-Fajr, where it overturns man’s deficient measure of honor and humiliation: “And as for man, when his Lord tries him and [thus] is generous to him and favors him, he says, ‘My Lord has honored me.’ But when He tries him and restricts his provision, he says, ‘My Lord has humiliated me.’ No!” (al-Fajr 89:15–17). These verses are among the most explicit refutations of the illusion that ties abundance to honor and restriction to humiliation, for Allah answered both measures with “No!”, meaning the matter is not as man supposes. Not everyone given abundance is honored, and not everyone whose provision is restricted is humiliated; what counts is the servant’s state with his Lord and whether the trial produces uprightness or deviation. This world does not weigh so much with Allah that its abundance could be proof of honor; had Allah willed, He would have spread it out for the disbelievers even more, as the Qur’an indicates. But divine wisdom decreed that this world be a place of testing, not the place of final judgment on people’s ranks with Allah.

Between the Scale of People and the Scale of Revelation

People often understand events by a hasty material scale, while revelation weighs them by a deeper and more perceptive one. The scale of people places honor in wealth, authority, and fame; the scale of revelation places it in faith, God-consciousness, truthfulness, and steadfastness. The scale of people reads trial as collapse or failure; revelation reads it as purification, elevation, or a warning. The scale of people places strength in visible dominance and material control; revelation places it in the strength of the argument, firmness of heart, and reliance on Allah. The scale of people regards abundance as success and approval in every case; revelation establishes that it may be a blessing or a gradual seduction. The scale of people links lowliness to poverty or outward subjugation; revelation links it to disobedience, turning away, and corruption of the heart. This difference between the two scales explains much of the turmoil that afflicts souls in this age, because many people have absorbed the scale of this world until they read the texts of revelation by it, instead of reading the world by revelation.

Faith-Based Honor Does Not Mean Abandoning the Means

The article stresses that affirming these meanings is not a call to passivity, acceptance of helplessness, blaming every shortcoming on divine decree, or contenting oneself with emotional sermons without action. The same Islam that taught the believer that all honor belongs to Allah also said: “And prepare against them whatever you are able of power and of steeds of war by which you may terrify the enemy of Allah and your enemy and others besides them whom you do not know [but] whom Allah knows. And whatever you spend in the cause of Allah will be fully repaid to you, and you will not be wronged” (al-Anfal 8:60). There is no contradiction between understanding divine decree and understanding one’s capacity to act, between certainty in Allah’s promise and taking the means, or between patience in trial and working to change one’s situation. True faith drives its holder to build, prepare, reform, learn, nurture, and exert every effort, without an unhealthy attachment to quick results and without collapsing if some of the fruit is delayed.

At the same time, the believer does not seek trial, does not wish for hardship, and does not expose himself to it without a legitimate reason. He asks Allah for well-being and steadfastness and takes the means of safety as far as he can. In the authentic hadith, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “O people, do not wish to meet the enemy, and ask Allah for well-being. But when you meet them, be patient, and know that Paradise is beneath the shade of the swords.” Then he said: “O Allah, Revealer of the Book, Mover of the clouds, Defeater of the confederates, defeat them and grant us victory over them” (reported by al-Bukhari, 2965, Muslim, 1742, Abu Dawud, 2631, and al-Hakim, 2413, with slight variation). This hadith contains the complete legal balance: no seeking of trial, and no fleeing from what steadfastness requires once trial comes. The Muslim’s certainty of his honor before Allah should not turn him away from action but should fuel it, because he works knowing that his worth comes not from people’s applause or quick results, but from his truthfulness with Allah, his exerting what he is able, and his steadfastness on the truth.

How Does the Muslim Protect His Heart from Defeat?

Once this meaning is settled in theory, the practical side remains, and it is the most important. Among the greatest aids for protecting the heart from psychological defeat:

First, rebuilding one’s scale from revelation, so that honor and lowliness, strength and weakness are not read by the scale of material civilization alone.

Second, honoring the rites of Allah, for whoever magnifies Allah’s command in his heart grows in worth in his own eyes, and people’s passing measures become small to him.

Third, abundant supplication and asking for well-being and steadfastness, for steadfastness is a provision, honor is a provision, and the servant cannot do without his Lord for the blink of an eye.

Fourth, the company of the truthful, because the heart weakens when alone and grows strong when surrounded by those who remind it of Allah and keep it firm on the truth.

Fifth, drawing the answers to present realities from revelation; it is not enough for the Muslim to memorize the texts, he must learn how to answer the questions and doubts of his age with them.

Sixth, reducing defeatist exposure to the images of falsehood, because magnifying the presence of those who triumph unjustly in one’s soul breeds a reverence for them beyond their true size.

Seventh, combining faith with action, for any inner building that does not turn into knowledge, preparation, action, and reform remains liable to erode under great trials.

Conclusion

In sum, the Muslim may be oppressed, but he is not lowly in the sight of Allah as long as he remains a believer upholding the truth, firm upon it, truthful in his faith, and returning to his Lord. This does not mean that every trial is an honor or every hardship a sign of being chosen; it means that trial in itself is not proof of lowliness, just as abundance in itself is not proof of approval. The Qur’an and the Sunnah, the lives of the prophets and Companions, and Allah’s ongoing patterns among His servants all show that true honor is not weighed by the adornment of this world, the dominance of the powerful, or the standards of the prevailing media, but by the faith with which Allah makes His servant firm, the patience He grants him, and the truthfulness, repentance, and good outcome He preserves for him.

Let the Muslim beware of being defeated within when he is oppressed without, of being seduced by the glitter of falsehood, or of reading reality with the eye of the senses alone. Let him begin by correcting his scale, glorifying his Lord, and steadying his heart, and then move on to doing what he can in nurturing, reform, and preparation. True honor lies not in an abundant life or high standing among people, but in holding to uprightness, steadfastness upon Allah’s command, and a good outcome with Him. Whoever is more obedient to Allah is more honored by Allah, even if this world becomes narrow for him; and whoever is further from Allah’s command is closer to lowliness, even if its means are adorned for him.

Nations do not fall first when they are outwardly subdued. They fall when they become inwardly convinced that lowliness is their destiny and that the scales of falsehood are the final scales. When hearts are saved from this illusion and minds are freed from this veil, the path of revival can begin anew.