Then the Exalted One said: “Indeed, in the Messenger of Allah you have an excellent example for anyone who hopes in Allah and the Last Day and remembers Allah much” (Al-Ahzab 33:21).

He—glorified be He—thus informs us that those who are tested by the enemy, just as the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was (1), have in him a noble model. Because trials have touched them as they touched him, they should imitate him in reliance upon Allah and in patience. They must not suppose that such afflictions are a curse upon their bearer (2) or a humiliation; had that been so, the best of creation would never have been tried by them. Rather, through these ordeals lofty ranks are attained, and by them Allah wipes away sins for those who hope in Allah and the Last Day and remember Him often. As for anyone lacking these qualities, the same ordeal becomes sheer punishment in his case—such is the lot of the unbelievers and the hypocrites.

Then He said: “And when the believers saw the confederate forces they said, ‘This is what Allah and His Messenger promised us; Allah and His Messenger spoke the truth,’ and it only increased them in faith and in submission” (Al-Ahzab 33:22).

The scholars have remarked that Allah had already revealed in [Q 64] Surah al-Baqarah: “Or do you think you will enter Paradise while there has not yet come to you the like of what befell those who passed away before you? They were touched by al-baʾsāʾ (hardship) and al-ḍarrāʾ (adversity) and were shaken until the Messenger and those who believed with him said, ‘When will the help of Allah come?’ Truly, the help of Allah is near” (Al-Baqarah 2:214).

Thus Allah, mighty and exalted—rebuking anyone who presumed otherwise—made it clear that they will not enter Paradise until they have been tried as the nations before them were tried: by al-baʾsāʾ, meaning poverty and want; by al-ḍarrāʾ, meaning pain and illness; and by al-zilzāl, meaning the tremor caused by an attacking enemy.