and hardship means constraint. Thus Allah has imposed no obligation or prohibition that places people under such constraint. Its opposite is ease. Hardship resembles a shackle: something from which one cannot escape despite needing to do so.

As for testing, an example is His saying:

“Indeed, Allah will test you with a river,”

and the rest of the verse.

Such testing may occur through the revelation of divine instruction. This happens only in the time of the prophets and has now ceased. It may also occur when divine instruction becomes known to someone who had not previously heard it, but then hears it. Or it may occur through a belief that divine instruction has been revealed, or through a belief about its meaning, even if that belief is mistaken, because the outward ruling depends on the belief of the person subject to the law.

An obligation imposed by divine law may therefore apply both inwardly and outwardly, as with a command one knows with certainty to have been revealed by Allah. Alternatively, it may apply outwardly, as in the case of someone who believes that Allah’s ruling is obligation or prohibition—whether through independent legal reasoning, following another’s authority, or compound ignorance—because an indication has been presented that outwardly points to that ruling, without the countervailing evidence. This constitutes an outward obligation, for a jurist whose independent reasoning is mistaken is nevertheless correct, outwardly, in carrying out what he was commanded to do, and is obedient in that respect.

This concerns testing through divine legislation. Testing may also occur through His ordering of events, when He, glorified be He, creates circumstances that call for the application of a prohibition or obligation established by divine instruction, as in His saying:

“Ask them about the town that was by the sea, when they transgressed on the Sabbath: their fish would come to them openly on their Sabbath day, but would not come to them on the days when they did not observe the Sabbath. Thus We tested them because of their disobedience.”

He thus states that He