As millions of Muslims converged on Makkah al-Mukarramah, rest of the 1.6 billion Muslims around the world joined them in celebrating Eid al-Adha. The celebrations commemorate Prophet Ibrahim’s (may Allah’s peace be on him) successful completion of a test from Allah of the strength of his belief, namely sacrificing his son by his own hands. Ibrahim (A) is one of our greatest prophets and this test was one the greatest tests of faith he faced from Allah. We are quite honored to commemorate this every year as one of our two celebrations.
It is quite unlikely that any of us will that kind of test, as Allah declares in the Quran, no soul is burdened with more than it can carry. Nevertheless, Quran also tell us that our faith will surely be put to test in some fashion, for example by imposing fear, hunger, loss of life or possessions. Success at the test will be measured by Allah by how we remain steadfast and happy with whatever comes our way knowing that without His will nothing will be imposed on us.
It is quite possible that the fear we feel these days here in America because of Islamophobic rhetoric is our test. In standing against it firmly and fighting it off with wisdom and in the most productive lies our success, inshallah. This will most definitely involve effective communication of the truths and voting at the ballot box.