Being blessed with honor is also a test

 

lf one is endowed with power, honor, status, rank, or wealth, he must realize that he is being tested. When Prophet Sulaymaan (Solomon) saw the throne of Bilqees (Queen of Sheba) brought before him, he said:

 

(‘This is by the Grace of my Lord --- to test me whether I am grateful or ungrateful!)                                                                               (Qur’an 27: 40)

 

Thus Allah gives a blessing to see who accepts it properly --- by being thankful for it, by preserving it, and by taking advantage of it in a good way; and to see who denies it --- by not being thankful, by wasting away the favor, or even by using it to wage war against the One Who gave it to him in the first place!

 

We must understand, therefore, that blessings are trials from Allah. It is through trials that the gratitude of the grateful person becomes revealed while the ingrate becomes exposed. And we must remember that Allah tests us in good times as well as in bad times.

 

(As for man, when his Lord tries him by giving him honor and gifts, then he says (puffed up): 'My Lord has honored me!. But when He tries him, by straitening his means of life, he says: 'My Lord has humiliated me! Nay!....)                                                                               (Qur’an 89: 15-17)