Question #332:
Are the trials because of the sins only? Or can they be because of other reasons? And how do we understand that some children are afflicted by diseases like cancer without any sins from them? What is the explanation of the verse:
“And whatever of misfortune befalls you, it is because of what your hands have earned. And He pardons much.” ash-Shūrā : 30
Answer :
The calamities that comes down, comes down because of sins and this is in most of the cases. And it also can come as a trial from Allāh to raise the level and status of the person [1], and this type is less compared to the first one, i.e. trials coming down because of sins. Most of the trials come down because of sins as has been mentioned in the verse:
“And whatever of misfortune befalls you, it is because of what your hands have earned. And He pardons much.” ash-Shūrā : 30
Answered by: Shaykh ʿAbdul Ghanī al-ʿUmarī
Translated by: ʿAbdun-Nūr al-Hindī
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Footnote:
[1] Ḥadīth regarding the trials for raising the status of a person
In the narration of the grandfather of Muḥammad bin Khālid: I heard the Prophet ﷺ saying: Verily for a person if Allāh has decreed a level and if he does not reach that level with his actions then Allāh will try him in his body and in his wealth and in his children and he will be patient upon those trials until he reaches the level that Allāh had decreed for him – Graded Ṣaḥīḥ by ʿAllāmah Al-Albānī in Ṣaḥīḥ at-Targhīb wat-Tarhīb – 3409