Then, the Qur’an points the instability of their faith,...

Then, the Qur’an points the instability of their faith, where it implies that if the world turns to them and something good befalls them, they feel secure and satisfaction, and they take it as a proof for the legitimacy of Islam. But if they are tried by miseries, pests, and lack of some blessings, they alter inwardly and turn toward infidelity.

The verse says: “…so that if good befalls him he is satisfied there with, and if a trial afflicts him he turns back his face;…” As if they had accepted the religion and Faith as a means to reach to the material things, so that if this objection is gained, they consider the religion as rightful, otherwise they call it foundless.[^1] Upon the occasion of the revelation of this verse, Ibn-’Abbas and a group of the ancient commentators have said that: sometimes a group of Bedouins used to come to the Prophet (S) and then if they became bodily well, their horse brought a good colt, their wives delivered sons, and their properties and cattle increased, they would become happy and would believe in Islam and Messenger of Allah (S).

But if they became sick, their wives delivered daughters, and their wealth decreased, some satanic temptations would seize their heart and told them that all those miseries were for the sake of the religion they accepted, and, therefore they often turned away.[^2] It is noteworthy that, for turning the world with prosperity to them, the Qur’an has rendered it as ‘good’, and for turning back of the world, it has rendered it as ‘a trial’, not as ‘an evil’.

It indicates that these unwholesome events are not vice and evil, but they are some means for trial. At the end of the verse, the Qur’an adds implying that, thus, they have lost both the world and the Hereafter. The holy verse says: “…he losses this world and (also) the Hereafter;…” And this is the most manifest loss when a person loses both his religion and his world.

The verse continues: “…that is indeed the manifest loss.” Such people, in fact, behold the religion only through the window of their own material benefits, and for them, as they imagine, criterion of its rightfulness is the good lack of the world. These people, whose number is not so small in our time and who are found in every society, have a faith polluted with polytheism and idolatry, but their idol is their wife, offspring, possession, wealth, and cattle.

It is evident that such a faith and belief is certainly weaker than the spider’s web.