An Assessment of the Educational and Moral Effects of “Good Test” from a Quranic Perspective

The Glorious Quran clearly indicates that God inevitably tests men in their lives through blessings or sufferings. There are countless discussions on the divine test by sufferings and hardships, but it has been overlooked that God can test one by blessings and bounties. The latter is referred to by the Glorious Quran as “good test”. It is such a difficult, effective, and misleading test that one may lose divine blessings and have lots of problems and troubles. This study has a descriptive-analytic approach with supporting documentation. Its findings show that the divine test by blessings can bring about different educational and moral effects such as mental or psychological, and individual or social ones. This type of test may have the following positive outcomes: gratefulness, great hope for life, contentment, an increase in blessings, vivacity in serving God, and lastly more attempts to get closer to Him, just as it may have the following negative outcomes: ungratefulness, disappointment, a decrease in blessings, inattention to material and spiritual bounties, and lastly human arrogant and haughty reactions to divine blessings which may distance one from servitude and gradually get him closer to destruction even though he does not experience genuine pleasure. In this article, I seek to explore the different effects of this type of test and the Quran’s approaches to deal with it.