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He subjects them to trials, so whoever is content, then for him is pleasure, and whoever is discontent, then for him is wrath.” (Sunan at-Tirmidhi) From this Hadith we learn that trials are a means for our spiritual development. We face different types of shocks. Tests and trials of life shake up our minds and our hidden potentials are awakened. While undergoing these unpleasant experiences if you wallow in negative emotions, and allow yourself to fall prey to anger, start living in frustration and complaint, you will fail in the test. You do not gain anything positive from the tests. But in contrast, if you are intellectually awakened, you will be able to maintain your balance when faced with a test. Despite unfavourable experiences, you will preserve your positive thinking. You will be able to extract goodness from the trials you go through. Trials always appear to come to us in the form of problems. People who panic when faced with a problem will not get anything from trying situations, other than complaint and despair. But those who regard trials as part of God’s Plan, face them with a positive mind-set. It is these people for whom trials of life work as a means for increasing their reward. With God, there is no lack of reward. But one gets a great reward from God, only when one develops a great deservingness for it. And there is just one means for making oneself deserving of great reward—one must, in every condition, remain steadfastly positive in one’s thinking. Your positive thinking must remain firmly in place, and no event should cause you to waver. Who is a complete person? He is someone in whom the human attributes are found in the fullest possible manner. God has given every human being attributes in potential form. A complete person embodies these attributes to the maximum possible extent. Such a person has a balanced character. He is free from psychological complexes. He lets his conscience prevail over his ego in every situation, until he becomes an emblem of a soul at peace. (89: 27) A complete person is one who, passing over the material things of the world, begins to live in the higher realities of life. He rises above things of superficial importance and engages himself in matters of deeper significance. He reaches the stage of perception described in a Hadith as the ability to “see things as they are”. Such a person thus begins to see