Fitnah meaning in Islam, trial, temptation and strife

Fitnah is anything that tests a person and shows what is in them. Its first meaning is the goldsmith's fire: fatantu adh-dhahab, I put the gold in the fire to separate the pure metal from the false. Life tests people the same way, with hardship and with ease, so that their true faith shows. The plural is fitan.

كُلُّ نَفْسٍۢ ذَآئِقَةُ ٱلْمَوْتِ ۗ وَنَبْلُوكُم بِٱلشَّرِّ وَٱلْخَيْرِ فِتْنَةًۭ ۖ وَإِلَيْنَا تُرْجَعُونَ ﴿٣٥﴾

Kullu nafsin zaaa'iqatul mawt; wa nablookum bishsharri walkhairi fitnatanw wa ilainaa turja'oon

Every soul will taste death. And We test you with evil and with good as trial; and to Us you will be returned.

Quran 21:35 · Sahih International · Read in Surah Al-Anbiya

The meanings of fitnah in the Quran

• A test or trial. "Do the people think that they will be left to say, 'We believe' and they will not be tried?" (29:2). Even blessings are tests: "your properties and your children are but a trial" (8:28).
• Persecution for faith. "Indeed, those who have tortured (fatanu) the believing men and believing women" (85:10). This is the meaning in "fitnah is worse than killing" (2:191): driving people from their faith by force is worse than fighting.
• Shirk and disbelief. Many commentators, among them Ibn Abbas, read "fight them until there is no fitnah" (2:193) as until there is no shirk forcing people from Islam.
• Temptation and self-deception. On the Last Day the believers tell the hypocrites: "you afflicted yourselves" (fatantum anfusakum, 57:14), meaning they led themselves astray.
• Punishment. "Taste your torment" (fitnatakum, 51:14).

Fitnah in the hadith

The Prophet ﷺ taught us to seek refuge from fitnah in every salah, at the end of the tashahhud:

اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنْ عَذَابِ جَهَنَّمَ، وَمِنْ عَذَابِ الْقَبْرِ، وَمِنْ فِتْنَةِ الْمَحْيَا وَالْمَمَاتِ، وَمِنْ شَرِّ فِتْنَةِ الْمَسِيحِ الدَّجَّالِ

"O Allah, I seek refuge in You from the punishment of Hell, from the punishment of the grave, from the trials of life and death, and from the evil of the trial of the False Messiah."

Sahih Muslim 588, from Abu Hurayrah

He warned: "Hasten to do good deeds before trials come like pieces of a dark night", when a man will wake a believer and be a disbeliever by evening (Sahih Muslim 118, from Abu Hurayrah). He also said: "Every ummah has a fitnah, and the fitnah of my ummah is wealth" (Jami at-Tirmidhi, from Kab ibn Iyad, graded hasan sahih). The hadith collections have whole chapters called Kitab al-Fitan, the Book of Trials, on the strife and signs before the Last Day.

How the word is used today

In everyday speech, "fitnah" usually means trouble that divides people: gossip, rumours, stirring up arguments in a family or masjid. "Don't spread fitnah" means don't stir up discord. People also call something a fitnah when it tempts them away from Allah, or speak of "the fitnah of the dunya". In Urdu and Bangla, a fitna or fitnabaz is a troublemaker. Be careful calling a person a fitnah: the Quran's word is about tests, and everyone is tested.

How to protect yourself from fitnah

• Say the dua above in every prayer, before the salam.
• Recite the first ten ayat of Surah Al-Kahf: the Prophet ﷺ said whoever memorises them is protected from the Dajjal (Sahih Muslim, from Abu ad-Darda).
• Hold to the Quran, the sunnah and the company of good people, and stay away from speech that divides.
• Remember that the test is the point: "to Us you will be returned" (21:35).

Phrases with fitnah

Related terms

• تَقْوَىTaqwa
• دِينDeen and dunya
• هِجْرَةHijrah
• بَرَكَةBarakah

1. Quran 21:35, 29:2, 8:28, 85:10, 2:191, 2:193, 57:14 and 51:14, translation by Sahih International.
2. Sahih Muslim 588 and 118.
3. Jami at-Tirmidhi, Kitab al-Zuhd, from Kab ibn Iyad, graded hasan sahih.
4. Sahih Muslim, from Abu ad-Darda (the first ten ayat of Al-Kahf).
5. Ibn Manzur, Lisan al-Arab, entry f-t-n; Tafsir al-Tabari on 2:193.