المعنى الاصطلاحي :

Situations wherein a person is tested so that the reality of his goodness or evil becomes clear, showing whether he merely follows his personal desires or avoids them.

الشرح المختصر :

“Fitan” (trials/tests) are those occurrences that prevent the heart from knowing the truth and seeking to attain it. The origin of “fitnah” is testing and making apparent what is hidden, but it has been used conventionally to mean everything that becomes apparent by way of tests and trials. Texts from the Qur’an and the Sunnah indicate that the frequent emergence and spread of “fitan” are from the signs of the Hour. They will be so severe that a Muslim may become a disbeliever in the evening after having been a believer in the morning. They come one after another in rapid succession; the thing that makes the believer say: “This is the one that will destroy me.” When it passes, another “fitnah” occurs, and the believer will say: “This one, this one.” Thus it will continue as Allah, the Almighty, wills. There will not come a period of time except that the one after it is worse than the one before it. The trials become worse and the calamities more severe. Texts of the Qur’an and the Sunnah indicate this reality, and historical events and incidents prove its validity.

التعريف اللغوي المختصر :

“Fitan” (sing. fitnah): trials, tests, tribulations. Derived from “fatn”, which means burning.