The Promised Messiah(as) writes:
It is inevitable that you should be tried with diverse types of pain and misfortune as the faithful before you were tried. Be mindful, lest you should stumble. So long as you have a firm relationship with heaven, the earth can do you no harm. Whenever harm befalls you, it will be through yourself and not through your enemy. Even if you lose all honour on earth, Allah will bestow eternal honour upon you from heaven. So do not let go of Him. It is inevitable that you be persecuted and suffer many disappointments, but do not lose heart, for it is Allah Who tests you whether you are steadfast in His cause or not. If you desire that angels should praise you in heaven, then endure beating and be joyful, hear abuse and be grateful, experience failure and do not cut your relationship with Allah. You are the last Jama‘at of Allah, so practice virtue at its highest level. Anyone from among you who becomes slothful will be cast out of the Jama‘at like a foul thing and will die in sorrow and will be able to do no harm to Allah. I give you the good news that your God truly exists. All are His creatures, but He chooses the one who chooses Him. He comes to the one who goes to Him. He bestows honour upon him who honours Him. (Kashti-e-Nuh, Ruhani Khaza’in, vol. 19, p. 15)
Then the Promised Messiah(as) says:
What we need to do is to please Allah. That requires sincerity, truthfulness, and fidelity, not that the efforts of our Jama‘at be limited to mere verbiage. When Allah is pleased with us, He puts blessings in our affairs and opens the doors of His grace and blessings.… This narrow gate — the gate of truthfulness and fidelity — is not easy to cross. We can never be boastful that we start receiving dreams or revelations and thus we sit idly and refrain from utmost striving. Allah the Almighty does not like that…. (Al-Badr, vol., 3, No. 18–19, May 8–16, 1904, p. 10)
Then he says:
Every true believer passes through such circumstances. If he becomes His with sincerity and fidelity, Allah becomes his friend. But if the structure of faith is weak, there are dangers. We have no knowledge of the secrets of anybody’s heart… but anyone who totally belong to God receives His protection. Although He is the God of everyone, He manifests especially to those who hand themselves over to God. To hand oneself over to God means that the self be totally demolished and nothing should remain of it. That is why I tell my Jama‘at again and again that they should take no pride in taking the pledge. If the heart is not purified, there is no merit in placing their hands in my hand.… But anyone who makes a true pledge attains forgiveness of even major sins and receives a new life. (Malfuzat, new edition, vol. 3, p. 65)