Fitna means to test (imtihān, trial). (When one purifies gold and silver from foreign substances to obtain them in pure form) by putting them into fire and melting them, you say, "I have tested the silver with fire." Allah says, "Your wealth and your children are only a fitna for you" (al-Taghābun 64:15). That is, We test you with those two. Do they distract you from Us and from the things We have set as your limits?
Prophet Musa (peace be upon him) says: "This is nothing but Your trial (imtihān). With it, You let whom You will go astray, and You guide whom You will to the right path" (al-Aʿrāf 7:155). The greatest trial (imtihān) with which Allah tests the human being is whether, having been created in His own form, he will recognize only Him with his fuʾād (innermost heart).
(This trial) is to show whether he will fulfill his servitude properly, and whether he will become arrogant due to the position of his form. For the human being has no form of his own apart from the ruling of the Names. He, by virtue of perfection (kamāl) and through the agency of the vicegerent (khalīfa) who subsists in the form of the Real (al-Ḥaqq), governs the world. (Futūḥāt, II, 185-186)