Apocalyptic writers explained Christian suffering under Islam as divine fatherly discipline

Evidence

It is so that they might be tested, and the faithful might be separated from the unfaithful, and the tares and those who are rejected from the choice wheat, because that time will be a furnace of trial. And God will be patient while His worshipers are persecuted, so that by means of the chastisement the sons might be made known, as the Apostle proclaimed beforehand, “if we are without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then ye are bastards, and not sons.” — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 326

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader framework of apocalyptic trial and martyrdom, similar to later apocalyptic texts and modern religious interpretations of suffering as divine testing.