Bismillah
Imam Ja’far al-Sadiq (a) was asked regarding the utterance of God Almighty, ‘And whoever puts his trust in God, then God suffices him’ (65:3). The Imam (a) said:
“There are various degrees of trust in God. Of them one is that you should put your trust in God in all your affairs, being well‑pleased with whatever God does to you, knowing for certain that he does not cease in His goodness and grace towards you, and that the command therein rests with Him. So put your trust in God, leaving that to Him and relying upon Him in regard to that and everything other than that.” [Al-Kulayni, al‑Kafi, vol 2, p. 391, hadith # 3]
Tuning INWARDS
How should we tune our Niyyat from time to time before shaytan intrudes and we lose our credits on our spiritual balance sheet.
Reflections for the stubborn soul.
Points to ponder on:
Focusing on the problem itself is very dangerous.
How Prophet Musa a.s. at the Red Sea reacts at the whole situation when faced with challenges.
In the Quran, Allah compares the reactions of different people to the same external event.
Musa is trying to escape and Pharaoh and his army are behind them.
The people of Musa said, We will indeed be overtaken.
It’s a very natural reaction that they had.
The reaction of Musa in that same situation is different, his heart is focused on something else, Indeed my Lord is with me and He will guide me through this. In times of difficulties , one’s heart needs to be aligned with Allah’s Qurb, nearness.
This isn’t just a mere story.
It’s an ayah, a sign, but most people don’t understand.
We may not be in front of the Red Sea, but we are put in situations and traps and don’t see a way out.
How was our blessed Prophet Musa able to respond in that way?
His focus wasn’t on the problem or the Red Sea or the army.
His focus was on Allah, his focus was “Allah is with me and if Allah is with me, He will guide me.”
Allah teaches us a timeless lesson here.
We will be put in situations that look impossible.
Musa didn’t know how he was getting out of the situation, yet he didn’t worry. He didn’t panic, he didn’t create a scene of anxiety, he relied upon Allah swt in the midst of the challenge, Firawn claimed to be God, yet Prophet Musa’s trust in His Rabb was so intrinsic.
It’s easy to say I have a plan, but when you don’t have any idea and you trust in Allah, that’s tawakkul.
Although Allah will save Musa, Allah still tells him to act, He tells him to take the staff and strike the sea.
We are still asked to take action.
You have to tie your camel and at the same time trust in Allah – the two are simultaneous.
We put our trust in ourselves and when we don’t see the results we wanted we lose hope, but if you put your trust in Allah regardless of what you are seeing, you know He has your back.
Prophet Musa strikes the Red Sea with his staff.
If I tell you to hit the sea it won’t split, it’s not his action that got the result.
We shouldn’t believe our salvation is because of our actions, we get saved by Allah swt.
Only Allah saves us and provides the opening.
When we make a sincere effort and change our circumstances, Allah helps change our circumstances. Again, we need to curb the ego, our lower self- the “i”, me, myself, we need to crush the “i” within.
Allah swt also says He doesn’t change the circumstances until we change what’s inside of ourselves.
If you are focused too much on the problem, you will have the same reaction of the people of Musa.
If all we do is talk and discuss and think about the problem, whatever we focus on grows.
This is why Allah says focus on the remembrance of Allah, as by focusing on the remembrance of Allah, the bigger the importance of Allah becomes in our lives.
When Allah is our focus you don’t fall into despair as you know Allah has your back!
Similarly, when we perform noble deeds, shaytan traps us in many different ways to make us feel that the deed is not worthy to work for, or we get caught up in our own little bubble of “self pride, self ego, subtle massages of the lower self, like because of me, people are being guided, this is the trap shaytan uses constantly and shaytan’ s path is indeed a slippery slope,. This is where we need to surrender ourselves completely to our Malik, creator, who nurtures us and knows our weaknesses within.
Through dhikr in practical ways of believing that Allah is the Guide, He is the provider of guidance, if we self-introspect and continue to polish our niyyat to be in the right place.
One of the most amazing chapters from the holy Qur’an in Suratul- A’la, one may take some life long lessons on how Allah swt alludes to His Guidance comes after creation. Please do have a deeper look into this beautiful chapter of the Holy Qur’an.
May Allah swt help us in seeking this beautiful journey of Tawakkul inshaAllah.
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