PART 35 – ONLY YOU WE RELY UPON
Allah wants us to surrender with complete pleasure, and believe that embedded our lives is goodness which we cannot comprehend. This will also lead us to the unconditional acceptance to whatever is occurring. If we practise this and control our rebellion, this will lead us to acquire qualities such as contentment, reliance on Allah, trust in Allah, poverty to Allah, iman and yaqeen. The journey of iman will lead us to love Allah, and we would endeavour to secure and strengthen that love. We would be fearful of losing the relationship, and will constantly nurture it with what Allah loves.
We will never completely understand why life unfolds the way it does, but if we are convinced that it originates from Allah, then there is nothing to fear or grieve about. Whether He denies or gives, we will not lose our equilibrium. The one who truly loves Allah perceives pain and goodness as equal, because it comes from the same source. Allah gives us goodness so that we have gratitude. If He gives us pain, it is to prompt us to call out to Him.
One of the signs of a high level of belief is to maintain an even emotion in all situations, and we will prefer what Allah chooses for us. If a situation affects our dunia and akhirah, we leave what is in dunia to choose akhirah.
Guidance from Allah cannot be realised unless we are on a journey towards Allah. The journey will always clash with our instincts and desires, and the beginning is always an uphill battle. The further into the journey, the easier it will be to choose Allah over our own desires.
Look at how Allah protected Musa (AS) all his life and was given the ability of talking to Allah directly. Ponder over the love to Rasulullah (SAW), who was taken on the journey of Isra’ and Mi’raj, which allowed him to be in the company of Allah.
Honour comes to those who sacrifice absolutely for Allah, where we choose Allah’s desire above our desire at all times. If Allah accepts us, He will decorate us with contentment and patience. This will lead us to contemplative silence and zikrullah. We will abandon what is unimportant and not be affected by those irrelevant to our journey.
Those who have a genuine love for Allah will not be swayed by others, because they are focused on chasing the One that they love. If they do so, they will withdraw from everything else in life, and they will be on the journey of complete contentment.
Allah wants us to love Him and demonstrate gratitude to Him. It means to place His choice above our wishes. If we are mindful that all that occurs originates from Allah, it will please us to obey Him. This journey lends us comfort and tranquillity, regardless of the situation. We will not lament over the past, because the past had to happen for a reason chosen by Allah. There is no point recalling or regretting, because regret opens the doorway of Shaitan. Allah wants us to surrender to and trust His future. If we cannot accept that, it means we don’t like the One who ordained it.
It is easy to understand this in theory, but when a situation arises, Shaitan makes us forget that we cannot protect ourselves from our qadr. How many of us, at the time of distress, panic, lose hope, develop psychological issues and even lose faith in Allah? How many people spend their lives saying “what if” or “if only“, forever looking backwards instead of forward? How many of us collapse and even lose the will to live once things do not go the way we want? If we realise who the Owner of everything is, we will surrender to the destiny chosen for us, and we will love our destiny more than the situation.
Allah repeatedly reminds those with money to spend in His cause, and to make us the trustees of the money. Allah does not give us wealth for us to hold on to forever, rather, it was given as a trust to test how we will spend our fortunes. If we believe in Allah in every aspect, Allah will be the ultimate wakeel or protector for us. He will replace our calamity with goodness in this life and in the Hereafter.
Allah gives us abundantly, but if He takes away a portion of it from us, we can’t handle it. We complain, stress out and behave like brats. How can we claim to love someone when deep down, we are not convinced of His quality or that what He gives us is the best? The one who has belief sees Allah in every aspect and will deal with everything willingly.
Allah in His justice, compensates us with something better each and every time He removes something from us – be it through death, loss of eyesight, or even a small fever. There are plenty of Hadith which talk about loss and the spiritual cleansing and rewards in store for a patient believer.
‘What Allah willed [has occurred]; there is no power except in Allah’ (Al Kahf, verse 39).
If we do not pass the initial trial that Allah sends us, the subsequent one will be more difficult. We cannot evade the qadr of Allah. If Allah loves us, He will cleanse us. If we deal with everything the way Allah wants from us, the support is only with Allah, and only then He will give us what we want.
If we do not do so, then Allah will brand us as liars, because our tongues claim “iyya ka na’budu wa iyyaka nasta’in” (only You we worship and only You we rely on for help) whereas in our hearts, we believe in and rely on someone else. Often, we think that we are more capable of solving our own issues and refuse to turn to Allah for a resolution. The support of Allah will not be given to the liars.
Please reflect and ask yourself where you are and where you are going in relation to what you just read. Are you making enough effort for Allah? Reflect and ponder.
