There was a great Wali (saint) and lover of the Prophet, Ibn Omar Es-Safadi, was saying: If a
person leaves everything and abstains from action, saying that he need not act
because he trusts in his Lord and that his Lord is sufficient for him and will
provide what His servant is in need of, then that person has become an
unrighteous and sinful person.
There is a certain distance which
servants must advance, and only when that distance has been covered and its limit
crossed, that servant may say, From here on I leave everything to my Lord and
from this point on I entrust all my affairs to my Lord! For example, a farmer plows his field and
plants corn, then he leaves it and has the right to just wait until the harvest
yields, but if a person is not plowing and not planting, but just saying, I am
trusting in my Lord to give me corn at harvest time, he is indeed far astray in
his thinking and actions. You must be
aware of your duty and carry it out. You
can’t bring rain, you can’t force the corn to grow and bring forth cobs, but
you can plan and plow then you can trust in your Lord to finish what you have
begun. This is what true trust in Allah
(Tawakkul) is like.
This is a very important point,
and one often misunderstood, especially in European countries, where people
raise objections to Islam, claiming that Islam tells people that they need not
work, and should depend only on their Lord’s favours. In the present time even in the Muslim world,
the younger generation is saying that Islam is the cause for the backwardness
of their countries , but this is the result of wrong understanding. In fact, what Islam tells us is that we may
begin a work with our own action, but it is Allah who completes, and that the
success of any endeavor is ultimately in His Hands.
This is a world of causes. We are in need of causes and must hold on to
them in this life, because miraculous doings may occur sometimes for Prophets
and Saints, but not for everyone. For
that reason we have been ordered by our Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W), to hold to
causes so that we may witness effects and obtain results. Allah Almighty says that no one reaches
anything in this world without acting , he must act and see the results. So, to act is a command from Allah Almighty
and therefore we must not just sit down without movement and without
action. Trusting in Allah, or leaving
your affairs to Allah, is correct only after we have finished our duty.
Sometimes in Tariqats, Sheikhs may try a murid(disciple)
by ordering him to abandon every cause, to not seek his own means of
existence. But such cases are only rare
exceptions and not the general rule , the general rule is to seek means, as
Allah commands.
I am not mentioning it here in
the context of worldly works, or actions for this life, but rather I am referring to effort required of us for
reaching heavenly stations and Divine Knowledge Oceans. We must strive and do good actions as much as we
can, and when we finish, after doing our utmost, Allah Almighty will lift us
up. If we are asking for heavenly
stations and miraculous powers, we must first struggle and not just say, Allah
may give us, or, My action is not sufficient for me to reach such heavenly
stations.
A good analogy to illustrate this
point is this one: Someone was given a
broken pick and spade and was told: Take these instruments and dig up all seven
layers of the Earth until you reach the end where you will find your treasure. Do you think that it is possible to reach it
with a broken pick and spade - Of course
not, but despite this you must dig as best as you can and not give up, saying, How
can I perform this feat? Your duty is to
dig little by little, and your Lord is looking after you so that when He sees
that you are firmly believing and working as ordered, He will send His Help
just as you have reached the point of exhaustion and can’t do more. At that time He will send a huge machine that
will dig up your treasures for you instantly and effortlessly. Because you are a powerless servant carrying
out His order, He will bring your treasure up for you with His power, not
yours. He is only testing you: are you
listening, believing, and obeying. If
you begin, He will finish, but if you say, It is impossible for even the
largest machines . so how shall I ever do it?, you will be banned from the
Divine Presence. If you begin your
digging in spite of the obvious impossibility of the task, then Allah’s Holy
Verse in the Quran will apply to you:
Allah does not burden anyone
beyond his capabilities.
We are not
claiming that we will attain all heavenly stations as a result of our
practices; we are only doing what our power enables us to do and, in reality,
to reach the goal by means of our practices is like trying to reach the moon
with a ladder; even if all the world’s ladders were tied together you couldn’t
reach it . its impossible; but we must try anyway, for perhaps one night from
the moon there will descend a ladder to meet our ladder, and at that time it
may be possible to go up, but for us to build up to the moon never.
We must do our duty. Allah says
that doing our duty is the cause of our reaching to Heavens, but you must know
that it is not enough. We know that
ladders go up, but not to the moon. This
is the precise meaning of Tariqat,
and we are not cheating people: if one is working with sincerity, our Lord may
send a ladder at any time from the moon to take you up, but you must do your
work, and trust in your Lord.
Many people are reading in books
about miraculous happenings, and sometimes our ego asks for us to be one of
these miracle-makers. Tariqat is the way to be able to perform
miracles, but we are not working in order to be able to do such things, but
only for our Lord’s pleasure. When He is
pleased with us, He will also make us pleased with Him, and at that time you won’t
be able to even look at or consider miraculous doings; it is only your ego
asking to perform such feats.
No comments:
Post a Comment