depends on Him

Ibn Abbas (radiallahu anhu) said, ‘Sufficient unto us is Allah and He is the best to depend upon.’ This was said by Ibraheem AS when he faced the fire, and Muhammad SAW said it when they said to him; “The people have gathered against you, so fear them.” Their faith only increased and they said, “Allah is sufficient for us and the best to depend upon.”

Allah’s saying; “Depend upon Allah, if you are indeed believers.” (Surah Al-Maidah 5:23)

This is the concept of tawakkal. The word used in Qur’an is “Tawakkal” which is derived from “Tawakkul”.

“Tawakkul means that you should bind the camel with its rope, then say that you have trust in God that He will protect your camel. You should not have confidence in the rope only, because many camel has been stolen together with its rope; and, likewise, you should not neglect the rope, because binding with the rope is a part of Tawakkul.”

So basically tawakkul means dependence of the heart on Allah, believing Him to be Sufficient against all others for His slaves. The spirit of tawakkul is when we try our best in doing things, and then we trust in God that He will make our work succeed insyaAllah. It is absolutely nonsense to not doing anything to gain something and say that Allah will do all our work for us as He says in Qur'an: "And that man can have nothing but what he strives for." (53:39)

A high standard of Tawakkul was set when Amir al-Mu’minin ‘Ali (a.s) asked some idle persons who they were.

“We are those who have confidence in Allah”, came the answer,

‘Ali asked: “How is your confidence in Allah?”

They said: “We eat when we get food; and we have patience when we do not get it.”

‘Ali retorted: “Yes! That was very nature of a dog.”

Stunned, they asked him to explain the true meaning of Tawakkul in contrast to their own belief. ‘Ali (a.s) said: “When we get, we give to others; but when we do not get, we thank Allah.”

It means that we try our best to improve our condition by having confidence in Allah that He will make our efforts fruitful instead of trusting our own power and wisdom. Then, if we succeed, try to help our fellow friends with the fruits of our labour but if we fail then, we must also be thankful to Allah. Seems a bit irony here eh? Why should we thank Allah even when we do not succeed? Because success or failure is not our responsibility. We were expected to do our best and we did it. Be thankful to Allah that we were able to perform what was expected from us. It is our efforts which matter the most. Success or failure is not our province.

May Allah give us all the best in life insyaAllah. May He surround us with light and happiness, and put light into our heart and every vessel through our body. Ameen.

“And whosoever depends upon Allah, then He is sufficient for him.” (Surah Al-Talaq 65:3)