The Promised: Reluctant of Reliant
What is
reliance? What does it mean to rely on Allah?
A beggar came to the house of Ai’sha(ra), and her slave
opened the door, Barira (ra). And the beggar said, “Oh family of the Messenger
of Allah, give me something. And she said we have nothing. And Ai’sha (ra)
listening to this, and Ai’sha said who is it? And Barira(ra) said it’s a beggar
and all we have is a handful of barely for you to open your fast with. And it
was at the time of Asr, and Ai’sha (ra) said give it, Allah will provide. And
she gave it, come Maghrib time there was NO food. And Ai’sha(ra) opened her
fast with some water and she began her Maghrib salaat. And Barir(ra) is sitting
there, and she is sarcastically, she is saying, you know jokingly she is
saying, “Oh Allah will provide. Oh Allah will provide.” And there is a knock on
the door. And a man comes and he gives a
goat as a gift. And Ai’sha(ra) finishes her salaat, she said, “oh Barira who is
it?” And she said it is a man who lives in the area. “By Allah, he has never
ever given us before, but today he bought us a goat!” And Ai’sha(ra) said, “Oh
Barira, isn’t that goat better than the handful of wheat that you had? And then
she said something which really signifies the iman of these people. She said, “I
swear by Allah, none of you can be a true believer until his trust in Allah is
stronger than that which he sees and has in the palm of his hands.” She
didn’t say Muslim, she said “believer”, there are many Muslims, but how many of
us our believers?
It is easy to say that we rely on Allah, we talk a lot
but what is true? Do we really rely on Allah?
In the Quran it says,
“And whoever relies upon Allah – then He is sufficient
for him” (65:3).
“And the Reality is that there is nothing and nowhere
else that will be sufficient. Allah is
the only handhold that never breaks (Quran 2: 256).
But who do we rely on?
When we try our hardest making the “best of grades” and we
go and apply for mend school or dental school and we don’t get in, what
happens? When we lose friends, family
members or can’t seem to get that perfect match, what happens? When we lose our
jobs, our house burns down, go through a divorce, what happens?
Most of us, want to ask, why? Why is this happening to me?
Why me? Why me? I tried my hardest for
that test, I did all I could in this relationship, I worked hard for this job,
I worked and I did, why is this happening to me, why Allah? And some will
question to the point that they will begin to lose their Iman or become faulty
in their faith, but does not the one
that created you know what’s best for you?
Allah is Al-Alim, Al-Sami, Al-Basir, Allah knows all things
and Allah sees and hears all things. Allah knows what will benefit us and what
will yield us.
There is a problem in thinking here, losing something is not
necessarily bad and gaining something is not necessarily good. Today we think
that if we do get everything we want or everything goes according to plan,
alhamdulilah, if you lose anything in your life, “ahhh man, something is wrong,
there is nothing good in this loss”. But let me tell you, it is not always so glamorous,
we have to trust in Allah through thick and then, good or bad. We should not
have the attitude, that if I trust in Allah, I will get this much money back or
this and that, we need to trust in Allah because it is a necessity.
In the hadith of the Prophet (sws), he says
“EEE-QAA-HA-WA-TAWAKUL”
Tie first and then rely on Allah. So relying on Allah is not
just standing there pleading for Allah to help you, in surah 13, Ar-Rad it says
“Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change what is
in themselves.” So true, tawwakul is not just relying on Allah but trying our
hardest while rely on Allah. You can not study for a test and rely on Allah to
give you an “A”, we must try. And amazing is the story of Asiya (R), she is
such a supreme example of Asiyaa (R) was the wife of the most horrible man to
have ever lived, a man who got hundreds of signs but still choose darkness over
light, a man who killed thousands of babies and enslaved their much more. Imagine
being in the house with a tyrant and you have become of the people he hates
most.
Who was
Asiyaa’ (R)
Asiya (R). Her
name brings tears to my eyes, a smile to my face, and grows a profound love in
my heart. She was a woman whose faith will ever be a source of inspiration and
her trust in Allah will ever be a lesson for generations to come.
Asiya (R), the
wife of Pharoh. Just as her name, radiAllahuanh, brings hope and inspiration,
the man that she was married to, Pharoh elicits images of the complete
opposite- blood, oppression, and an evil, arrogant character which earns him
the title of the most evil human being to have ever lived, as some scholars
say. He walked the earth with pride. He
believed himself to be the maintainer, the creator, the ruler. His say was the
only say. He could do away with you in an instant if he pleased and however he
pleased. There was no escaping his clutches. His evil was worse than Hitler’s.
Try to imagine the evil that Hitler was- the concentration camps, the wiping
out of thousands of people- and now think of Pharoh, above and beyond
that evil.
“[Pharaoh] said, "You believed him
before I gave you permission. Indeed, he is your leader who has taught you
magic. So I will surely cut off your hands and your feet on opposite sides, and
I will crucify you on the trunks of palm trees, and you will surely know which
of us is more severe in [giving] punishment and more enduring." [20:71]
SubhanAllah. He
boiled people alive if they believed in anything other than him, he would chop
off their hands and feet of opposite sides and had a practice of killing the
newborn sons every other year.
“Indeed, Pharaoh exalted himself in the land
and made its people into factions, oppressing a sector among them, slaughtering
their [newborn] sons and keeping their females alive. Indeed, he was of the
corrupters.” [28:4]
This takes us to
the household of Musa, alayhisalam who is not yet born. Musa’s (AS) brother, Aaron
(AS) was born on the year that sons were not
ordered to be killed, thus he lives and his mother brings him into the world
without worry. But the year that Musa (as) is to be born, the newborn boys are
ordered to be killed. But Allah had another plan for this baby. And thus Musa’s
(AS) mother is given an order:
“And We had already conferred favor upon you
another time, When We inspired to your mother what We inspired, [Saying], 'Cast
him into the chest and cast it into the river, and the river will throw it onto
the bank; there will take him an enemy to Me and an enemy to him.' And I
bestowed upon you love from Me that you would be brought up under My eye.”
[20:37-39]
Most mothers
when given such an order would immediately freak out, putting their own baby
that they gave birth to into a river- it would almost seem like a death
sentence. But the mother of Musa (AS) has tawakull, has trust in Allah that the
most Merciful, the Most kind has a plan. And thus, you see that this baby lands
in front of the household of Pharoh, the murderer himself whose wife Aasiyaa
(R) picks up the child and says:
"…[He will be] a comfort of the eye for me and for you.
Do not kill him; perhaps he may benefit us, or we may adopt him as a son."
And they perceived not.”
[28:9]
The expression
that is used in this ayah, ‘the comfort of the eyes’ is a very interesting
expression. In the Arabic language, this expression is used to describe tears
that are being shed out of happiness. For example, in a lecture by Nouman Ali
Khan used a very good example to fully understand this expression and the
difference between coolness of the eyes and eyes becoming warm. A mother
greeting her son at the airport and a mother leaving her son at the airport are
both crying but the mother who is greeting her son is shedding tears of joy,
thus her eyes are becoming cool. But the mother who’s saying goodbye to her
son- her eyes are becoming warm. In this ayah, Musa’s (AS) mother is the person
whose eyes are becoming warm because she is being separated from her child but
on the other hand, Asiyaa’s eyes are becoming cool, thus she says “[He will be]
a comfort of the eye for me and for you…” [28:9] So Asiya is saying that this
baby will be the coolness of her eyes. Why do you think her eyes will be
cooled by this? She was already living a very stressful life in the
household of Pharoh. The Qur’an indicates that there was psychological abuse
and later we find out that there was physical torture as well. But at this
point, this baby is becoming the coolness of her eyes from the stresses that
she is living with. What’s really interesting here is that Asiyaa doesn’t just
say that Musa, (AS) will be a coolness to her eyes but tells Pharoh that Musa (AS)
will be a coolness to his eyes too.
His eyes are warm from the anger that he has, from the arrogance that he has
inside of him and thus Asiya’ separates herself from him and tells him that
Musa will be a coolness of her eyes and to Pharoh’s eyes too.
One mother’s
eyes are cooled but what about the mother of Musa, (as) ? SubhanAllah, amazingly Musa (AS) still goes back to his own mother too, so that
her eyes are cooled too.
“And the heart of Moses' mother became empty
[of all else]. She was about to disclose [the matter concerning] him had We not
bound fast her heart that she would be of the believers.” [28:10]
“And she said to his sister, "Follow
him"; so she watched him from a distance while they perceived not. “ [28:11]
“And We had prevented from him [all] wet
nurses before, so she said, "Shall I direct you to a household that will
be responsible for him for you while they are to him [for his upbringing]
sincere?" [28:12]
“So We restored him to his mother that she
might be content and not grieve and that she would know that the promise of
Allah is true. But most of the people do not know.” [28:13]
SubhanAllah,
imagine the feeling that Musa (AS) mother must have felt when she was reunited
with her son in such a beautiful way. Imagine the coolness of her eyes. This
teaches us a lesson of tawakkul, of reliance in Allah- holding on to Allah and
putting every trust in Allah knowing that Allah will take care of us. Allah’s
plans are far greater than our own and this story is such a beautiful example
of the blessing, wisdom, and mercy of Allah.
So, this baby
grows up in the household of the Pharoh, and is raised by Asiyaa. Little does
Pharoh know that this baby would grow and be his destruction, be his downfall
through the help and will of Allah. To summarize the story, which can be found
in detail in Surah Taha, Musa (AS) grows
up and accidently commits a crime- he accidently kills someone and then flees
the land. He leaves the land to the outskirts somewhere where he stays for
several years. During this time he gets married, and while him and his family
are travelling, Musa’s life is changed, completely- Allah speaks to him
directly in the valley of Tuwa.
“And when he came to it (the fire), he was
called, "O Moses, Indeed, I am your Lord, so remove your sandals. Indeed,
you are in the sacred valley of Tuwa.” [20:11-12]
Musa (AS) is
given the mission of delivering the message of the oneness of Allah to Pharoh. Pharoh’s
reaction to this message is what would be expected out of an arrogant tyrant
who believes himself to be the ruler of all things- anger, rage, and fury. But
what got him even more furious, is that his own wife believed in the message of
Musa (AS). She immediately believed in the oneness of Allah and that iman
completely changed her. That faith that she found was so firm, so strong
that she was willing to give everything!
As we see in her
story, she holds on to her iman regardless of Pharoh does. She could have
easily denied that she believed in Allah in front of him, but her inner iman
matched the words that would come out of her mouth and she stood firm. She
proclaimed her belief in Allah and despite the pain she felt, she trusted Allah
that with Allah were things that were far better than this world. She chose her
akhirah over her dunya. She could have easily continued her life the way it
was. She was living in luxury, after all she was Pharoh’s wife- she had money
and wealth and palaces. Yet, her iman was so strong that she didn’t care about
any of it anymore. It just didn’t matter. That’s the beauty of iman. When faith
enters the heart, it changes your life. And it definitely changed Asiya’s.
When we speak of
trust in Allah of tawakkul, we all know that Rasulullah, salla Allahu alayhi
wasalam teaches to not just sit and take no action but to take action, to “tie
you camel”, and then rely on Allah, then leave all matters to Allah. In
Asiya’s story we see that Asiya didn’t just believe and just stayed with Pharoh
and let him do whatever he pleased to her. She actually took action, she
actually tried to run away. But she really couldn’t escape his clutches because
he was the police, he was the law, he was the government. He captures her and
begins to torture her. He beats her, he hangs her, he places a boulder on her
as she’s lying in the scorching sand. Yet no amount of physical pain was enough
for Asiya to give up. She knew with Allah was happiness, and with Allah was
peace. And subhanAllah as she is being tortured in such a brutal way, she calls
out to Allah,
"My Lord, build for me near You a house in
Paradise and save me from Pharaoh and his deeds and save me from the wrongdoing
people." [66:11]
Asiyaa’s
luxuries in this life had no meaning to her. Her physical pain put no limit on
her faith. Her circumstances could not hold her back from believing. And this
unbreakable faith and this heart full of iman cries out to Allah and Allah
opens up the heavens and shows her, her home in Jannah. And this woman smiles. She
smiles as she’s being tortured. She smiles as she faces such immense physical
pain. She smiles as her soul departs from this world and reunites with her
Lord. Her home in Jannah was waiting for her- and no other strings of this
dunya could hold her back. And this is the women than I want to be. This women
who nothing could hold her back once faith entered in her heart. This women
would fought such a difficult battle, yet all that mattered was going back to
Allah.
Every hardship
is a means of elevation. We just need to keep our goal in mind: Jannah. So that
even in the most trying days, our homes in Jannah can be our motivation and
reuniting with our Rabb can be the driving force to get through even the
darkest of storms..
Are you
reliant or reluctant?
We all
have heard of the saying “Make dua do your best and leave the rest to Allah (swt).”
But this is easier said than done. How many of us really follow this
saying?
Tawwakul, reliance on Allah is an outcome that take place
when you have yaqeen of certainty. Yaqueen is when you have firm belief, imam
in the things that Allah and the Prophets have spoken about. It is things you
don’t see. For example Allah is there but we cannot see him and we never saw
the Prophet peace be upon him but we know he existed. We cannot see the Angels
but we believe they are there. So once
you have yaqueen it will give birth to tawakul reliance on Allah.
In surah At-Talaq
Allah tells us,
“ And whoever fears Allah and keeps his duty to him, he
will make a way for him to get out from every difficulty. And he will provide
him from sources he never could imagine. And whoever puts his trust in Allah
swt then he will suffice him” (65:2-3)
In surah Al-Imran verse 159 Allah says to his prophet peace
be upon him:
”So by mercy from
Allah , [O Muhammad], you were lenient with them. And if you had been rude [in
speech] and harsh in heart, they would have disbanded from about you. So pardon
them and ask forgiveness for them and consult them in the matter. And when you
have decided, then rely upon Allah . Indeed, Allah loves those who rely [upon
Him]”
Putting your trust in Allah is the best decision you can
ever make for yourself. We all have friends whom we turn to in the need of help
or distress. But how many of us have had friends turn their backs on us?
Betray us? Hurt us? Or even talk bad about us? We all have been pained in
our lives most of the time it is by people. This is why the best aid to go to
when in need of ANYTHING is Allah. Every person in your life will let
you down, without a doubt, every person.
Allah says in the Quran,
“And We have
already created man and know what his soul whispers to him, and We are closer
to him than [his] jugular vein” 50:16
Allah will never leave us. But people will. Allah will never
hurt us but people will. We put so much trust and reliance in people, but
who was the one that created this people?
Ibn al qayyim may god have mercy on him says “Truly in the
heart there is a void that cannot be removed except with the company of god.
And in it there is a sadness that cannot be removed except with the happiness
of knowing god and being true to him and in it there is and emptiness that
cannot be filled except with the love for him and turning to him always
remembering him. And if a person were given the entire world and what is in it,
it would not fill that emptiness. This message is so powerful. For Allah swt
has the power to do all he will. And no matter whom we turn to Allah swt is the
ONLY one that can ease our pain, give us happiness and bring us out from the
dark.
Never lose hope, stay close to Allah and when you mess up go
back to him. Never ever stop going back to him. Repent often. Cry to Allah and
hold on tight with your life, to his remembrance and inshallah never drown in
this ocean of dunya. This world causes us sometimes to forget Allah. The dunya
causes us to go astray from the right path and lose hope. Allah’s merciful door
is always open for us. It never closes. This is why it is important to have that
TRUE reliance on Allah because if you do you will never drown in this dunya,
Sometimes in life things happen to us that we don’t
understand. So we loss hope and we stop making dua to Allah and we struggle
with our prayers but at the end of our painful journey Allah reminds us in the Quran
that perhaps we hate a thing and its good for us; and perhaps we love a thing
and is bad for us. And Allah knows while we know not. (2:216). Everything
happens because Allah wills It to happen. Sometimes we don’t know the reason
but we have to accept it. If we rely on Allah then Allah will make everything
easier for us inshallah. Because Allah knows what is best for us
So ask yourself, are you reliant or
reluctant?
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