What does reliance on Allah mean?

 

What exactly does reliance on Allah mean?

 

This matter came before a Shaykh that 2 of his disciples were talking about reliance on Allah (Tawakkul) and the Shaykh was quietly listening to them.

 

One disciple said:  Forgo all planning and contrivances.  No planning avails before fate.  Whatever is happening in this world is being brought about by Allah Most High.  Someone is being born and someone else is dying.  Someone is alive.  Someone is being granted sustenance and is growing rich and someone else is dirt poor and is begging of others.  All these things are being brought about by Allah Most High.  He has no partner.  When the eyes of the heart are opened, you will surely come to know that each and every grain of sand is subject to his order.

 

This is why if we have to fear someone, it should be Allah Most High and if we have any hopes from anyone, it should be from Him.  If we are to put our trust in anyone, it should be Him.  If we are to rely on anyone, it should be Him.  This is what fate means.

 

The other disciple said:  What you have said is true but using means and planning is also the Sunnah of the beloved Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam).

 

The first disciple rejoined:  The Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) is the great spiritual healer.  The practice is that for an extremely ill person, medicine is given in the form of food.  In the same way, the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) has made the others obey fate in the semblance of using means.  For how long will you take medicine instead of food?  Forgo all means and practice reliance on Allah Most High.  For many who use means, their means themselves became their undoing.

 

Just look at the planning of the Pharaoh, he got millions killed, but the one for whom he was searching was in his own house.  All means are futile, forgo them.  There is some One who is doing the planning.  He will take care of you as well. 

 

Just see!  When a child does not do anything, doesn’t hold with the hands and doesn’t walk with the legs, the father carries him on his shoulders.  When the child starts making his own moves, the father also leaves him to fend for himself.  The more you forgo means, the more will Allah Most High take up your responsibility.

 

The second disciple said:  We can’t get on to the roof without using stairs.  In the same way, we cannot reach our goals without using means.  If someone’s master gives a pickaxe and points towards a piece of land, it is obvious that the master wants you to dig the land.  Similarly, Allah Most High has given us hands and feet.  He has given us the power to judge benefit and harm.  This means that we should use means.

 

The first disciple said:  When someone buys a slave then that person is responsible for his needs.  The slave planning for something else other than service of the master is just an idiocy.  The one who sows a seed, also waters it and will protect it too if pests attack it.  Will the one who made all the plans create you and forget you?  Why are you needlessly bearing some other load?  Did you make any plans in the darkness of your mother’s womb?

 

Till the time you attained awareness, did you make any plans that you are bent on making some now?

These two disciples were arguing back and forth, presenting their proofs, but any agreement decision was not forthcoming.

 

The denouement of the master

 

The master who was listening to his disciples said: Both of you are correct, but none of you could reach the true meaning.  Listen son!  Certain deeds pertain to body parts like hands and feet and certain deeds pertain to the heart.  Reliance on Allah does not pertain to the parts of the body but it pertains to the heart.

 

If someone has forgone all means, but the heart is heedless and there is no trust reposed in Allah Most High, then that person is not reliant on Allah Most High.  On the contrary, a person is using all means, but his trust is not in the means.  It is in Allah Most High and he is completely at peace.  Even if the affair goes bad, his peace will not be disturbed.  That person is reliant on Allah Most High.

 

Now listen!  The states of the heart vary.  Someone has such trust in Allah Most High that he (or she) forgets himself and forgets all means.  That person becomes like a corpse in the hands of a washer.  The way the Will of Allah desires, it turns him over.  This is the result of a high state of certitude.  A person of this state will never use any means neither is he able to use them.  He does not even supplicate.  He has surrendered all his affairs to Allah, Almighty. 

 

Certain hearts have such trust in Allah Most High the way a child trusts its mother.  The child recognizes none except its mother.  In panic, the child will cling to the mother.  If he calls someone, it is the mother.  The child doesn’t trust anyone except the mother.  Whenever he sees the mother, he clutches at her robe and doesn’t leave it at all.  When the mother makes to move away, he runs after her.  Is this trust of the child all in vain?

 

It will surely affect the mother.  If the child is not seen for some time, the mother goes to find him.  If the child does not cling to the mother’s robes, she herself picks up the child.  Even if the child does not ask for it, the mother herself feeds it. 

 

Likewise, for the person who puts his trust in Allah, no one cools his eyes except Allah Most High.  In times of anxiety and trouble, he turns to only Allah Most High and doesn’t trust anyone except Allah Most High.  Such a person forgoes all means.  Even if he does use any means, the way a child calls out to his mother, such a person will call on only Allah Most High and will supplicate to Him alone.  Allah Most High is very gracious.  He does not allow a person having such trust to go waste.  He Himself fulfills all the needs of that person.

 

Some hearts have such trust in Allah Most High the way a client trusts his lawyer.  The client uses all means, but only those which his lawyer has clearly or implicitly indicated and also uses those means which he has learnt through his association with the lawyer.  However, the trust of the client is not in these means, but in the lawyer. 

 

A person with this kind of trust in Allah Most High will use all means in accordance with the Shariah, but does not set store by the means.  He reposes his trust only in Almighty Allah.

 

These are the 3 kinds of reliance on Allah.

 

Anyone who has any of these 3 kinds of trust is loved by Allah Most High.

 

[Excerpted from Kitab Ul Muhabbat of Hadhrat Muhaddith-e-Deccan]