Reliance on Allah (Tawakul) A-thu billhi minash shaytnir rajeem.

Bismillhir rahmnir raheem Al hamdu lillahi nahmaduhu wanastaeenahu, wanastagh-firuhu, wanatoobu ilayhi, wanaoothu Billaahi min shuroori an-fusinaa, wamin sayyi aati amaalinaa. May- Yahdillahu fa huwal muhtad, wa may- yudlill falan tajidaa lahu waliyan murshida. Wa ash-hadu an Laa ilaaha ill-Allh, wahdahoo laa shareeka lah, wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadan abduhoo warasooluh All Praise is due to Allh, We praise Him and we seek help from Him. We ask forgiveness from Him. We repent to Him; and we seek refuge in Him from our own evils and our own bad deeds. Anyone who is guided by Allh, he is indeed guided; and anyone who has been left astray, will find no one to guide him. I bear witness that there is no god but Allh, the Only One without any partner; and I bear witness that Muhammad, sws, is His servant, and His messenger. Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem! Ya Ay-yuhal-latheena aamanut taqul-laaha, haqqa tuqaatihee wala tamu tun-na, il-la wa antum Muslimoon. O You who believe, Be aware of Allah, with correct awareness, and die not except as Muslims. Ya Ay-yuhal-latheena aamanut taqul-laaha, wa qooloo qawlan sadeedaa. Yuslih-lakum amaalakum wa yaghfir lakum thunoobakum, wamay yu-til-laaha warasoolah, faqad faaza fawzan atheemaa. O You who believe, Be aware of Allah, and speak a straightforward word. He will forgive your sins and repair your deeds. And whoever takes Allah and His Prophet as a guide, has already achieved a mighty victory. Dear Brothers in Islam: We will talk today about subject of tawakul or reliance which I do believe is full of benefits and is very Inspiring. This topic is very fundamental to every Muslim. It is a great act of worship which many people have strayed away from either due to ignorance or negligence. The following verse affirms this; Allaah says : It is You we worship and You we ask for help (Al-Faatihah: 5). This verse means that we worship none but Allaah alone and in order to do so, seek support from Him alone, because He is the only real supporter. Allah also says: And upon Allaah rely, if you should be believers and also:

And whoever relies on Allaah - then He is sufficient for him. And many other versuses. In the Hadeeth where the Prophet mentioned seventy thousand people who will enter Paradise without reckoning, he said regarding their characteristics: They are those who do not ask for Ruqyah (incantation), are not pessimistic, or use cauterisation; they rely (totally) on Allaah (Bukhaari & Muslim). Ibn Abbaas said: The words, Hasbuna Allaah Wa Nimal Wakeel (Allaah is sufficient for us, and how fine a trustee (He is)!) was said by Prophet Ibraaheem, peace be upon him, when he was thrown into the fire (by his own people), and was also said by Prophet Muhammad when the hypocrites said to him: People have gathered against you, so fear them. But it increased their faith, and they said, Sufficient is Allaah for us and He is the best to rely on (Aal-Imraan: 173). (Bukhaari). 8 Umar Ibn Al-Khattaab, narrated that the Prophet said: If you rely on Allaah with due reliance, Allaah will provide for you as He does for the birds; they leave with empty stomachs in the morning and return full at dusk. (Tirmidhi). Anas bin Maalik, narrated that the Prophet said: Whoever says as he leaves his home: Bismillaah Tawakkaltu Ala Allaah Wala Hawla Wala Quwwata Illaa Billaah (In the name of Allaah, I place my trust in Allaah, and there is no might nor power except with Allaah); it will be said, You will be guided, protected and sufficed; a devil will say to another devil: What do you think of (i.e., what harm can we do to) one who is guided, protected and sufficed? Dear Brothers and Sisters in Islam, these were the words of Allaah and the words of His Messenger regarding reliance upon Him. All what have been mentioned are but a few of the numerous verses from the Quraan and Ahaadeeth which relate to the great and virtuous subject of reliance on Allaah.

Reliance is a deed of the heart and not the limbs, which means that it is something which a person neither professes with his tongue nor acts out with his limbs. Reliance can defined as some scholars have done, which is: The certainty of the heart that the Lord is sufficient for it while others have said that it is: The submission of the heart to Allaah, where one stops making his own choices and happily lives with decrees as they happen another group said: Being content with the decree of Allaah. Every scholar has given the definition of reliance from different angle. There are some facts we should know about reliance: The First is to know Allaah by His qualities and attributes; such as the fact that He is All Capable and Sufficient to rely on; that He is the Sustainer; that He is All-Knowing and that things can only happen with His will and decree. Knowing all this achieves the slave of Allaah initiates the pillars of reliance. The more a slave of Allaah knows about Him, the more sound and firm his reliance on Allaah will be. 9 The Second fact: Is to believe that every matter has a cause or a means in order for it to be materialised. Some people give up utilising these means due to their ignorance and think that this is reliance on Allaah. They wait for Allaah to send down their provisions and feed them while they are lying on their beds without exerting any effort whatever. This is nothing but the laziness which the Prophet referred to in the Hadeeth: Be keen to do that which would benefit you, rely on Allaah and do not be lazy (by not exerting effort) and say when a problem befalls you: If I would have done such and such, then the result would have been such and such rather you should say: This was decreed by Allaah and Allaah does what He wills. Saying If opens the gate for Satan. (Muslim).

Second Part: One who is relying on Allaah must know that although he must utilise all the possible means that Allaah has provided for him, his heart must still rely totally on Allaah to achieve his objectives. For example, when one applies for a job, his heart should still be attached to Allaah for provision; he should not think that the job itself is providing for him. Another example, when you go to see a doctor your heart should still be attached to Allaah; you should not think that the medicine itself is providing a cure for you. If you have got thousands of pounds in you account, your heart should still be attached to Allaah for provision; you should not think that the wealth itself is preventing you from poorness or disasters. In fact, the utilisation of all possible means is from the Sunnah of the Prophet ; an example of this is when he wore two coats of armour during the battle of Uhud he did not give up wearing them with the excuse of relying on Allaah. Also, When he immigrated from Makkah to Madinah he utilized everything that could possible to avoid Quraish hunters, when they arrived to the cave, hunters came so close to the mouth of the cave where the Prophet and his companion were hiding that Abu Bakr asked the Prophet, What if they were to look through the crack and detect us? The Prophet, ever calm and self-assured in his perfect faith, replied, Abu Bakr! What do you think of two with whom the third is Allah!. Moreover, he used to save enough provisions for a whole year, when he was 10 able to do so, as related in the Hadeeth in Bukhaari, yet we all know that he was the foremost of those who relied totally on Allaah. The Third fact: Is to remain firm in relying on Allaah alone. A persons reliance on Allaah cannot be fulfilled until one relies on Him alone. Therefore, nobody can claim true reliance on Allaah whilst at the same time believing that a Shaykh, or Wali or any pious person, whether dead or alive, can harm or benefit him; in fact, a person who does such a thing has broke his entire faith and not just his reliance on

Allaah. Success are for such people, those who seek refuge only in Allaah; the One Who controls the Heavens and the earth, while others have their hearts attached to the reliance of others who cannot benefit or harm them. The Fourth facts: Is to depend on Allaah completely with ones heart and feel tranquillity when doing so, to the extent that one does not feel anxious or confused regarding the status of means with which objectives are accomplished. Some people do not feel secure until they utilise these means, and if Allaah decrees that these means are not available, then they feel stressed. Such peoples reliance on Allaah is incomplete, because true reliance is when a person does not care if means are available or not, because they know that all matters are in the Hand of Allaah; all He has to do for a matter to occur say Be and it becomes.

Abandoning the utilisation of means violates reliance, just like depending on means violates reliance. Some people abandon the use of means claiming that they only rely on Allaah, despite the fact that Allaah rebuked those who behaved in such a manner. Ibn narrated that: The people of Yaman used to come to Hajj without bringing their provisions saying: We rely only on Allaah but when they would reach Makkah they would start asking people for food; so Allaah revealed And take provisions, but indeed, the best provision is fear of Allaah (Al-Baqarah: 197) (Bukhaari). 11 Normally, when we do an action we hope that it will have the effects or consequences that we desire. But a Muslim tries to do what is good and leaves the effects and consequences to Allah. As long as we try to obey the instructions of Allah, we rely on the promise that He will forgive us and guide us. Beautiful story I have read about Hakeem Alwan who was a star in the Houston Rockets basketball team a couple of years ago. He was a very good player but had a very bad temper. He would regularly fight with other players. But suddenly, in the

mid-1990s, that changed, and the Rockets became a winning team instead of one with a couple of good players but no coordination. This culminated in their success in the 1994 and 1995 NBA championships. Brother Hakeem said "Before I started practicing my faith, I used to completely rely on myself. When I had done my best, I would be extremely frustrated if I didn't win. It would irritate and anger me. And that was causing me to be bad to others by fighting and swearing," he explained. "But when I started practicing my faith, I learned that results are not my property. I started doing my best but then I left success and failure to my Creator. Now I was not irritated by failure and was not over inflated by success. That caused me to calm down and improve my behavior towards others on my team and we became a team." The difference between Hakeem before and after was his understanding of the concept of Tawakul, which is a major concept in the relationship of a believer with his or her Creator. When a believer fully practices Tawakul by putting his or her full trust in Allah, this person realizes that they are not all-powerful, Allah is. Although we all control some variables that Allah has given us in our control, Allah ultimately controls all the other variables known or unknown to us.