Good or bad deeds, though do have some imponderable and
unquantifiable impacts on man’s earthly life, yet this life is neither a real
place of rewarding man for his good deeds nor a proper place for punishing him
for his evil acts. Instead, it is a place where man goes through the tests and
trials. Man has made a tremendous progress in his material life but the more he
goes ahead the more restlessness and alleviations he finds waiting for him.
Excess of the facilities and even luxuries fail to provide him a true tranquility.
Man has to suffer a
lot of woes, bereavements out of deaths of the loved ones, laments on the loss
in the business and career, sadness due to family problems, depressions because
of health troubles, terrible ordeals of social entanglements and many other
difficulties and complexities in private and public life make this world a dump
to live in.
This odd and awful
situation really proves nerve-racking for man. In the obscurity when man finds no
way out, he feels himself fully broken up with grief and is subdued by
disappointments. What attitude of a true believer should be in these
circumstances? There remains no urgent expedient save resorting to Allah, the
Most Powerful, as humble supplicants to call on Him for deliverance.
Supplications are the only resource, most reliable and most soothing.
“Is not He (Allah) Who responds to the distressed one when
he calls on Him and Who removes evil?” (An-Naml: 62)
Calling upon Allah, SWT, is an earnest stipulation to gain
His attention and help.
Calling upon Allah (Dua), as the Messenger of Allah, be
peace and blessings upon him, is reported to have said, is actually worship.
(Abu Dawud, Tirmidhi) Those who do not supplicate actually disdain worship and
are atheists.
“And your Lord says: ‘Call upon Me I will respond to you.’
Indeed those who disdain my worship will enter Hell contemptible.” (Ghafir: 60)
This subtle point is much clearer in the last verse of Surah
Al-Furqan where Allah Says:
“Say (O Muhammad, SAW, to the disbelievers): “What would my
Lord care for you if you do not call upon Him? For, you have denied. So it (torment
because of your denial) is going to be adherent for you.”
Syed Abu Al A’la Maududi, in his commentary note, explains
this verse: “It means that if you do not invoke upon Allah and neither worship
Him nor call upon Him for help, you will have no importance in His sight to be
taken in notice. Just being a creature you are not different from the stones.
No need of Allah remains hampered because of you to be fulfilled. The only thing
making Him pay His attention to you is your begging hands stretched towards Him
and your invocations. If you do not call upon Him as humble supplicants then
you will be thrown away like garbage.”
Fulfillment of the desires and needs expressed in the
supplications only depends on Allah’s Will and Wisdom. No supplication remains
in vain, but it is not necessary for it to be brought about exactly as man
wants it. For a believer it is a matter of consolation that his invoking upon his
Lord is considered to be worship on his part and worship is the act to get the
pleasures and favors of Allah, SWT.
In the Twenty Third
Word in his Risale-i-Nur, famous and very influential spiritual guide of early
decades of the last century and post Kamalian era in Turkey, late Badiuzzaman Nursi
makes this point clear with an example. A sick little child is taken to a
clinic, where he sees a number of bottles and packs containing colorful syrups
and tablets in them. The child demands the syrup from one of the bottles or a
tablet from the packs that showed more attractive to him because of its color
or design. But the doctor allows not done it. It is up to the doctor and not
the patient to decide whether the same syrup or tablets are to be given to the
child or somewhat else or nothing from the liquid or dry medicine is necessary
for the child at that moment to recover.
Similar is in case of invocations of longing and suffering
people. Allah, the All-Wise, decides according to His dominical Wisdom either
to give what is sought or better than that or nothing to be given. ‘Nothing’
does not mean the supplication went futile, but as the Messenger of Allah, be
peace and blessings upon him, has told the supplications are saved for much
better reward on the Day of Judgment.
Wishing to get urgently and precisely what is thought man’s
utmost need is a natural thing but it has happened many times that in spite of
having a little chance, a traveler, either by personally exhorting or with
someone influential’s intercession, gets air ticket for a particular flight.
Unfortunately the same flight meets a disastrous air crash with all its passengers
smashed into ashes and pieces, while another passenger who is refused the ticket
for the same flight agrees to take the next one and is saved from the awful
end.
There are many people who, in result of their capricious
demands, if given before a proper time they are sure to be subject to a
dangerous situations lasting in ruination and there are many who at the end
find their deprivation greatly blissfulness. Insistent and importunate calls on
Allah, SWT, to rapidly respond our invocations, as Badiuzzaman Nursi has
opined, is actually interfering in His Dominion and Authority.
After taking
necessary measures and using available resources the matters should be left on
the Will and Knowledge of our Lord. Only He knows when and what is beneficial
for us. Syed Abu al A’la Maududi emphasized on perfect comprehension of our
position. According to him our inner contentment and satisfaction mostly
depends on the correct comprehension, and in failing in going to its depth
there is pain, restlessness and disappointment. Allah, the Most Exalted, is our
Creator and All Sovereign and we are creatures and subjugated. Being humble
servants we have no right to impose our conditions on His absolute authority.
We are, and not He is accountable to us. (Rasail-u-Masail: Part-V)
Some people think the acceptance or rejection of the supplications
relies on man’s noble or evil deeds. Good or bad deeds though have a light
shadow on man’s fate but his gains in this worldly life are not the actual
results of his deeds. The Day of Resurrection
and Reckoning is the proper time and place to get the real result sheet of
virtuous or vicious deeds done in the present life. All the people are not
equally inflicted with the troubles. Some pious people suffer greatly and the
others, very mischievous and wicked undergo too light distress in this life to
have any big feeling of it. Only Will of Allah, the Most Exalted, works to
decide the degree of the trials for man.
He is the Creator and
Ruler. We have to subjugate our wishes and desires to His Will. So it is silly
to expect living in this world according to our expectations. He is not bound
to keep us in the condition which we want to live in and give us what we demand
from Him. It is insane to think as soon as we raise our hands in supplication
for getting rid of the troubles He is restrained to immediately indemnify
protection against the damages and losses we suffer and on our demand within
moments deliver us solution to our problems.
What we have to do is resort to Him in thick and thin and
keep on invoking on Him. Invocations have multi facet impacts on our lives. We
get a sudden response or not, they are a source of inner comfort for us with a
feeling that we are not helpless, someone very powerful Being is over our
heads. But we should keep an important point in mind. Our calling upon Allah
must be with hope and amicable thinking about Allah, the Most Exalted. As the
Holy Prophet, be peace and blessings upon him, has taught, we should say: “O
Allah! Respond our invocations if you will.” Our supplications must reflect a
state of hopefulness and full trust in our Lord.
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