Praise be to Allah the often Efficient Doer of what He (SWT) wills.  He is the Possessor of the Glorious Throne.  Allah’s Blessings and Salutation be upon our Master Mohammed, the hope of the believers in the Promised Day, and upon all his Family and Companions.

I like to clarify two of the issues that confuse many people.  The first is how is it that Allah (SWT) orders us to seek and work to get our sustenance when –in some cases- we may seek sustenance but we do not get it?

The other issue is related to His order to us to call on Him (supplicate) and His promise to answer our supplications as stated in the Quran: “Wa Qala Rab-bukum Eda’ouni Astajeb lakum” which means “And your Lord says: Call on Me; I will answer your prayer…”.  In some cases, we supplicate to Him but see no answer in spite of the fact that He (SWT) never fails in His promise!

How are we to understand these issues so when we supplicate to Allah we become assured of the answer, and when we seek for sustenance we become certain of getting it?

The answer -simply- is that our sustenance and answering our supplication are depending on Allah and not on our seeking or supplication.  The evidence to this is the existence of some of Allah’s creation who do not believe in Him, do not supplicate to Him, deny His existence, and associate partners with Him, but He still provides them with sustenance/provision.

To summarize, as we mentioned before, seeking sustenance is OBLIGATORY COMMANDMENT (Faridah) that we have to perform.  If we receive sustenance following our seeking, it is a GRANT from Allah.  When we supplicate to Allah we would be performing Obligatory Commandment (Faridah) in compliance with His order “Wa Qala Rab-bukum Eda’ouni..” which means “And your Lord says: call on Me..” and we have to call on Him.  If He answers our supplication, it is a GRANT and pure FAVOR from Him (SWT).

When a servant performs supplication, he is not giving an order to his Lord.  There is no obligation on Allah to answer.  If He does answer; it’s according to His promise.

To reiterate, to supplicate is Faridah; to answer is a Grant and Surplus Favor.  To seek sustenance is Faridah; but to provide sustenance is a Grant and Surplus Favor from Allah (SWT).

There is no Power or Might except with Allah

The Editor : Original Arabic text in Behira Wal-Akalim Journal- Issue # 231

Filed under: Let It Be Good, O' Allah on January 17th, 2011