“…This day, those who disbelieved have given up all hope of your religion; so fear them not, but fear Me. This day, I have perfected your religion for you, completed My Favour upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as your religion…”
(Surah al Maidah, Verse 3)
Often we find ourselves giving up when things don’t come our way or don’t happen soon enough. We give up immediately in exasperation after not seeing anything desirable in sight. As a result, we give up, or stop reminding ourselves to make doa and certain question creeps in the dark corners of our mind - what did I do to deserve this? More fatal, we cease to consider alternative solutions and making any further attempt to get it right.
That raises a question - does that mean that God is cruel? Or should we resign assured that He will grant us that doa only in Jannah, a common view?
It’s amusing, at least for me, that despite the many shortfalls in our lives or the disability to act in the truest spirit of righteousness as we often find ourselves, we are yet confident, as if assured, of that place “in Jannah” and thus Allah (azza wa jalla) granting our hopes then. While not reducing that possibility yet if we are to glimpse into the chronicles of the beloved Prophet, Muhammad (saw), we will potentially realize that factors which leads to not overcoming ones goal is, in fact, a matter of our own procrastinations, short focus span and other personal factors. In orders words, we might need to look inwardly rather than outwardly for a solution.
The verse of the Qur’an above is considered by many scholars as one of the last few, if not the last verse of the Qur’an revealed. It was revealed on the Day of Arafah during Hajjatul Wada’ (or the final Hajj), the Prophet Muhammad (saw) was in his sixty-third year, his final year.
Most scholars are of the opinion that this verse is the final declaration of triumph to the Believers and the fulfillment of the message of Allah (that is the Qur’an) hence sums the successful mission of Prophet Muhammad (saw) which lasted for twenty-three years. A mission that saw him through countless of trials and tribulations by his people, relatives, former allies and many other elements.
What is remarkable here is that this final “triump” came only after twenty-three years. It took the Prophet that long! Armed with the most potent weapon of any believer could ever had - the doa - one could imagine the many doa and effort that the beloved Prophet (saw) must have made. Potentially, he could have just simply given up.
Yet, it was that perseverance and patience, along with Divine Help, characteristics inevitable of the Prophet (saw) that he succeeded in delivering the message that is Islam.
Looking back at ourselves, are we then to expect grand success after only weeks, or days, of asking and supplicating? Without trials and tribulations? Are we to expect any impactful outcome with only minuscule kilograms of effort, or worse these days, without hardly raising a finger beyond the keypad?
“Or think you that they will enter Paradise without such (trials) as came to those who passed away before you? They were afflicted with sever poverty and ailments and were so shaken that even the Messenger and those who believed along with him said. ”When (will come) the help of Allah? …” (Surah al Baqarah, Verse 214)
What degree of hardship had the Messenger(s) of Allah and the Believers sustained to eventually causes them to whisper a desperate question and cry. To what extend was the pressure that was almost the final strand of that last straw almost breaking the camel’s back? Consideringly these were men and women whom when compared based on iman, amal and sacrifice would surpass any one of us today. Imagine that!
It was such trials that saw Ishmael, left as an infant, in the arms of Hagar in the middle of a desert without an oasis in sight. It is this sort of challenges that saw Yusuf (or Joseph) left in by his brothers to fan for himself. I can go on.
Yet the point here is obvious. In order to achieve our greatest ambition and hope would require something beyond the few weeks or days worth of doa and effort, It needs us to not give up after growing frustrated seeing no outcome close to our expectations in sight. Rather, it requires an insurmountable will, conviction and perhaps creativity to fulfill our very purpose, encouraged deeply with iman and taqwa, readying one to overcome challenges and fully anticipative of the pleasure that comes with tawakkal after the best of preparation, that may possibly lie our greatest hope for that better tomorrow.
“… Verily, Allah will not change the condition of a people as long as they do not change their state themselves …”
(Surah as Ra’d, Verse 11)
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