بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ
The prophet (ﷺ) said: “Trust in God, but tie your camel.” [Tirmidhi]
There is a meaning behind this hadith which is that we cannot expect things to happen or not to happen without our own efforts first. If you put trust in Allah but sit back and do nothing, nothing will happen; similarly if you were to trust in Allah but not tie a camel, it will still run away.
We must act first, then put trust in Allah. This is especially important in the area of the religion. Many of us say we want to fix certain faults with our deen, yet we do not work for it. Let us remember:
“..Indeed, Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves..” 13:11
Allah has shown us what will make us better worshippers. He has sent His perfected book and the perfect role model Muhammad (ﷺ) who has not left out even the slightest detail in the religion. Whatever we are struggling with in the deen, there are ways to work on it, yet many of us do not try enough, then we ask ourselves why we sin.
We tell Allah everyday in our Salah when reading Surat Al Fatiha:
“It is You we worship and You we ask for help.” [1:5]
The word used for asking for help is “nasta’een” which come from the word “‘oun” which is a very specific type of help; in basic terms it means when one is already trying then asks for help – we shall go through the entire Surah in detail in a future post if Allah wills.
These two things – our effort and Allah’s help – are extremely important in Islam and our daily lives in general.
Allah knows best.