It is examination season. Everybody is busy studying and revising what has been taught to them over the course of the academic year. For the hardworking ones, it is all about revisiting all those neural connections which they have established upon first encountering the syllabus content. For the less fortunate, this period is a frantic combination of some revising and a lot of learning. After all, most of the content is new material to them. No matter the state one is in, one fact stands out; that everyone is hard at work.
From Umar ibn Al-Khattab from the Prophet (PBUH) who said:
“If only you relied on Allah a true reliance, He would provide sustenance for you just as He does the birds: They fly out in the morning empty and return in the afternoon with full stomachs.”
(Ahmad, An-Nasaa’I, Ibn Majah, Al-Hakim and At-Tirmidhi who said: “Hassan sahih”)
Students (and, in fact, everyone else) are like birds. Just like the bird leaves its nest everyday to look for worms, students leave their halls of residence or rented apartments or even their homes everyday in search of knowledge. Just like the bird which looks everywhere its wings can take it to find the sustenance for itself and its young, students attend lectures and tutorials in order to find the knowledge that they need. Indeed, food is found everywhere, so why do birds have to fly far and wide in order to find it? The key here is what birds regard as beneficial food. Mulberry leaves may be food for a caterpillar, but certainly it is not for most birds. Similarly, every day the student is inundated with information. Receiving this information is considered learning. So why, for instance, does an Imperial College student goes to Imperial College and not to Oxford? Apart from the plain fact that he is only enrolled in Imperial College, the Imperial College student goes to Imperial College because that is where he can find the information he needs to graduate with top honours in his field.
If Allah wills that the bird will meet the pellets from a hunter’s shotgun, will the bird be flying back to his nest with a full stomach? Unlikely.
If Allah wills that the student will meet, head on, the bonnet of a car speeding at 80km/h, will he be able to return home satiated, full of knowledge? Unlikely.
If Allah wills that the food that the bird seeks has run out, will the bird be able to satisfy his hunger? Unlikely.
If Allah wills that all lecturers go on strike today, will the student be able to quench his thirst for knowledge? Unlikely.
The reality, my friends, is that we are all at the mercy of Allah’s will. We are like live puppets tied to a string. We might be able to move to our left, but if the string pulls us to the right, try as we might, we will not move one inch towards our intended destination. Fellow puppets might plan to stab us from the back, but if their strings pull them away from us, all that would be in vain. We might want to wake up at 8am on the day of a 10am paper to revise some notes but if the string only yanks us from our beds at 9.30am, our plans are thrown out the window. Just like that.
We are the live puppets, but Allah is the puppet-master. He controls everything, from the fate of the spectacle you are wearing, to the banana or the chocolate muffin you are eating, right down to every bacterium that is living in your stomach. It may be true that we may have our own intentions and desires, but that is because Allah lets us have it.
We might want to achieve first-class honours in our examinations this year, and we may study for every single second we are awake. If Allah wills that we come down with a sudden pain in our upper right abdomen which leaves us stricken in bed, what can we do my dear friends? What can we do? And if it turns out that the pain is caused by an abscess in the liver which could be fatal, who can help us?
وعلى الله فليتوكل المؤمنون …
…and in Allah should the faithful (Ever) put their trust [3:122, 5:11]
That is the reality of it all. We are at the mercy of Allah’s will. This is why tawakkal is a very important aspect of a Muslim’s faith.
… ومن يتوكل على الله فهو حسبه …
…And if any one puts his trust in Allah, sufficient is (Allah) for him… [65:3]
Whoever relies on Allah, and then Allah will suffice for him. If Allah helps us in our examinations, then bring the toughest papers on Earth. But if Allah leaves us in the examination room with a sudden mental block, even the simplest papers will leave us crying inside. What if Allah leaves us altogether?
Ibn ‘Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them) reported that the Messenger of Allah (PBUH) used to supplicate:
“O Allah! To You I have submitted, and in You do I believe, and in You I put my trust, to You do I turn, and for You I argued. O Allah, I seek refuge with You through Your Power; there is none worthy of worship except You Alone; that You safeguard me against going astray. You are the Ever Living, the One Who sustains and protects all that exists; the One Who never dies, whereas human beings and jinn will all die”.
(Bukhari and Muslim)
Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: Messenger of Allah (PBUH) said, “Whoever says (upon leaving his house):
بسم الله توكلت على الله ولا حول ولا قوة إلا بالله
‘Bismillah, tawakkaltu ‘alallah, wa la hawla wa la quwwata illa billah (I begin in the Name of Allah; I trust in Allah; there is no altering of conditions but by the Power of Allah),’ it will be said to him: ‘You are guided, defended and protected.’ The devil will go far away from him.”
(Abu Dawud, At-Tirmidhi and An-Nasa‘i)
Abu Dawud reported it with this addition:
“One devil will say to another: ‘How can you deal with a man who has been guided, defended and protected?’”
Let us rely on Allah fully after all our preparations have been made and after all efforts have been exhausted in revising for our examinations. Let us also make du‘a that He makes it easy for all our brothers and sisters out there who are struggling and working hard. We might be fighting for our first-class honours degree, but there are many others who are struggling to live and stay alive. Let us also pledge that we will train ourselves not only to be good students, but also good Muslims who will be genuine witnesses of the truth unto mankind.
All good is from Allah, but all that is bad comes from the results of our own doing.
