“When you ask for complete goodness say, “Oh Allah I beg You to make me a steady follower of Your Messenger [Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him] in words and deeds!”
Ibn ‘Ataullah al-Askandari, Taj al-‘Urus Al-Hawi li Tahdib al-Nufus Pg. 3
About the author
Suhaib Webb
Suhaib Webb is a contemporary American-Muslim educator, activist, and lecturer. His work bridges classical and contemporary Islamic thought, addressing issues of cultural, social and political relevance to Muslims in the West. After converting to Islam in 1992, Webb left his career in the music industry to pursue his passion in education. He earned a Bachelor’s in Education from the University of Central Oklahoma and received intensive private training in the Islamic Sciences under a renowned Muslim Scholar of Senegalese descent. Webb was hired as the Imam at the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City, where he gave khutbas (sermons), taught religious classes, and provided counselling to families and young people; he also served as an Imam and resident scholar in communities across the U.S.
From 2004-2010, Suhaib Webb studied at the world’s preeminent Islamic institution of learning, Al-Azhar University, in the College of Shari`ah. During this time, after several years of studying the Arabic Language and the Islamic legal tradition, he also served as the head of the English Translation Department at Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyyah.
Outside of his studies at Al-Azhar, Suhaib Webb completed the memorization of the Quran in the city of Makkah, Saudi Arabia. He has been granted numerous traditional teaching licenses (ijazat), adhering to centuries-old Islamic scholarly practice of ensuring the highest standards of scholarship. Webb was named one of the 500 Most Influential Muslims in the World by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center in 2010.
Shukran ya shaykh. I’m really loving these short translations and the Arabic quotes!
Assalamu Alaikum Sh. Suhaib,
I read in Kitab at-Tanwir fi Isqat at-Tadbir, many places where Ibn ‘Ataullah advises the salik, never to despair of Allah providing provision for him, citing such examples as:
-Will not the one who provided for you protection and sustenance when you were a clot in the womb, and brought you up to your state of independence, provide for you now?
-Does not the man who saves and works to provide for children he has not even had yet, put so much effort into that provision. Is not Allah infinitely greater than this, who provides for His Slaves while knowing every matter of their seen and unseen.
And many other such examples.
In addition, we are given the ayah:
“And do not kill your children out of fear of poverty; We shall provide for them and for you”
Question:
When we are confronted with daily images of people, Muslim and non-Muslim, in places like Africa, literally dying of hunger and famine, where there is no provision that they can eat, dying in the thousands, how are we supposed to understand this verse?
Does the meaning of the aayah then become metaphorical and in regards to rizq in the Hereafter? Please help us understand?