Reflections • With the Divine

The Might of Tawakkul

October 10, 2009

2 min read

Sometimes we don’t realize how weak we are as humans. We assume success and ease is what we accomplished ourselves, but what we fail to see is how God supports us through our paths. It’s like the ground we walk on – we fail to appreciate it and become arrogant in ourselves.

Had God taken His Support away, then we would realize the burden of doing one simple task. The magnitude of our need of God manifests when we are left on our own. When God places hardship in our path, our trust in Him stumbles, and we sometimes turn away, thinking we can accomplish success in other ways. We rant and rave as though we know what is best. But we find that path to be a struggle, not because God deserted us, but because we deserted the trust in God.

Yet, even then, His Mercy extends so far that He still continues to show us better paths, and helps us to return to Him.

It is sufficient for the believer to wander blindly, on the path of God, as blindness on God’s path is not being blind – it is beyond any illumination, for God does not forsake us – rather His Light of Guidance is our limbs and our sight.

And whoever relies upon Allah – then He is sufficient for him.

(Qur’an, 65:3)

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.

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