It was an early morning at my university. There were not many people around. It was raining hard. There was this girl standing aloof from the crowd. With her arms folded, she was staring at the sky. I could see that she was deep in thoughts. Confused? Nervous? Scared? Maybe. Her friends joined her soon but her mind was somewhere else. She was holding something and reading from it.
O Allah! I seek Your counsel by Your knowledge and by Your power I seek strength and I ask You from Your immense favor, for verily You are able while I am not and verily You know while I do not and You are the Knower of the unseen. O Allah! If You know this affair [this matter] to be good for me in relation to my religion, my life, and end, then decree and facilitate it for me, and bless me with it. But if in Your Knowledge, You know [this matter] to be ill for me towards my religion, my life, and end, then drive it away from me and drive me away from it, and decree for me what is good wherever it be and make me satisfied with such.
Putting one’s complete trust in Him gives the heart so much peace and this I was realizing at this moment. Standing in the rain, in this position of humility before Him, making dua with all my heart, I was feeling content. I pulled out my Qur’an and ALLAH TA’ALA brought this verse up:
Whatever Allah grants to people of mercy-none can withhold it; and whatever He withholds-none can release it thereafter. And He is the Exalted in Might, the Wise (35:2)
What He wills, happens and what He does not will ,does not happen. And what He does is always, always the best. This reminded me of another ayat:
And if Allah should touch you with adversity, there is no remover of it except Him; and if He intends for you good, then there is no repeller of His bounty. He causes it to reach whom He wills of His servants. And He is the Forgiving, the Merciful (10:107)
This shows that nobody is in control of our affairs but He.
O mankind, you are those in need of Allah, while Allah is the Free of need, the Praiseworthy (35:15)
We need Him in all that we do. Dua e istikhara is a very profound dua. It gives a person conviction and helps one take the big leap into a decision. A decision that is good for us here and Hereafter in sha ALLAH. And as Imam Al Ghazali puts it:
You must convince your heart That whatever Allah has decreed Is most appropriate
And most beneficial For you.
As the university campus started filling up with students and the rain ceased, I saw her walking to class with a smile. A satisfaction in that smile. She had just handed everything over to Al-Wakeel (the Best Disposer of affairs) Who she knew would never disappoint.Ever.
blessed.are.the.ghuraba :) 