What Does Trusting Allah Mean? Choices, Patience, and Surah Al-Baqarah

1 November 2021

Question: Does our trust in Allah change when everything does not go as we want?

We start a business. There is an outcome we want.

We want to marry. We want to find a job.

We wish for a good future for our child.

Sometimes we remain for a long time before an unfulfilled desire.

At that moment, what we say we know and the feeling we experience can become intertwined.

Verses 106–109 of Surah Al-Baqarah call us to reflect on Allah’s power, help, demands directed at the messenger, and other people’s jealousy.

Is Everything under Our Control?

Verse 106 of Surah Al-Baqarah recalls Allah’s power through the replacement of verses with others or the giving of something similar.

Different interpretations of this verse can be discussed. But the clear reminder we should focus on is that Allah’s power is limitless.

We, however, decide with limited knowledge.

Question: While I do not even know what will happen tomorrow, how can I attribute every outcome to my own power?

People may work very hard and achieve significant success.

Others may work yet not obtain the outcome they expect.

When speaking about the future, we often form definite sentences.

We say, “Next year I will definitely do that.” We say, “Everything will continue this way from now on.”

But we do not know every detail of the next day.

Question: Do I need to lose all my peace today over a future I do not know?

Setting a goal is not wrong.

We need to work to reach it.

But we should also accept that our plans may not always unfold as we imagine.

A person’s becoming wealthy does not show that they have escaped every difficulty.

Another person’s financial hardship does not mean they have lost all their worth.

Both abundance and scarcity bring people different responsibilities.

Let us bear our responsibility to work and make right decisions.

When evaluating outcomes, let us not act as though we possess certain knowledge we do not have.

This thought may direct people toward more measured effort, not inactivity.

We cannot see this difference and consider work worthless.

But neither can we say that all outcomes arise solely from our effort.

In life, we encounter abundance sometimes and hardship at other times.

In one period, our business grows. In another, things become difficult.

One family gains new resources. Another struggles with losses.

We cannot claim to know with certainty the meaning of all these things.

Our part is to know our own limits while continuing to work.

When we do not reach the outcome we want in a task, we can ask ourselves questions.

Did we prepare sufficiently? Did we make a wrong choice?

Are we lacking knowledge? Do we respect others’ rights?

These questions are part of our responsibility.

But even after making every calculation, we may encounter an unexpected situation.

Then we should not see ourselves as the sole power managing everything.

Our part is to work, not to claim definitive ownership of every outcome.

Where Do We Seek Help?

Verse 107 of Surah Al-Baqarah recalls that there is no true protector or helper besides Allah.

While reflecting on protection and help, let us look at the human sense of trust.

When we experience difficulty, we may immediately want someone to rescue us.

Sometimes money, sometimes status, and sometimes a powerful person we know may give us confidence.

But when we make these life’s sole support, our fear may also increase.

Question: When I ask for help, do I remember Allah, or do I see only people’s power?

Let us imagine a company. A program is used for accounting.

The program has been prepared according to certain rules. Invoices, payments, and accounting operations are handled through these rules.

A customer may want the program to work differently on their behalf merely because it does not suit them.

But that desire does not remove the reason the rules exist.

Through this example, people can also consider their own limits.

Question: When a standard does not suit my desire, do I immediately want to change it?

Sometimes we try to arrange realities around our own wishes.

We want a more effortless life. We want to reach our desired outcome immediately.

But learning, waiting, and making an effort are also parts of life.

Remembering Allah’s power helps us consider that we should not tie every outcome to conditions we set.

Let us not confuse our own desire with the standard conveyed to us.

Praying does not mean giving up effort in a task.

Let us ask for help when beginning a task.

Let us continue acting honestly while carrying it on.

And when the outcome comes, let us not forget gratitude.

A businessperson can research to resolve a problem in their own company.

They can develop a new product. They can turn back from mistaken decisions.

Throughout this effort, they can continue seeking refuge in Allah.

Parents need patience and effort while raising children.

Merely expecting a good result without attending to the child or understanding what they experience is not enough.

We need to show love. We also need to set boundaries.

If a child behaves wrongly to receive attention, let us not think only of stopping the behavior.

Let us also try to understand the child’s need.

Trust within a family cannot be built through indifference.

Trusting Allah cannot be an excuse for ignoring the responsibility in our hands.

When the Answer We Want Does Not Come

Verse 108 of Surah Al-Baqarah raises the matter of making demands of the messenger like those previously made of the Prophet Musa.

People’s placing their own desire before truth is an important issue here.

Sometimes, instead of accepting the standard shown to us, we want it changed.

We seek a rule suited to our own comfort.

An employee may know the workplace’s clear rules.

But when they find them difficult, they may expect those rules to change solely for them.

Jealousy sometimes begins very quietly.

A friend’s business grows. Initially, we say we are happy for them.

Then we begin comparing our resources with theirs.

After a while, what they possess may create unrest within us.

Question: How fairly am I evaluating my own life by looking at someone else’s?

People’s resources may differ. Their difficulties also differ.

Someone’s success visible from outside does not mean we know their whole life.

Let us not belittle our own effort by looking at what another person has gained.

Let us not forget the value of the small resources we have either.

When jealousy narrows our thinking, even wishing someone else well may become difficult.

Yet what matures us is returning to our own responsibility, not wanting someone to lose.

Forgiveness and patience matter here, too.

If someone has behaved wrongly toward us, let us preserve our boundary, but not surrender our whole heart to resentment.

This expectation does not always produce a fair result.

In religious matters, too, we should not confuse our own desire with the standard conveyed to us.

Question: Does what seems right to me please me because it is truly right, or because it suits my desire?

Asking a question about a matter is not wrong.

Investigating what one does not understand is valuable.

But a search that begins with a question may, after a while, turn solely into an effort to have one’s own wish accepted.

We need to recognize the distinction here.

Let us not present our own thinking as Allah’s judgment.

Let us distinguish interpretation from what the verse directly says.

Where we do not know, let us continue learning.

Accepting a piece of knowledge may sometimes also require abandoning an old conviction.

This may be difficult, but it is necessary to seek the truth.

Patience and Forgiveness in the Face of Jealousy

Verse 109 of Surah Al-Baqarah speaks of those who want others to turn back from their faith even though the truth has become clear to them.

This verse contains reminders of jealousy, forgiveness, and waiting for Allah’s command.

How does jealousy affect a person’s decision?

We may see someone else’s well-being as our own loss.

When we see what they gain, we may begin to belittle our own resources.

Then we may be swept into the heavy feeling of not wanting another person to be well.

Question: Why should a good thing someone else receives disturb my peace?

We may see ourselves strong one day and struggling the next.

Work we did easily during one period may require more effort in another.

We may fear this change.

But if we make comfortable days of the past our sole standard, we cannot see today’s opportunities either.

Question: Can I undertake a new responsibility when circumstances change?

People may need to learn a task anew.

They may ask for help to adapt to new conditions.

Let trusting Allah not cause us to belittle such effort.

Let us recognize our own limits. Let us continue doing what we can rightly.

Different opportunities exist in everyone’s life.

We cannot determine them all.

So when we see blessings given to another person, let us not forget our own duty.

Someone may have wronged us.

Being patient in this situation does not mean considering what happened right.

But governing our entire life through anger is not right either.

Let us protect our rights when necessary. Still, let us try not to act from resentment.

While considering forgiveness, let us also respect our own boundaries.

We do not have to disregard all someone’s wrongs to forgive them.

Controlling our words in an argument does not mean endorsing the other person’s thinking.

Patience can help people preserve the standard they know to be right.

Today, let us turn and look at ourselves.

How do we behave when the outcome we want does not come?

Do we continue making an effort while praying?

Do we lose our gratitude when seeing another person’s success?

Do we make hasty judgments about a subject we do not know?

Let us not seek the answers to these questions only in our words.

Let us also consider our actions.

If we have a task, let us give it its due.

If there is a problem in a relationship, let us honestly see our own part.

While asking Allah for help, let us also strive to learn and practice what is right.

Question: Into which behavior can I carry my trust in Allah today?

Let us take a small but clear step.

Because true trust is not imagining that every outcome will be as we want, but trying to turn toward what is right in every situation.