What Do We Do If We Cannot Control the Outcome? Causes, Prayer, and Submission

15 November 2021

Question: Does praying mean waiting, or is there also something we need to do while praying?

People want something. They want health, work, marriage, success.

Then they pray.

But if they do not establish the right relationship between prayer and causes, they may swing to one of two extremes.

Either they wait for the outcome without doing anything, or they attribute the entire outcome to their own effort.

In both cases, balance is disrupted.

Prayer Does Not Remove the Need for Causes

When someone close to us is ill, we ask Allah for healing. But we do not stop seeking a doctor, researching treatments, and doing what we can.

For prayer does not mean an absence of causes.

Prayer means knowing where we seek help as we set causes in motion.

If we have a goal, we make the preparations needed to reach it. Students study for exams. Those establishing a business learn their profession. Those getting married consider their responsibilities.

Question: Is merely wanting the outcome without setting causes in motion truly reliance on Allah?

No. Leaving our own part undone and asking Allah for the outcome means failing to see our own responsibility.

But the opposite is also wrong.

We cannot consider the outcome certain simply because we have worked.

People may do everything they can, yet the outcome they want may still not occur. This is where submission is tested.

Why Can We Not Fully Know the Outcome?

People see only a small part of the moment they live in.

Sometimes we do not know what something we consider good for us will bring afterward. Nor do we know what outcome will emerge from an event we consider bad.

The story of Moses and Khidr is thought-provoking here. It is easy to judge immediately after a visible event. But we do not know the whole chain of causes and consequences.

That is why we cannot say, “I want this, so it must be good.”

We ask our Lord for what we want. We set its causes in motion. But we leave the outcome to Allah’s knowledge.

The prayer in Surah Al-Isra, “Let me enter in truth and leave in truth, and grant me supporting strength from Your presence,” also reminds us to seek our Lord’s support when entering and leaving an undertaking.

Question: When beginning something, do we ask only for success, or also to enter rightly and leave rightly?

This difference matters.

For sometimes what we call success may be an outcome gained through the wrong path.

Wanting the Outcome Without Paying the Price

Sometimes people want to obtain the outcome without giving the effort the goal requires.

They seek a shortcut.

Learning a profession takes time, but people want to earn money immediately. A relationship requires effort, but people expect a peaceful family immediately. Knowledge requires study, but people want to know immediately.

This way of thinking may lead us to pursue “luck” and easy earnings.

Yet consumption does not come before production.

For something to emerge, effort, time, patience, and causes are needed.

An outcome without a price may not give us experience.

We learn by doing a task. We make mistakes, correct them, and try again. Thus we not only reach the outcome, but also develop a character capable of sustaining it.

When we immediately give a child everything they want, learning the relationship between wanting and making an effort may become difficult.

The same applies to ourselves.

The more we seek ease, the more quickly we may fall apart when we encounter difficulty.

There Is a Test Whether the Outcome Happens or Not

People often look for the test only in failure.

Yet the test continues when the outcome we want occurs, too.

We established a business and made a profit. Will we say, “I did it,” or also recognize the opportunities that produced this outcome?

A goal was not fulfilled. Will we say, “Allah has abandoned me,” or acknowledge that we do not know the outcome and look for new causes to set in motion?

Awareness is needed in both situations.

Arrogance in success and rebellion in failure may lead us to the same loss of balance.

Question: Does our relationship with our Lord also change when the outcome changes?

If we give thanks only when we get what we want and sever all ties when we do not, we may have placed our desire before Allah.

Reliance on Allah does not mean belittling the outcome.

We care about the outcome, but we do not make it the sole meaning of life.

The Choice Is Ours; Not All the Outcomes Are Ours

People are responsible for their own choices.

We cannot use our family, genes, and surroundings as reasons to attribute all our choices to them. We see that even people raised in the same home can make different choices.

The stories of Abel and Cain, Jacob’s children, and Joseph also prompt us to consider that people in the same environment do not have to make the same choice.

Anger may come over us. But we decide what we will do.

An opportunity may appear before us. We choose the lawful or unlawful path.

We can set causes in motion for a goal. But we cannot control another person’s will or all the circumstances in the world.

Knowing this distinction brings relief.

We take responsibility in the area we can control. In the area we cannot control, we do not see ourselves as a god.

What Will We Do?

First, let us define our goal clearly.

Then let us consider which causes we need to set in motion for that goal.

If we want a job, let us obtain the necessary training. If we want to repair a relationship, let us review our own behavior. If we want to learn something, let us make an effort.

Then let us pray.

But while praying, let us not impose on Allah the condition that the outcome must take the form we want.

Question: Which outcome do we want in our lives today without sufficiently setting its causes in motion?

Let us choose one.

Let us do the one concrete thing we can do today for that goal. Then let us ask Allah to open the right door, protect us from the wrong door, and turn the outcome toward good.

For a person’s task is not to control everything.

A person’s task is to set the right cause in motion and leave the outcome to their Lord.

Prayer does not replace work; nor does work remove our need for Allah.

We Need One Another, but No One Owns the Outcome

People do not live alone.

We form relationships with other people for both our material and spiritual needs. We may need a doctor’s knowledge, a craftsman’s labor, or a friend’s support.

This mutual need shows that causes often take shape through people.

But we should not turn the person who serves as a cause into the absolute owner of the outcome.

An employer may give us a job. A teacher may impart knowledge. A doctor may administer treatment.

But none of them can guarantee the entire outcome.

Question: Do we sometimes begin to see the cause as the power that creates the outcome?

People may sometimes become excessively attached to others because of this misconception. They may say, “Without that person, I am finished.”

Yet causes can change. A new person, a new path, or a new opportunity may emerge.

We respect causes and give effort its due, but we do not base the support of our hearts solely on them.

The pursuit of shortcuts should also be reconsidered here. Reaching an outcome through luck or easy earnings may not provide the accumulated experience that outcome requires.

When something gained today is lost tomorrow, the skill to rebuild it may not be there.

Therefore, instead of becoming angry and asking, “Why isn’t it happening immediately?” let us consider which causes that outcome requires.

Sometimes a delay is time given for preparation.

Sometimes we may later realize that what we wanted was not suitable for us.

Let us hold firmly to causes and give people their due, but entrust the outcome to no servant and no shortcut.