Ramaḍān - Day 30

There is a very popular Urdu couplet by Poet Ḥālī which states:

خدا نے آج تک اس قوم کی حالت نہیں بدلی
نہ ہو جس کو خیال آپ اپنی حالت کے بدلنے کا.
To this day, God has never changed the condition of a people
Who have no plan of changing their condition themselves.

For a person who has no intention of correcting himself, there is no promise of help and support from Allāh تعالى. Instead, this promise is valid under the condition that he himself thinks and does something about it:

وَالَّذِينَ جَاهَدُوا فِينَا لَنَهْدِيَنَّهُمْ سُبُلَنَا ۚ
And those who strive for Us – We will surely guide them to Our paths.
[Qur’ān, Sūrah Al- ʿAnkabūt (29) verse 69]

The pathways of guidance from Allāh open up only when the urge to have such guidance is present.

Take our own existence and its countless blessings for example. These are not the outcome of our efforts, nor had we ever prayed that we are given such a presence with eyes, nose, ears and the rest of our perfect body. These are wonderful blessings – and we have them without having to ask for them – alḥamdulillāh.

However, the right to deserve blessings and to become worthy recipients of the fruits of the Divine promise cannot be received without making one’s effort to earn it.

Should a people keep waiting for Divine rewards without putting in due efforts and deeds, it would amount to nothing but self-deception.

[Maʿāriful Qur’ān, Volume 5]

Moulana Huzaifa Saleh