The Level of Devotion We Should Have to Allah

[AceOfHearts]

The Level of Devotion We Should Have to Allah

Bangladesh fishermen missing at sea
By Al Jazeera on 23/09/2007

Fishermen risk their lives every year amid storms
and floods in the region [EPA]

More than 100 fishermen in Bangladesh are missing after at least 15 boats sank in a storm in the Bay of Bengal.

The port authority in Chittagong, Bangladesh, issued an international maritime alert on Sunday, advising ships and fishing boats to remain in shelters until further notice.

Heavy seas prevented rescue operations, but the authorities said that they would start a search as soon as the weather improved.

Meanwhile, fishermen who survived said that they saw several boats sink.

There is an important lesson to be learnt from the above. Those men who past the brink of death all went through a phase. This phase is the most helpless moment in ones life. When they realised they had no other way but to turn to Allah for help, they most probably sincerely seeked Allah's help in manner in which they never did before.

In that moment, they surrendered themselves completely to the will of Allah. They knew, they had no protecter, save Allah. The only rescuer is Allah. The only one who could hear their cries, is Allah. The only one who could rescue them from their plight is Allah. The Most-Powerful was Allah.
This feeling of complete surrendering to Allah was probably never experienced by them before.

Allah calls on us to draw lessons from this:

"It is He who conveys you on both land and sea so that when some of you are on a boat, running before a fair wind, rejoicing at it, and then a violent squall comes upon them and the waves come at them from every side and they realize there is no way of escape, they call on Allah, making their religion sincerely His: "If You rescue us from this, we will truly be among the thankful." But then, when He does rescue them, they become rebellious in the earth without any right to do so. Mankind, your rebelliousness is only against yourselves. There is the enjoyment of the life of the world and then you will return to Us and We will inform you about what you did." (Qur'an Surah Yunus: 10:22-23)

An important tendency of man is identified above. It is that when Allah rescues him, he returns to his former ways. He forgets that it was him who implored Allah helplessly and made promises of being more devoted to Allah when he was in that life threatening situation.

The Qur'an says "they make their religion sincerely His (Allah's)" when they are encountered with this life-threatening situation at sea. This means that this is the level of faith, nearness to Allah, and complete surrender we should have to Allah, at all times, making our religion entirely His. We should always rely on Allah and always know that it is Him who takes us into the depths trouble, and it is Him who brings us out of it. We should remain surrendered to His will at all times through out our lives and remain surrendered to Allah when we speak to others, when we pray, when we do anything in life.

When encountered with a life-threatening situation, all false idols, such as wealth, children, education and spouses which some people take, are made meaningless. He realises that the only true deity is Allah, and that he has no protector except for Allah. This is fact is explained in the following Verse:

When harm occurs to you at sea, those you call on vanish - except for Him alone! But when He delivers you to dry land, you turn away. Man truly is ungrateful. Do you feel secure against Him causing the shore to swallow you up or sending against you a sudden squall of stones? Then you will find no one to be your guardian. (Qur'an, Surat al-Isra: 17:67-68)

It should be apparent the level complete devotion and submission required of us by Allah at all times. We shall not call upon, glorify, seek the approval of or praise any being except for Allah. Once Allah removes the threat, we should remain in that state of submission to Allah, if not more. We should be grateful to Allah for removing the danger/trouble, take the new opportunity to improve ourselves and conduct to that which would be more pleasing to Allah. Never forget that it is Allah that removed the burden from you, and He can put you in the same or similar burden again, if He wills. Allah disapproves of the kind of attitude ignorant people take:

When harm touches man, he calls on Us, lying on his side or sitting down or standing up. Then when We remove the harm from him he carries on as if he had never called on Us when the harm first touched him. In that way, We make what they have done appear good to the transgressors. (Qur'an, Surah Yunus: 10:12)

Indeed, the word "Muslim" means to 'surrender/submit (to Allah)'. Despite the abuse the word takes, one can derive the true meaning of it by closely analysing the Qur'an and drawing lessons from its Verses which are full of wisdom like we have done, and live by that definition of being a true Muslim to Allah.

[Zainab_M]

Yes .. this is a very typical characteristic of human nature .. to be immersed in prayers when in distress and to forget their plight as soon as Allah's help arrives.  There are also some who don't just forget Allah after the danger has passed, but act exultant and give themselves the credit for surviving through it.  Needless to say, it is another sad sign of a very weak faith and total lack of perception.  Whereas, a person with good guidance will interpret such a situation in quite the opposite manner.  He or she will look upon Allah's help as yet another sign of His Supreme Existence, and far from forgetting Him after the dificult times have passed away, they will remember Allah's help in times of need as a clear portent from Him and will only feel their faith getting further strengthened.  It's just very unfortunate that the latter are much fewer in number than the former. 

Many thanks for explaining and reminding our readers of this very important matter.  The Verses you've quoted contain the most accurate description of the trends of human mind. 

Hope you are doing well, dear brother.  Allah bless.

[N. Truth Seeker]

Alhumdu lilah brother.  All your thoughts are so well directed.  As usual, u have written on an issue that's like a disease with 90% of the human race.  There are some who forget Allah when He removes the misery from their lives, their are some who grudge Him His due praise and there are some who unhesitatingly go to the depth of arrogance by becoming rebellious against Him each time they suffer.  If you read the writings of secularists when they ponder about the purpose of life - you'll come across a bunch of paragraphs that reflect the minds of people utterly confused.  They are never able to arrive at any conclusions even regarding their own thoughts.  In contrast to this, everything comes so easily into the mind of a true believer who's correctly grasped the cable of guidance. The purpose of life is eloquently and clearly displayed in the Quran.  I mean, for us it's so clear.  and if I hadn't understood the Quran, I would also not understand why those other people are so confused about the purpose of life.  But as Allah has said that there are veils over the hearts and eyes of disbelievers.   

[Heba E. Husseyn]

Very useful and important reminder.  Thanks brother.

[AceOfHearts]

Thanks everyone for your response. I am glad I know you all here. May Allah guide everyone further to true devotion to Him.

Thanks for the beneficial elaboration Sister Zeynab and brother Persian_Thinker.

Sr. Zeynab, you are absolutely right about people attributing it to themselves when Allah brings them out of trouble. For example, recently there was a British Airways plane which quit both its engines (all it had) just short of the runway on final approach to Heathrow, but it managed to make it into the airport boundary short of the runway witout any serious casualties. The amount of praise for the Pilots and the rest of the crew was phenomenal, but do they think about Allah? There has been so many air crashes where despite the Pilot's years of experience and seniority, their skill did not save them from getting killed. Thanks very much for your input sister, I appreciate it as always.

Br. Persian Thinker, I hear what you say. You are 100% right when you say that only when one comes out of misguidance by the permission of Allah, can he realise the level of misguidance in other people and in his old ways. All praises to Allah alone for guiding whom He wills. Thank you for your very beneficial input...I really do appreciate it brother.

Allah does indeed show people His signs, so that they may grow nearer to Him. It is only the wrongdoers who move further away when given His signs.

peace be to all