A lesson of Tawakkul

One of the most fundamental pillars for Muslims is the concept of Tawakkul, which is often defined as trust and reliance in Allah. However, many people misunderstand the concept of Tawakkul. They see Tawakkul as a passive, verbal characteristic which simply involves supplicating to Allah for what we want.

However, there’s an incident from Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH) life that shows a clear perspective on Tawakkul.

One day the Messenger of Allah (PBUH) noticed a ‘bedouin’ (desert Arab) leaving his camel without tying it, and he asked the man, “Why don’t you tie down your camel?” The ‘bedouin’ answered, “I put my trust in Allah.” The Messenger of Allah (PBUH) then said, “Tie your camel first, then put your trust in Allah.” (Tirmidhi)

This is a short hadith, but it carries an important lesson for us. If you have any kind of animal, you always tie it down so that it doesn’t run off when you’re gone. However, in this hadith, the man wasn’t tying down his camel before leaving it. When Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) asked the man why he didn’t do it, the man explained that he was trusting Allah to keep his animal from running off. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) replied for the man to first tie his camel down and then put his trust in Allah.

From Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH) response, it’s obvious that this man didn’t understand what trusting Allah was. He thought that Tawakkul meant expecting Allah to take care of everything without the person putting forth any effort. The Prophet’s (PBUH) advice demonstrates trusting Allah (Tawakkul) isn’t just a verbal and passive trait. Instead, Tawakkul is an active trait, meaning that we show Allah our trust by taking action toward what we are trying to accomplish. In other words, we must do our part first with our actions before trusting that Allah’s Divine help will come.

If Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and his companions had to be proactive and patient in their trusting of Allah, then we as Muslims should learn to do the same.

Realize that there is really nothing that we can control other than our own actions and our attitude. We can’t control what our spouse does. We can’t control what our parents do. We can’t even control what our children do. All we can control is what goes on in our mind and what we do with our limbs.