Is Allah not Sufficient for His servant?

Allah, the Supreme being, is fully aware of the weaknesses and short comings of His creations. Though we may, as humans, over-estimate or under-estimate our powers at times but Allah knows how helpless human beings are, How weak at heart or mind we may become. Also only He knows our true potential. We may become weak when we encounter tough times, We may become arrogant over our sucess but this glorious verse gives us the right attitude in life. Allah states that

أَلَيْسَ اللَّهُ بِكَافٍ عَبْدَهُ

[Alais Allahu bekaaf inn abduhu]

" Is Allah not sufficient for His servant"

This is the mind-set and attitude a Momin (beleiver) must maintain in his thought and action at all times. In tough and trying times these affirming words from Allah save us from helplessness and depression and give us peace and confidence. Because we know that neither our skill, planing, worldly resources, people, power or influnece can save us but only Allah can! Hence no matter how tough the situation may be we will not loose hope knowing that Allah will help us find a way.

There is a hadith in Tirmidhi (ترمذی) which states that:

"If you trust Allah with the right kind of tawwakal (توکل) , He will provide you sustenance as He provides the birds- they go out in the morning with empty stomachs and come home in evening with full stomachs"

Allah is sufficient for His Servant for physical needs but also for spiritual needs. He has been sending Prophets to all nations. For complete spiritual nourishement he blessed the world with the Prophet for all nations and all times the Holy Prophet Muhammad Mustafa S.A.W.W. and the Holy Quran.

In times of sucess and acheivements these words help us keep our feet on ground because we owe our sucess to Allah. It is only because of Him that we have been able to do anything at all. As He is sufficient for His servant.

Also this verse no way implies that we stop using our skills and struggle for worldly resources but bear in mind that after putting the best of our effort into something the results may only be acheived with Allah's help. Many times we see in our personal that even though by using everything we have we still cant achieve what we aim because Allah does not will so. And many time we know that we can't do something or something is not possible still we are able to achieve our goal only because of special help from Allah.

If we ponder a little we may see that this verse demands two things from us:

Firstly: to actually believe firmly and realize that Allah is enough for His servant.

Secondly: become a true عبد (servant) so that Allah shows His helping hand for us.

I read in a Tafseer that we must think over Allah's attributes (صفات) This is very important to understand the powers of the supreme being and to make manifest His attributes in our character and have the vision to see His attributes in action around us. For example Allah's attribute الکافی 'The Sufficient' is much helpful in this regard.

To become a true servant we are blessed with not only the complete code in the Holy Quran but also the Quran examplified in the life of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.W) who is a perfect example of a true servant to date. Through these blessings we can color our souls exaclty how Allah wants us to.

If we look at early Islam, who could have said that a one Man from Arab Hazrat Muhammad S.A.W.W. along with a few people will wittness that much sucess? Who could have guessed that this religion would spread to the corners of the earth? Who could have guessed that it would be the leading religion of the world? It was Allah's help, it was His divine support through which Islam saw glory and conqured the world.

History witnesses numerous examples of Allah being enough for His servant. Hazrat Ibrahim A.S. left his wife and son alone in desert as per Allah's order knowing that Allah is sufficient for His servant. Hazrat Yusuf A.S. thanked Allah for his faith even though he was in prison knowing that Allah is sufficient for His servant . Hazrat Mubammad S.A.W.W. never gave up his cause in the strongest opposition and lack of resources knowing that Allah is sufficient for His servant .