Seeking Allah's Help, and Doing One's Best

Another lesson is istighāthah, seeking assistance from Allah. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), after he prepared the army, and trained them, and lined them up, and gave them his instructions, and chose the best location — after all of that, he went aside, and began making duʿāʾ — and that is the meaning of tawakkul: to do one's best, to exhaust the worldly means, and then to depend on Allah, Mighty and Majestic. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) did his best, in everything he was capable of doing in this world, in preparing for this battle, and only after that did he begin making duʿāʾ to Allah, Mighty and Majestic. Allah does not give victory to those who sit at home, comfortable, and simply raise their hands and say, O Allah, give me victory, O Allah, give the Muslim Ummah victory; one has to stand up and do something — one has to do one's best, and then ask Allah, Mighty and Majestic, to give the outcome. This applies to everything.

ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb once saw some people walking lazily, as though they were zuhhād, ascetics, and asked: who are these? They said: these are al-mutawakkilūn, those who rely on Allah. So he went and beat them with his stick, and said: the sky does not rain gold and silver — you have to go out and work. This is the meaning of the report the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) mentioned, as ʿUmar himself related: if you were to place the right tawakkul on Allah, Allah would provide for you as He provides for the birds — they leave in the morning hungry, and come back at evening full, a report given by al-Tirmidhī. Here the birds did not stay at home; they went out, and worked the entire day — and that is the meaning of tawakkul: one does one's best, but does not depend on one's own effort, does not depend on one's own intelligence, does not depend on anything in this world, but depends on Allah.

So the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) prepared the army, lined them up, gave them instructions — but did not depend on that; he went aside, and began making duʿāʾ, and he was so involved in the duʿāʾ, and the duʿāʾ was so long, that Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq felt for him and said: O Messenger of Allah, that is enough — Allah will give you what He promised you, Allah has already promised you, a report preserved by Muslim. There must be istighāthah with Allah, Mighty and Majestic, a dependence on Allah, Mighty and Majestic — but one must also do one's best. One does not simply do one's best and forget the duʿāʾ, and one does not simply make duʿāʾ and forget to do one's best; the two go hand in hand.