What Missed You Could Never Have Struck You

The third mark of maturity in tawakkul is that the heart is not disturbed in a fearful or frightening situation, knowing that whatever missed a person could never have struck him, and whatever struck him could never have missed him. "If only I had done this, I would have passed the exam"; "if only I had not done this, the car would not have had an accident, and no one would have died" — and so the blame falls on oneself. No: what has happened has happened.

Abū al-Dardāʾ (may Allah be pleased with him), one of the most beloved of the companions, was in Makkah after a ḥajj and wished to travel to Syria to visit other Muslims. He was told: do not pass through a particular valley, take another road instead. Asked why, the answer was that an old jinn lived there, known from the hadith of the Prophet (peace be upon him) and found in the reports of the Ṣaḥābah — this is not invented — and anyone who passed through never came back; the jinn killed, murdered, whoever passed that way. In the same situation, most would say astaghfirullāh, there is danger, that road should never be taken. But this was Abū al-Dardāʾ, a companion, a different level altogether — he was at the third stage. He began walking, and walked, and walked, until he reached the area where the jinn lived. Jinn take the most hideous form they can and terrify anyone passing through until they die of fright — they simply faint and die. Abū al-Dardāʾ walked on, likely in dhikr, his heart alive, and the jinn said, "I have got another one," and appeared before him in its most terrifying form. Abū al-Dardāʾ did not so much as look at it.

The jinn was shocked — perhaps he is deaf, perhaps something is wrong with him, perhaps he did not see me — and changed to something even uglier and more frightening still, appearing before him again with a great sound. Abū al-Dardāʾ did not move; not so much as the blink of an eye. It tried a third time; nothing happened. The jinn then took a more ordinary form, tapped him on the shoulder, and said: excuse me, excuse me, stop — are you a human being or a jinn? He said: I am a human being. It said: what kind of human being are you — look at that hill; for the last five or six hundred years I have killed thousands of people there, look at those bones of human beings; this trick has worked on everyone — they have wet themselves in terror and died — but nothing happened to you, who are you, how did it not work on you? Abū al-Dardāʾ gave this answer — the very words already spoken of, the one written on the wall for protection: had Allah (swt) willed for you to strike me and harm me, who could have stopped you? If any harm was to reach me through you, who could have stood in the way of Allah's (swt) will in the matter? And if Allah (swt) did not will for you to harm me — bismillāhi alladhī lā yaḍurru maʿa ismihi shayʾun fī al-arḍi wa lā fī al-samāʾ, aʿūdhu bi-kalimātillāhi al-tāmmāti min sharri mā khalaq — these being the very supplications read for protection — then what could ever make you harm me? Nothing will happen to me. This second answer confused the jinn even more than his first had. It asked again: tell me, who are you? He said: I am one of the companions of Muḥammad al-Muṣṭafā (peace be upon him). It asked: who is he? He is the final messenger of Allah (swt), khātam al-nabiyyīn, Muḥammad al-Muṣṭafā. The jinn asked: has he come out yet — has he declared his prophethood? He said: that is it. I was told long ago that I had permission to do this only until his time, and after that there is no more permission. It said: I quit — no more being a jinn of this kind, no more hurting people, no more killing people, no more frightening people — I quit, and it left, never to be seen again, and that road was opened for the Muslims.

This is a different level of understanding. Taking such a road at the very beginning of one's own practice would draw the accusation of recklessness, of courting danger — but this is an altogether different level, reached only with full belief in the heart that no harm can come except by Allah's (swt) will, and no benefit either, so that regret and self-blame — "if only I had done this, this would not have happened" — is idle. What has happened has happened; what will happen will happen — so long as the conditions are fulfilled first, and the right things done first.