Carrying the Needle

One of the friends of Allah (swt) — some say Ibrāhīm al-Khawwāṣ, others say it was Ibrāhīm ibn Adham (may Allah have mercy on him) — used to carry a small box, a sewing kit, with him: a needle, a thread, perhaps something to cut with, a small book, and a bottle — that was the whole of his worldly belongings. This is a person of tawakkul. Asked why he carried these things, he explained that the bottle was necessary for making wuḍūʾ,^**** and that the needle and thread were necessary too, because he had no other clothing besides the one piece covering his ʿawrah; and since sitting and sleeping on the floor wears cloth out, torn and old, the needle was used to mend it. Asked whether this went against tawakkul — did Allah (swt) not always take care of every need in the first place — he answered no: this is tawakkul; tawakkul is precisely carrying the needle. It does not affect the concept of tawakkul at all; whatever is going to come will come regardless, but carrying the needle remains a person's own duty.

No one should lay blame elsewhere for failing to fulfil the conditions, the asbāb, of a given undertaking. Failing a class is one's own doing — not the fault of parents, teachers or school; hard work comes first, homework done, discipline kept, preparation made for the test, and only after that is it left to Allah (swt). Requests for "a special dua" arrive constantly — by text message, by picture message, by email — especially before exam time, asking for a dua to help pass a class or an exam. Such duas are indeed given, but the point made at the end is always the same: more than the dua, the studying should have been done in the first place, the hard work put in first. One dua is fiʿlī, a dua carried out through action, through one's own conduct — doing whatever the requirement actually demands — and the other is qawlī, a spoken dua. The spoken dua is well and good, but it too must be made, alongside the dua of action; this is a must for everyone. Once the requirements set by Allah (swt) have genuinely been fulfilled, and still nothing comes of it, it is said: this too is from Allah — whatever comes, comes from Allah (swt), and whatever does not come also comes from Allah (swt), khayrihi wa sharrihi min Allāhi taʿālā, its good and its ill both from Allah Most High. This is belief in qadar, and it belongs to the very substance of tawakkul.