Like the Birds

The other hadith: law tawakkaltum ʿalā Allāhi ḥaqqa tawakkulihi la-ruziqtum kamā turzaqu al-ṭayr, taghdū khimāṣan wa tarūḥu biṭānā. If you have the right tawakkul on Allah, Allah (swt) would provide for you like He's providing for the birds: they leave in the morning hungry; they come back at night full. If you have the right tawakkul, Allah is going to provide for you.

The bird leaves in the morning hungry. It doesn't have a refrigerator. It doesn't have a storage. It does not have a bank account. We have bank accounts that have enough money to feed us for the rest of our lives, and the lives of our children and our grandchildren — and we are still afraid. And we still have fear in our hearts. And we're still not fulfilling the commandments of Allah (swt), because we're afraid that we're going to starve to death because of hunger — even though we have enough money to feed ourselves and our descendants for generations.

I mean, how much food do you need to survive? Seven dates a day: multiply seven by 365 days a year. You need a jar of oil — olive oil — and you need 365 loaves of bread, and you need to have a storage, a few barrels of water, and that's it. You can live and survive. And that's going to cost a hundred, two hundred dollars. We have thousands and thousands in our accounts.

So the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) says: if you have the tawakkul of Allah, you would be fed and provided for by Allah like the birds — when they leave in the morning hungry, they come at night full. Who's providing for them? Allah.

But notice, there's something else in the hadith. The people who take the understanding of tawakkul to the extreme, they miss this point. This other thing that would balance the understanding of tawakkul is that the birds did not stay in their nest. They went out in the morning, and they came back at night; they were working all day. The birds — they did not stay in their nests from morning to night. Allah will not feed them that way. They had to leave early in the morning, and they came back at sunset. So they did a lot of work, but then Allah (swt) did provide for them. And this is the understanding, and this is the concept of tawakkul.