and that I do not dispose of anything You have entrusted to me—my wealth or my very self—except at Your command, just as a slave acts only with his master’s permission; and that I hold no power to bring myself harm or benefit, death or life, or resurrection.

If this witnessing is firmly established in a person’s heart, he has truly said, “I am Your servant.”

He then adds, “My forelock is in Your hand,” meaning: You alone govern me and turn me however You will; I do not manage my own affair. How could he claim any control over himself when his whole being is in his Lord’s hand, his forelock in His grasp, his heart between two of His fingers (1), and his death, life, happiness, misery, well-being, and affliction—all of it—belong solely to Him, exalted is He? Nothing of it lies with the servant. Rather, he is in his Master’s grip, weaker than a wretched, powerless slave whose forelock is held by an overpowering sovereign who owns and subjugates him—indeed, the matter is beyond even that!

Whenever a servant bears witness that his own forelock—and the forelocks of all creatures—are in Allah’s hand alone, who directs them as He wills, he will thereafter neither fear them nor place his hope in them. He will not grant them the rank of owners but that of subdued, owned slaves over whom none but Allah disposes and whose affairs are managed by none but Him.

Whoever perceives himself in this way finds that his poverty and utter need of his Lord become an inseparable trait. And when he views people likewise, he is never dependent upon them, nor does he pin his hopes and aspirations on them. Thus his monotheism, reliance, and servitude become firmly established.

For this very reason Hud said to his people, “I have put my trust in Allah, my Lord and your Lord. There is no creature but that He holds it by the forelock. Indeed, my Lord is on a straight path” (11:56).

(1) A reference to the hadith: “The heart of the servant is between two fingers of the Most Merciful.”