The first is the obligation to rely upon Allah for provision, which includes securing benefits, such as food, and warding off harm, as clothing does. No one other than Allah has absolute power to provide food and clothing. Whatever power some servants possess extends only to some of the means of obtaining these things. Hence He says:
“The father is responsible for their provision and clothing according to what is reasonable.”
And He says:
“Do not entrust the foolish with your wealth, which Allah has made a means of support for you, but provide for them from it and clothe them.”
What people are commanded to do is thus within their power. Likewise, He says:
“Or feeding, on a day of severe hunger, an orphan who is a near relative, or a needy person in abject poverty.”
And He says:
“Feed the contented poor and those who approach you in need.”
And He says:
“Eat from them and feed the wretched and poor.”
And He says:
“When they are told, ‘Spend from what Allah has provided you,’ those who disbelieve say to those who believe, ‘Should we feed someone whom Allah could have fed, had He willed?’”
He thus condemns those who neglect what they have been commanded to do, contenting themselves with whatever comes to pass through divine decree. From this we understand that taking a means that is commanded or permissible does not conflict with the obligation to rely upon Allah when that means is present. Rather, our need for Allah and dependence upon Him remain even while we employ the means, for nothing in creation is, on its own, a sufficient cause for attaining what is sought. Consequently, events do not necessarily follow from what may serve as their causes; they do so only by the will of Allah Most High. Whatever Allah wills happens, and whatever He does not will does not happen.
Whoever imagines that employing the means dispenses with the need to rely upon Allah has abandoned the reliance that Allah has made obligatory upon him and has failed in his duty to uphold Allah’s oneness. This is why people such as these are forsaken