with their hearts, placing their hope in no one else. In this verse the true believers are portrayed through three degrees of iḥsān: fear, an increase of faith, and exclusive reliance upon Allah.
Reliance upon Allah—glorified be He—does not conflict with pursuing the means and making use of them, for Allah the Exalted has decreed outcomes that are tied to causes. He has commanded His servants to employ those causes even as He has commanded them to trust in Him. Thus taking the means is an act of obedience to Allah because He has ordered it; it is a bodily action, whereas tawakkul is an action of the heart and therefore an expression of faith in Allah. The Exalted says, “O you who believe, take your precautions” 1; He says, “And prepare against them whatever force you can” 2; and He says, “When the prayer has concluded, spread through the land and seek of Allah’s bounty” 3.
Some scholars have said, “Whoever disparages movement—that is, striving, earning a livelihood, and taking the means—has disparaged the Sunnah; and whoever disparages tawakkul has disparaged faith itself.”
Imam Ibn Rajab (d. 795 AH) said, “The deeds a servant performs fall into three categories:
- Acts of obedience that Allah has enjoined upon His servants and made a cause for deliverance from the Fire and admission to Paradise. These must be carried out while relying on Allah and seeking His help, for there is no power and no might except with Allah; whatever He wills comes to pass, and whatever He does not will never occurs. Whoever falls short in any of this incurs liability in both this world and the next, by destiny and by law.
Yusuf ibn Asbat said, ‘Work with the diligence of a man who will be saved only by his deeds, and rely with the reliance of a man who will receive only what has been decreed for him.’
- Matters that Allah customarily regulates in this world and has commanded His servants to pursue—such as eating when hungry, drinking when thirsty, seeking shade from the heat, and keeping warm from the cold