The litany of Sheikh Ebrahim consists of a series of expressions that are extremely common, which, when reflected upon and realised, have the capacity to change the way we understand our lives, and by extension inspire us to excellent conduct and appropriate behaviour. We begin by petitioning The One to cover our ego-driven mistakes, and pledge to make a fresh start by saying ‘Astaghfirallah’. Then we say ‘MashAllah’, reminding ourselves that everything in the universe is as it should be, and occurs according to the Divine Wisdom. After that, we bear witness to the miraculous nature of our existence, acknowledging how fortunate we are even to be alive by exclaiming ‘SubhanAllah’. The next part of the litany is ‘Husbun’Allah wa niamah wakeel’, which has been translated as ‘Allah is sufficient for me, and He is the best of guardians’ or ‘Allah is my sufficiency and protector’.
Stating that Allah is sufficient for us is to know that whatever He has deemed it fit to bring into existence is of such breathtaking perfection and beauty that we need nothing beyond it. We do not need anything more than we already have to bring about change in ourselves. If He has seen it fit to place us in this condition, then we are in a state of complete acceptance and surrender to His Will. We do not expend any energy questioning why, seeking an explanation, yearning for something different, because we have complete trust that His Unending Love for us means that He only creates in our interest. We recognise that our desires, what we want to happen, how we think things should be, all emanate from our egos, from our lower selves, and that our own narrow, ill-informed interpretation of the universe is not to be trusted when compared with the All Encompassing knowledge of the Creator.
Trusting in Him means that it is impossible to be ‘hard done by’ or ‘get the rough end of the stick’, because there is no rough end of the stick, there is only Him and that which He has created. He has has tailor made all of our experiences as a message, in order to help us see the world as it truly is. Everything that happens needs to happen. We need the experiences that we are having in order to grow and develop, in order to change the way we see things. because inner peace, happiness, well-being, and personal excellence are all products of a change in the way that we perceive the world around us.
Happiness and peace are not achieved by attaining everything that we want in the outward realm. We have been fooled into believing that if we obtain a certain car, or a qualification, or a job, we will be happy and contented. But this is not the Islamic perspective. Happiness and peace are products of the way we see the world. They are the product of contentment, of satisfaction with what we have, and acknowledgment that in reality we are the recipients much more than we need or deserve. Happiness is found when we recognise that our concern should not be pursuing more material objects, hoarding wealth, or getting ahead of others. To achieve personal excellence, we have to shift our attention from what we hope to get from a situation towards a concern with what we can give to it.
The person of excellence is not concerned with the outcome, because she knows that the outcome of all events is in the All Merciful, All Loving, All Wise hand of The One. He chooses and selects the outcome of all events from His Mercy, and so the outcome is not her concern. Whatever will be will be by the Will of the Almighty.
But that doesn’t mean she is fatalistic, or that she gives up trying, or that she doesn’t expend energy seeking to improve herself. If she is unwell, she doesn’t sit at home and refuse medication, but rather attempts to make herself better in the best way she knows how. The difference between the person of excellence and people like me is that the person of excellence does not need things to turn out in the way she feels they should in order to be happy, because she has complete Trust in His Ability to act in her interests, she knows that her illness is a message and a lesson from The One. What she pays attention to is how she acts, what she contributes, how she manages the circumstances that she finds herself in, because that is her business. She endeavours to be excellent, to accept and cherish the circumstances that she finds herself in, to serve others, to treat all of creation with dignity and love. Having accepted her condition and circumstances, and having overcome any toxic anger towards Him or the situation, she takes the steps that she believes are best, and then utters ‘HusbunAllah wa niamal wakil’ ‘Allah is my sufficiency and He is the best of guardians.’
The Holy Prophet informed us that these were the words that Prophet Abraham recited when he was thrown into the fire. He was taking care of his own responsibilities, his inner condition. He completely accepted that whatever Allah willed would be beneficial for him. He had no fear, because he sincerely believed that any hardship he would experience was the decree of The One, and in his interests.
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