LIVING IN A world detached from the Divine, we can easily find ourselves rushing to action, confident in our own abilities and forget that there is a Power beyond us in whose Hands lies all success and victory. Equally, we can be quite fatalistic and inactive, making dua but no effort beyond that.
The genocide in Gaza is a good example where we see both attitudes. The truth however is something in between.
Dua may just be words, but it is a powerful action and a fundamental worship. A humble believer understands he is weak and helpless and that Allah ﷻ is the only One deserving of worship and controls all outcomes.
إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ وَإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ
‘You alone we worship and You alone we ask for help.’ (Fatiha 5)
However, if we think about it, dua is seldom the only thing Allah ﷻ wants us to do. There are always actions that can be done.
When Maryam (as) called out to her Lord in the agony of labour, He ﷻ came to her support. Yet He asked her to shake the palm tree for the fruit to fall.
وَهُزِّىٓ إِلَيْكِ بِجِذْعِ ٱلنَّخْلَةِ تُسَـٰقِطْ عَلَيْكِ رُطَبًا جَنِيًّا
فَكُلِى وَٱشْرَبِى وَقَرِّى عَيْنًا ۖ
‘And shake toward you the trunk of the palm tree; it will drop upon you ripe, fresh dates. So, eat and drink and be contented…” (Maryam 25-26)
Have you tried to shake a date palm tree? Does it budge? And for a woman in labour who can hardly stand due to the pain let alone shake a tree!
Similarly, when Musa (as) stood between the Red Sea and the army of Pharaoh. Allah ﷻ came to his support but He asked him to hit the sea with his stick.
فَأَوْحَيْنَآ إِلَىٰ مُوسَىٰٓ أَنِ ٱضْرِب بِّعَصَاكَ ٱلْبَحْرَ ۖ فَٱنفَلَقَ فَكَانَ كُلُّ فِرْقٍ كَٱلطَّوْدِ ٱلْعَظِيمِ
‘Then We inspired to Moses, “Strike with your staff the sea,” and it parted, and each portion was like a great towering mountain.’ (ash Shu’ara 63)
Have you tried to hit the water with a stick? Does it part?
In these examples, Allah ﷻ shows that we need to act, even if our actions seem small or unimportant. We must do what we can, and Allah will take care of the rest. Ultimately, it is Allah who provides sustenance and can perform miracles like parting the sea. Our feelings of pain, suffering, or weakness are not reasons to avoid taking actions that we can control.
If we examine our Prophet ﷺ and the sahaba, we notice a consistent pattern: they made dua before, during, and after taking action. They asked Allah for help to open people’s hearts and minds while preparing their arguments to spread Islam. Similarly, they sought support and victory in battles, but they still prepared for war by donning armour, strategizing, and taking measures to protect themselves and ensure success.
We always find a link between dua and action. Indeed not taking action can lead to our dua being rejected. The Messenger ﷺ said: “By Him in Whose Hand my life is, you either enjoin good and forbid evil, or Allah will certainly soon send His punishment to you. Then you will make dua and it will not be accepted.” (Tirmidhi)
There are the rare moments when all we can do is make dua. Consider Yunus (as), who was swallowed by a whale and found himself in the dark belly of the whale, deep in the ocean and under the night sky. In that helpless situation, all he could do was dua.
This approach of dua and action is consistent with the reality that we observe.
We understand that Allah ﷻ has given us free will and a space where we can make choices. In this space, we act on those choices hoping for certain results. However, there is another space where we have no control. In that space, it is Allah who determines whether our actions succeed or fail.
It is odd to make dua without taking action. We don’t do that in any part of our lives. Has anyone passed an exam just by making dua? Or found a job, got married, or gone to Hajj? We make dua for these things, but we also take the right steps. We study, search for jobs, gain skills, and attend interviews. We seek a spouse, propose, and plan the nikah. Yet for some strange reason when it comes to our deen, we suspend rationality. Such is the way of the secular mind.
It is also important to remember that appropriate action needs to be taken, not any action. We must do actions that are consistent with what we hope to achieve.
To pass an exam we need to study, not play the latest video game. And even when it comes to studying, we need to study the right subject, and the relevant syllabus and use the relevant styles and techniques to pass the exam.
This is obvious. If we want to pray, we do not fast. When we want to give zakat, we do not go to umrah. The action must be appropriate to the intended outcome either based on textual evidence or by ration.
Going back to Gaza, we sometimes come across a mismatch between action and intended outcomes. The issue is one of military occupation by a state. The solution to occupation is liberation by another state and its military. It isn’t a boycott, charity or petitioning Western governments who created and continue to sustain this genocide.
Whilst getting our armies to move to rescue the Gazans may appear to be very difficult and distant to achieve in our current reality, we need to be able to identify the correct steps (rationally and/or textually) required and then work towards that. It would include decolonising our minds of non-Islamic ideas such as secularism, nationalism, democracy and materialism which have led us astray. It would include building the correct Islamic worldview in the masses and the people of influence that leads to the removal of our current tyrants (something that the people of Bangladesh and Syria have shown can be done in the last year) and reestablishing the Islamic Khilafah on the method of the Prophet ﷺ (which has yet to be done).
It is in that process of working towards fulfilling what is in our control that we can truly be assured of Allah’s promise of His help and victory.
وَأَوْفُوا۟ بِعَهْدِىٓ أُوفِ بِعَهْدِكُمْ وَإِيَّـٰىَ فَٱرْهَبُونِ
Fulfil your covenant and I will fulfil Mine, and fear Me (alone). (al-Baqarah 40)
Otherwise, why should Allah give victory and support to traitors, idle bystanders, the lazy, and those who abandon their duties? Today, we are an ummah that possesses 56 armies that sit idle, watching decades-long oppressed people being annihilated through hunger and suffering. They justify their inaction with mere dua. This is a betrayal of Allah, His Messenger ﷺ, and the believers.
This type of dua without action is in truth an insincerity to the dua and a betrayal. It would mean that we do not really mean what we are asking for. May Allah save us from that.
Living For Islam 