Find Your Submission in Faith

Every single moment that you live through is just a little part of the bigger plan - a plan that may take a long time to unfold, but when it does, you just sit there, blown away - wondering about your whole existence.

Little did I know that I do not have to fight for healing, but ask for it - and asking demands submission - submission in faith. Submission holds a sacred place in my heart, it’s more than just accepting. It’s accepting within your heart, declaring with your tongue, and showing with your actions.

Islam literally means “complete submission [to the will of God].” Consciously and willingly worshipping the one God, Allahﷻ - in humbleness of His love, the awe of His power and authority, and as a purpose of our creation.

Allahﷻ says, “I have not created men except that they should worship Me” [Quran, 51:56].

And just with this one verse, our whole life can turn around - there is so much to ponder over this one verse - and understand it all - Amongst all the lessons in this verse, the one that resonates the most with the topic we are on is that “distance from our purpose of creation is the catalyst of chaos; all the hurt, pain, struggles, and worries”.

But you know where the beauty is?

The beauty of understanding your existence, and its purpose is in those moments of falling when there is no one to hold you except Allahﷻ. Love is valued and lived when you experience it, and not just told, which comes only from acceptance.

Acceptance peeks through in patience, comes in gratitude, and grows in repentance, manifesting itself into submission - which ultimately heals you.

Who are we submitting to?

Created by the creator, and for the creator, who are we submitting to?

Mostly love! It makes us do many things. Be it then the love of things, the people, or your very own self - because love is perfection, and perfection is for Allahﷻ only.

Some people love money so much that they go beyond the limits Allahﷻ has set for mankind. Some do things to please themselves that are not liked by Allahﷻ. Many people fall into things that are strictly prohibited, but their heart wants it.

We never really sit down and evaluate our actions. Most things in life, we do because we want to do those things, we never, for a second, pause and reflect on what our Lord has said about it.

We have lived our lives for our own nafs(desires), and what people want from us - but have we ever put ourselves in a place where our actions are determined by what Allahﷻ says? SubhanAllah.

"Still, there are some who take others as Allah’s equal—they love them as they should love Allah." [The Quran 2:165]

If someone let the love of anything between himself and Allahﷻ, then he has worshipped that thing. Any act, be it big or small, if disapproved by Allahﷻ, doing it is like standing up against Allahﷻ.

When He calls us for prayer, and we do not pray, it's straight away standing up and saying, no I am not going to pray. When we act upon any impulse of ours that does not align with the command of our Lord, we are standing up and saying, no we will do it.

"And if you obey most of those upon the earth, they will mislead you from the way of Allah. They follow not except assumption, and they are not but falsifying." [6:116]

So, the question is who are we submitting to?

Submission is liberation

SubhanAllah, from grasping for one single breath to breathing with an open, peaceful heart - it only was one thing - submission to Allah ﷻ - and there were a million things my heart still cannot grasp, and my soul can never be grateful for.

If you please can, for a single moment, just imagine that all you have to do in your life is to please one God - and not a million people, every single day, who still would never be satisfied - only then you will understand how easy your life is.

For once, just understand that if you’d take your heart out and put it on a golden plate and serve people, it is never enough. There will always be something missing or complaining.

How many miles do we go for people, and yet they are not satisfied or pleased with us?

And listen to what Allahﷻ says;

The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "Allah says: 'I am just as My slave thinks I am, (i.e. I am able to do for him what he thinks I can do for him) and I am with him if He remembers Me. If he remembers Me in himself, I too, remember him in Myself; and if he remembers Me in a group of people, I remember him in a group that is better than they; and if he comes one span nearer to Me, I go one cubit nearer to him; and if he comes one cubit nearer to Me, I go a distance of two outstretched arms nearer to him; and if he comes to Me walking, I go to him running."

My Lord sees one good thing in me, and He guides me. My Lord, see one sincere intention, and He welcomes me. My Lord sees one little tear of misery falling on my cheek and He holds me - telling me, "Your Lord ˹O Prophet˺ has not abandoned you, nor has He become hateful of you." [93:3]

How can we ever repay the mercy of our Lord, we never can - and in this life, every single moment, be it the best or the worst, I submit. I submit to my one Lord, Allahﷻ for being this kind to me.

I won’t say half of your problems - I will wholeheartedly say that all of your problems go away when you surrender your life, your emotions, and your actions in serving Allahﷻ.

There is just rising high and above with Allahﷻ - mentally, emotionally, and physically, in every way it is possible, and even not possible.

The concept of submission is so vast and beyond what I can ever say. No word of mine can do justification for what my heart feels - but I want to share this contagious beauty of Allahﷻ with you all.

You know, Allahﷻ is the most exalted and high. The more you get closer to Allah the higher you get. And with Allahﷻ, the closest you can be to Allah is when you lower yourself to the lowest - it’s sajadah(prostration).

SubhanAllah. Allahﷻ loves beauty. And the beauty of lowering yourself for Allahﷻ is not in a demeaning way but in a humble manner.

A prostration is a physical action of putting your head on the ground, which connects directly to our hearts. Our head physically is the highest place of the body, and symbolically, the head is a sign of pride.

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “The closest a slave is to his Lord is when he is prostrating” (Muslim).

The lowest place where you can be the highest is sujood(prostration), closest to your Lord. SubhanAllah my heart burst with awe and love. When you go to Allahﷻ and lower yourself in prostration, it is lowering your ego. It’s humbleness. It’s a submission of an abd(slave) to the malik(master). It’s acceptance of your weakness, flaws, and sins - it’s liberation of your soul from the shackles of this world, and living in your faith.

Submission is an integral part of faith

Submission to Allah is an integral part of our faith. A person declaring faith enters into Islam. Faith is built on five;

It is narrated on the authority of 'Abdullah son of 'Umar that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said:

Islam is raised on five(pillars), testifying that there is no god but Allah, that Muhammadﷺ is His bondsman and messenger, and the establishment of prayer, payment of Zakat, Pilgrimage to the House (Ka'ba) and the fast of Ramadan.

Missing out on any one pillar of Islam does not complete our faith, no matter what we say or feel.

The Faith(iman) is not just believing in لا إله إلا الله, but;

“The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: 'Faith is knowledge in the heart, words on the tongue and action with the physical faculties. (limbs of the body).”

It is important to understand that for our faith to be complete we need to align what our heart believes, with our words, and into our actions.

Submission does not happen until we know Allahﷻ the way He deserves to be known - through the Quran, the Sunnah of our beloved Prophet Muhammadﷺ, and through our hearts.

Quran is logical reasoning and our heart is a vessel, it cannot hold the entirety of the being of Allahﷻ, His mercy, love, power, and kindness - but whatever it holds, must be free of any mixing. It’s the magnificence and glory of our Lord, Allahﷻ that He cannot be in a heart that is already full - full of worldly desires.

To know Allah, we have to first come out of our very selves. We have to let go of this piercing, tingy “I”.

“I” is nothing. “I” am nothing. “I” is the biggest hindrance to knowing Allahﷻ. It is everywhere, in all our acts and thought processes. Who am I?

We need to know Allahﷻ for who He is, not for who we are and how we see Him.

You know anything that does not have the slightest gap or space of personal opinion, is mentioned clearly by Allahﷻ. And that is why Allahﷻ in the very opening of the Quran, describes Himself clearly. But you ever noticed that amongst all His divine attributes, He chose to mention His attributes of mercy, Ar-Rehman, Ar-Raheem the first - SubhanAllah.

When we submit to Allahﷻ, we not only acknowledge His power and His greatness but also acknowledge our weakness and our need for Him. This brings us a deep sense of humility, gratitude, and repentance. Gratitude for Allahﷻ being our Lord, and repentance for not being able to worship Him as we should.

Submission to Allah is a journey, not a destination. It is a process of growth and transformation. As we submit to Him, He will continue to guide us and heal us. He will give us the strength to overcome our challenges and the wisdom to live a life that is pleasing to Him.

Why do we lack complete submission?

Our heart does not align with our actions. Most of our time is spent living the worldly life, which distances us from the true purpose of our life, from our source of existence, provision, and sustenance.

Submission is to align and live our lives according to Allah’sﷻ divine decree. The reasoning Islam speaks about is to reason the magnificence of Allahﷻ, his creation, our actions, and emotions - not to question the decree of Allahﷻ the most-high itself, who exists pre-eternally to eternity, in His absoluteness, as opposed to the existence of His creation.

This is where we have to let go of “I”.

The “I” we need to focus on is where my worry lies. Is it in pleasing the world or Allahﷻ? Is my thought process aligned with Allahﷻ or my nafs?

My Patience is healing in Submission

It was narrated from Anas bin Malik that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said:

"When Allah loves a people He tests them." [Sunan Ibn Majah 4031]

When we face hardship, are we focusing on Allahﷻ that whatever befalls us, is chosen by Allahﷻ for us? It is from my Lord, it can never be bad for me - I do not see it, but my Lord, Allahﷻ, sees and also knows it all, in His divine wisdom. Our patience is to be aware of Allahﷻ when anything befalls us, and not drown into "I".

Born without a father, seeing Hisﷺ mother dying at the age of 6, and grandfather at the age of 8, taken care of in someone else’s house, losing every family support, His wife, His uncle, having nothing to eat for days, sleeping on the mats that would cause Hisﷺ back have imprints of the roughness of it, being tortured by His own people, bleeding of oppression, yet THE MOST BELOVED TO ALLAH. THE MOST HONORABLE, TRUTHFUL, HIGHEST, KAMIL(complete) MAN WHO LIVED ON THIS EARTH EVER - OUR BELOVED PROHET MUHAMMADﷺ, was tested the most.

Where are we? Nowhere ever close to the level of our beloved Prophet Muhammadﷺ. Yet, where we are?

Our first response is why me?

Who is me? Nothing.

We all know that Allah tests those whom He loves - but we do not want to ever focus on what is the response of the people Allah loves.

When the people of Taif, some were from Hisﷺ maternal family side in those people, stoned Himﷺ to bleeding that Hisﷺ shoes were filled with blood - what was Hisﷺ response? And not to forget that this was the greatest period of grief in Hisﷺ life. Yet, what was Hisﷺ response?

SubhanAllah. I want you to imagine that our Prophet Muhammadﷺ was 49 years of age at that time, and recently had, in the same year lost Hisﷺ wife and uncle. Hisﷺ visit to Taif was an attempt to establish himself there, because now without the support of Hisﷺ uncle’s protective support, it was hard for Himﷺ to stay in Mecca because of tribal oppression, and life threats. SubhanAllah - can you imagine the state of the heart of our Prophetﷺ in those moments? He thought His relatives from Hisﷺ mother’s side in Taif would accept the message of Islam, and give him some protection. SubhanAllah.

Where are we? Nowhere!

Our worry is to live up to the world and people. We live for the world so much that we barely get any time to focus on connecting ourselves to Allahﷻ in a way that takes us to Him whenever anything happens.

When we submit to our Lord, we understand that Allah’sﷻ existence is not bound by or dependent on any external factor of time, space, quality, or quantity - it’s us, who need Him, need Him direly, in our entirety.

Allahﷻ is the creator who cannot be created, and the created cannot exist without the creator - it means there is no start or end to the Lord - He just existed, exists, and will exist till eternity.

This is where my patience breaks and my heart wants to cry in awe of my Lord and shame of my own misery - my “I” that I always focused on. My incapability and my ignorance of staying distant with my Lord.

Speaking of patience, Prophet Ayyub bore his illness for years but never complained once. Some historians say his illness lasted three years, and some claim from seven, up to eighteen years.

Never did Prophet Ayyub lament, grow angry, or reject the fate that Allahﷻ had decreed for him. His illness was so severe that no limb of his body was free of it except his tongue and heart. But, day and night, throughout the pain and difficult times, Prophet Ayyub would praise his Lord.

What was His response?

One day, his(as) wife asked him, why he did not supplicate to Allahﷻ to relieve him of his illness.

Prophet Ayyub replied, “I lived for seventy years in prosperity and health why shouldn’t I be patient for the sake of Allah for seventy years.”

SubhanAllah.

Prophet Yaqub(as) cried for 40 years in the sorrow and love of his son Yusuf(as) that he even lost his sight at one point, but never did he complain to Allahﷻ but bore patience.

Only if we ever had seen ourselves as an abd(slave) of Allahﷻ, and had a heart’s connection with Allah and to our Prophets, only then we would have known what wrong we have been kept doing to our souls - for not seeing Allah’sﷻ divine decree and wisdom, but fixate on our ownself, and capabilities.

Allahﷻ is the source of all the good and power we are given. We need to understand that the good that we do comes from Allahﷻ. We are only capable of doing it when He gives us Taufeeq(capability). And exactly like this, if something occurs us, do you think it befalls us without the knowledge of Allahﷻ?

For an aching heart, there is nothing bigger and better than the moments of drowning, when you are desperate for an anchor - and that anchor is only Allahﷻ, the rest is a mirage, an illusion.

But, being weak, fragile, flawed, and the most imperfect beings, we do come across this question why did it happen to me? For that, I have just one answer for myself, and for us all, gratitude, and reliance in Allahﷻ.

You may ask why!

My Gratitude is healing in Submission

When I sit back and ponder upon my whole life, there is this one thing that makes and breaks my heart a million times - My Lord, Allahﷻ.

My heart breaks for I have been so distant from Allahﷻ, and my heart is restored with the fact that it is never too late with Allahﷻ, if your intentions are sincere, and your effort is pure. SubhanAllah.

I have loved a few things in life, and I do not feel bad to say that I did not get them - but I feel proud to say that Allahﷻ has given me even better things other than those, and one particular thing for which I will submit my whole in gratitude to Allahﷻ, is His guidance.

SubhanAllah! You know, my sense cannot grasp the thought that if Allahﷻ does not will, not a thought can come to our minds, then being able to leave things for Allahﷻ, and embarking on a journey towards Him, is nothing but His mercy on me.

It’s not us, nothing is in our capacity - it’s the mercy of Allahﷻ who chooses people - and what baffles me is that He also chooses the most sinning ones, equally as He chooses His loved ones.

That gratitude to Allahﷻ for giving me this sense, this guidance is enough for me to spend my life in His submission. SubhanAllah. If He did not will it, I would have been still living a life where I would not worry if I had prayed for weeks. SubhanAllah, my heart.

You know when you get to know Allahﷻ, after losing everything or after being tested so much, only then you realize how beautiful it was all. That struggle, that particular hardship that brought you to Allahﷻ becomes the most believed to you - because without that, there is no way you would reach where you are today.

One, amongst many beautiful moments of submission, that most cherishing to me is when my heart says Alhumdulillah for the hardships I went through - because that is my asset, those moments of misery and breaking are closest to my heart and will ever be. Because without those, I would never have been so desperate to confine in Allahﷻ and know His love.

Have we ever seen our calamity as;

It was narrated from Mus’ab bin Sa’d that his father, Sa’d bin Abu Waqqas, said:

“I said: ‘O Messenger of Allah, which people are most severely tested?’ He said: ‘The Prophets, then the next best and the next best. A person is tested according to his religious commitment. If he is steadfast in his religious commitment, he will be tested more severely, and if he is frail in his religious commitment, his test will be according to his commitment. Trials will continue to afflict a person until they leave him walking on the earth with no sin on him.’”

Here, I submit in gratitude because even the hardship that my Lord sends my way is to save me. SubhanAllah.

And then;

'A'isha reported:

I heard Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) as saying: There is nothing (in the form of trouble) that comes to a believer even if it is the pricking of a thorn that there is decreed for him by Allah good or his sins are obliterated.

When I really internalized this, I could never again feel sorry or bad about my hardships, as I used to. SubhanAllah. I ask for ease, but if Allahﷻ gives me struggle, I know it’s from the one who loves me, knows me the most and is the most wise.

Allahﷻ knows what He is doing - and I only know that this is just a part of a bigger plan.

And when your Lord says;

Allah Does Not Burden A Soul Beyond That It Can Bear (Quran 2:286)

You know, if you ever have asked for something with a sincere heart, there is no way that you won’t get it. And to my weak human capacity, all I could make out of everything that happened to me was that it was my prayer being answered.

A long long time ago, I prayed to Allahﷻ to guide me in a way that I see nothing but Him - even I did not remember that prayer, until one day randomly I saw my prayer posted on a Muslim prayer app, which exactly was, I need prayers for me that Allahﷻ guides me in a way He loves the most. SubhanAllah, this was back in 2017, and I happened to stumble upon it in 2021 again.

It healed me in ways I can never explain, and I am grateful enough - for He listened to the best of my prayer among all.

It was the time when I was in a major transition in my life - and all my tongue could say was Alhumdulillah and SubhanAllah. I cried for 2 days, and it all made sense to me.

You know, there is this beautiful saying how can you know if it is a punishment or a test? If a hardship brings you close to Allahﷻ, it is a test - that was my healing.

And this is my gratitude that Allahﷻ tested me, and not punished me, despite me being sinning all my life.

For an aching heart that returns to His Lord, there is nothing more valuable than a glance of mercy and forgiveness from His Lord.

And what was next?

My Repentance is healing in Submission

What remains after all that?

Repentance! Seeking forgiveness! Crying and begging Allahﷻ to forgive you for the zulm(oppression) you have done to yourself. For being ignorant of such a merciful and kind Lord.

"Surely Allah does not wrong people in the least; rather it is people wrong themselves." [Sūrat Yūnus:44]

SubhanAllah, this ayah manifested itself in my life after all that realization. That Allahﷻ does not have anything to lose, it’s me, it has always been me, it is us.

When we do wrong, or when we do not obey Allahﷻ, it takes nothing from Him - His majesty remains untouched, but we lose everything. That is how weak we are. That is how fragile and worthless we are, but becoming weak and fragile, and accepting your worthlessness in front of Allahﷻ has its sweetness that never leaves you - I pray that it never leaves me or you.

And then your biggest struggle remains is what to choose when it comes to gratitude, repentance, or reliance. Your only worry remains what to do - be grateful to Allahﷻ, praise Him, or repentant to Him. Time feels so less.

You know my biggest struggle now is to choose the dhikar I should sleep with.

Allahﷻ, may He be glorified and exalted, says:

“It is Allah Who takes away the souls at the time of their death, and those that die not during their sleep. He keeps those (souls) for which He has ordained death and sends the rest for a term appointed. Verily, in this are signs for a people who think deeply.” [Az-Zumar 39:42]

Should I sleep with Asfagfirullah(seeking forgiveness from Allahﷻ), or should I sleep with Alhumdulillah(praising Allahﷻ), or should I sleep with gratitude? My heart bursts with awe and love that there is this lifetime is not enough to praise my Lord.

Because if my Lord does not return my soul in the morning, and if it reaches Allahﷻ in sleep, it should be praising Him, or repenting to Him, or being grateful to Him - ugh! I want to cry, nothing is enough.

My beloved people, this is what our worries should be! This is what must and only concern us. We need to take just one step with sincerity, and how Allahﷻ makes it easy for you is just amazing.

If you hold onto any one of these; patience, gratitude, or repentance, you find your way eventually.

May Allahﷻ keep us close to Him. May Allahﷻ bless us with only things and people who bring us closer to Him. May Allahﷻ take away everything from us that distances us from Him. May Allahﷻ guide us with HIS DIVINE GUIDANCE. AMEEN!