The Fifth Word

Indeed, the One Who created and granted life— the most brilliant miraculous artwork of as-SamadAllah, Who is in need of nothing and no one, while everyone and everything is in need of Him. —is also the One Who provides for life and sustains it. It cannot be anyone other than Him. Do you want proof of this? The weakest and most helpless creatures, such as fruit worms and fish, are the best provided for. The most powerless and delicate creatures, such as children and newborns, consume the finest nourishment.

To understand that obtaining halālThat which is permitted in Islam. livelihood does not depend on power and will, but rather on impotence and need, it is enough to compare fish with foxes, newborns with wild beasts, and trees with animals. Thus, the one who neglects the prayer because of his worries over livelihood resembles a soldier who abandons his training and post and instead begs in the marketplace for provision. However, if someone, after performing the prayer, seeks his livelihood from the kitchen of mercy of the generous Provider of sustenance, and works for it himself so as not to be a burden upon anyone, then that is praiseworthy and noble; indeed, it too counts as worship. Moreover, the nature and spiritual faculties of the human being show that he was created to perform worship. For with regard to the actions and abilities required to continue his worldly life, he cannot even rival a sparrow. Yet with regard to supplications, acts of worship, knowing Allah, and showing his own neediness before Allah—which are necessary for his spiritual life and the hereafter—he is like the sultan and commander of all living beings.

O my soul! If, then, you make the worldly life your aim and work constantly for it, you will lower yourself to the level of a simple sparrow. But if you make the life of the hereafter your aim, regard this worldly life as a means and field for it, and shape your actions accordingly, then you will serve as a great commander of all living beings and become in this world a supplicating servant, and an honoured and respected guest of Allah.

Indeed, Two paths lie before you, and the choice is entirely yours. Ask guidance and success from Arham ar-RāhimīnAllah, the Most Merciful of those who show mercy..