Trusting The Maker!

Jabir ibn Abdullah, may Allah be pleased with him, said: "Allah's Messenger (peace be upon him) use to teach us how to seek guidance in choosing the best option available in practical matters, just as he would teach us chapters from the Quran. If one of you is concerned about some practical undertaking, or about making plans for a journey, he should perform two cycles of ritual prayer, not as obligatory observance, but voluntarily. Then he should say: "O Allah, I ask You to show me what is best, through Your knowledge, and I ask You to empower me, through Your power, and I beg You to grant me Your tremendous favour, for You have power, while I am without power, and You have knowledge, while I am without knowledge, and You are the One who knows all things invisible. O Allah, if You know that this undertaking is in the best interests of my religion, my life in this world, and my life in the hereafter, and can yield successful results in both the short term and the long term, then make it possible for me and make it easy for me, and then bless me in it. O Allah, if You know that this undertaking is NOT in the best interests of my religion, my life in this world, and my life in the hereafter, then turn it away from me, and make it easy for me to do well, wherever I may happen to be, and make me content with Your verdict, O most Merciful of the merciful."

Also known as 'istikhara' in Arabic, the strength of this supplication lies in the humility of the one who seeks the guidance of his or her creator. Now, many will pray it dutifully when making big decisions. They may wait for a dream to come to them or some sort of sign that would show them without doubt what it is that they should do. And indeed that sign may come in a very tangible form. And yet, on other occasions, the answers you're looking for may not be entirely tangible. And this is precisely when you have to start trusting.

You need to start trusting in your maker, in His infinite endowments to you. You need to start trusting in your gut, your heart, and mind, because they will know the answers, by His will. We're able to start listening when we begin to trust that HE, too, is listening. And once we can believe that completely, we can become unstoppable, no matter what "unstoppable" may mean.

Compiled From:
"Release Your Inner Queen of Sheba!" - Heba Alshareef, pp. 112, 113