Friday Qur’an Reflections: Have Trust in Allah

I am currently reading Chapter 5: Surat al-Ma’ida or The Table. In verses [20-26], Musa (a) tells the people to enter the sacred land which Allah designated for them. The people refused. Musa (as) tells them:

“Have trust in Allah if you are true believers.” [5:23]

This really shook me; how many instances in my life have been filled with worry and hesitation due to my lack of trust in Allah (swt)? We will never truly know how we will respond to His commandments until we are put in such circumstances. However, if we fail to carry out His commandments in our daily lives, what is to be said about the times that will come when we are tested with something far greater? An act we may consider small may not be “small” at all. It is the “small” sins that we should be the most wary of!

Allah (swt) finishes this verse by saying, “do not feel sad for the evil-doing people.” God forbid our lack of tawakkul (trusting in God) makes us of the evil-doing people.

In verses [27-30], Allah tells the story of the two sons of Adam; Abel and Cain. They each presented a sacrifice but only the sacrifice of Abel was accepted by Allah, whilst the sacrifice of Cain was not. Cain tells Abel that he will kill him, to which Abel replies, “Even if you try to kill me, I certainly will not try to kill you.”

I cannot begin to count the number of instances I have come across, in my life or in others, where the action of one person will leave another person to be full of spite. For example, so-and-so did not invite me to their wedding so I will not invite them to mine! How often do we come across this? Instead of giving our brethren 70 excuses, i.e, perhaps they were on a budget, or simply forgot to send out the invitation, we go on to act as they acted out of pure spite.

I have been guilty of that myself as I’m sure a lot of us have, but it was this story that really put things into perspective for me. Cain threatened Abel with his life! (what is more precious than that?) Yet, Abel refused to succumb to his lowly desires and act as Cain acted. To me, this really signified how important it is to always be the “bigger person.”