Divine Unity and Reliance on God
Volume 4: Things That Save
Tawakkul is not merely a state of surrender; it is a high religious station in which knowledge, spiritual state, and action come together. It takes its foundation from the reality of "Lā ilāha illā Allāh"—the awareness that there is no true agent (doer) besides Allah. Tawakkul is not abandoning reliance on means; it consists of abandoning heartfelt trust in means and turning toward al-Musabbib al-Asbāb (Allah, the Creator of causes). This document details the three main degrees of tawakkul, the four depth-levels of tawḥīd, and how this state is to be applied in daily life (seeking sustenance, caring for family, attitude toward losses).
Summary
Tawakkul is not merely a state of surrender; it is a high religious station in which knowledge, spiritual state, and action come together.
Sections
The Four Degrees of Tawḥīd
For tawakkul to rest on firm ground, tawḥīd must first be understood correctly. The text divides tawḥīd into four stages, likening it to a walnut:
| Degree | Definition | Analogy | | :--- | :--- | :--- | | 1st Degree | Saying "Lā ilāha illā Allāh" with the tongue alone (the tawḥīd of hypocrites). | The walnut's outermost (green) shell | | 2nd Degree | Heartily affirming the meaning of the phrase (the faith of the common people). | The walnut's hard inner shell | | 3rd Degree | Beholding the reality through unveiling; knowing that everything comes from a single Agent. | The kernel | | 4th Degree | Seeing none besides Allah in existence (the witnessing of the truthful / fanāʾ). | The oil of the kernel |
Analysis: The state of tawakkul is essentially built upon the third degree. When a person knows with certain unveiling that there is no creator, provider of sustenance, or mover besides Allah, the heart is freed from turning to anyone else.
---
The Essence and Degrees of Tawakkul
Tawakkul, in its lexical meaning, is entrusting affairs to someone and trusting in him. For full trust in an agent, one must believe that four qualities (Guidance, Power, Eloquence, Compassion) are complete in him. Tawakkul in Allah requires certain conviction (yaqīn) that these attributes are infinite in Him.
Three Degrees of Tawakkul
1. First Degree: The person's trust in Allah is like trust in an expert agent to whom one has entrusted one's case. This comes through voluntary effort. 2. Second Degree: Like a child's attachment to its mother. The child knows no one besides its mother; when something befalls it, it cries "Mother!" Here tawakkul has become a natural disposition; the person is so absorbed in the Causer that he is scarcely aware that he is relying on Him. 3. Third Degree (The Highest): The person is like the corpse in the hands of the corpse-washer before Allah—seeing himself as a lump turned and shaped in the hand of eternal power; he leaves even his wish and prayer to divine generosity.
---
The World of Causes and the Tawakkul Paradox
The hardest aspect of understanding tawakkul is its relation to causes (asbāb). Complete trust in causes is shirk; completely rejecting causes is belittling divine wisdom and the sharīʿa.
Classification of Causes
- Certain Causes: Drinking water when thirsty, eating when hungry. Abandoning these is not tawakkul but folly.
- Presumed Causes: Taking provisions when setting out into the desert. Carrying provisions is sunna provided one trusts in Allah, not the provisions.
- Imaginary (Weak) Causes: Amulets, fortune-telling, or non-medical cauterizations. People of tawakkul are those who abandon these.
The Scribe and Pen Analogy: People's fixation on causes is like an ant seeing writing on paper and supposing the pen wrote it. The ant cannot see the fingers, the hand, or the will that moves that hand. The knower (ʿārif) sees not the pen but the hand of Power that holds it.
---
Practical Acts of Tawakkul in Life
Tawakkul is not reducing the body to idleness; it is freeing the heart from anxiety.
Sustenance and Earning (Work)
- Unmarried persons: If they can endure a week of hunger without their hearts being disturbed, they may leave work and devote themselves to worship. But if their hearts turn to people expecting sustenance, working is preferable.
- Heads of families: Working to provide for one's family is not contrary to tawakkul. Abū Bakr continued trading in the market even after becoming caliph. The measure here is knowing sustenance comes from Allah, not from work.
- Storing provisions: Keeping a year's worth of provisions for the family is the sunna of the Prophet and does not break tawakkul. But for one living alone, long-term storing indicates weakness of certainty.
Attitude toward Losses and Theft
A person of tawakkul who has property stolen should observe these five proprieties: 1. Take basic precautions such as locking the door (tawakkul is tying the camel). 2. Not leave excessive luxury goods at home that would tempt a thief. 3. Intend beforehand: "If a thief takes it, let it be lawful for him or count as charity." 4. Not grieve when it is stolen; being able to say "This was what was better." 5. Not cursing the thief (cursing shows one is still attached to the property in one's heart).
---
Key concepts
- Degree
- Analogy
- First Degree
- Outer Shell
- Second Degree
- Inner Shell
- Third Degree
- Kernel (Inner)
- Fourth Degree
- Oil of the Kernel
- Trusting in causes
- Is shirk in tawḥīd.
- Completely rejecting causes
- Is opposing the sunna of Allah and the sharīʿa.
- The path of reason
- Combining sharīʿa, transmitted knowledge, and tawḥīd to focus on the "Causer" of causes.
Study questions
Which of the tawḥīd degrees that form the basis of tawakkul is the real foundation for the state of tawakkul?
The third degree (seeing a single agent through unveiling). For at this degree the person certainly beholds that there is none besides Allah who gives sustenance, takes it away, kills, and gives life.
According to Ibrāhīm b. Aḥmad al-Ḥawwās, what four items may be carried on a journey without being an obstacle to tawakkul?
Needle, scissors, rope, and a water jug.
In what situation does a person's storing of sustenance (provision hoarding) go beyond the bounds of tawakkul?
Storing more than a year's need breaks tawakkul. For one without a family, looking to each day's sustenance on that day is a higher tawakkul.
"Being compelled in one's choice"—what does this mean?
A person's choosing an act (ikhtiyār) is the outcome of a reason that sees that act as good and a will that creates that choice. Since the process of choosing occurs over the person by compulsion, in choosing he is in reality subject to Allah's decree.
What is the lowest degree of propriety a person of tawakkul whose property is stolen must show?
Not cursing the thief.