AS-SAMAD
If weakness surrounds you with a narrow prison from which you cannot escape! If needs besiege you, troubles overwhelm you, worries gather around you, and your spirit seeks to escape the unknown!
Then you are in a great need to turn to Him, to Allah, to As-Samad.
Allah’s Name, “As-Samad,” will grant you all that you need to be strong in this life, face your reality with dignity, and overcome your problems with determination.
Put your trust in As-Samad, establish a new promise with Him, and then be sure that tomorrow will be much better than today.
Get in touchIn the Shade of As-Samad:
Waves
And yet, you forget Him:
When you seek something and fail to find it, let it go and occupy yourself with Allah.
He is the One who caused it to be lost so that you would turn to Him, seeking refuge and saying: “O Allah, return what I have lost to me!” And He returns it. He wants you to focus on Him instead of your needs, but instead, you focus on the need and forget Him.
Sheikh of Islam Ibn Taimiyah beautifully explains this concept, so meditate with your heart and then make it close to your pains, distresses, and needs. He says:
“A servant may be struck by hardship, and his goal is to fulfill his need and alleviate his distress. He pursues this through supplication and humility, which is a form of worship and obedience. At first, his focus might solely be on obtaining sustenance, victory, or well-being. However, through persistent prayer and humility, doors of faith, recognition of Allah, love, and delight in Allah’s remembrance and supplication open for him, which are greater and more valuable than the need he originally sought. This is from Allah’s mercy upon His servants, driving them through worldly needs toward lofty spiritual goals.”
During the time of Moses, when rain ceased and the earth became barren, he and his people—thousands of men, women, and children—went out to pray for rain. Moses saw an ant raising its hands to the sky, steadfastly turning to the Lord of the Clouds. Moses knew such steadfastness and humility would surely result in rain pouring down. So he said to his people: “Return, for you have been sufficed.” They left as thunder filled the air and rain began to fall.
In my childhood, I was moved by a supplication from a reciter.”
“O Allah, we have brought our mounts to Your door. Do not turn us away from Your Presence.”
Stopping at Allah’s door, the Generous captures the essence of As-Samadiyyah—the state of turning to the Self-Sufficient, the One who fulfills all needs.
Get in touchHold on Him
You must understand that if He (Allah) hadn’t allowed the medicine to take effect in your body, the illness would not have been lifted from you. So, hold on to Him to heal you.
You must believe that if He hadn’t turned that reckless car away from you, you would now be among the dead. So, hold on to Him to protect you.
You must be certain that if He hadn’t surrounded you with His care when you sailed the sea, you would now be food for the ocean’s fishes. So, hold on to Him to be with you.
This is why you hold on to Him—to find peace, to calm your racing heart. Without Him, you run and pant, stressed and restless.
Listen to those tossed by a ship in turmoil or staring death in the face, and the winds of change batter them. Regardless of their religion, you will hear them calling upon His Name: “Oh Allah!”
It is He Who enables you to travel on land and sea until you are in ships, and they sail with them by a good wind. They rejoice therein; there comes a storm wind, and the waves come upon them from every place, and they expect to be engulfed, they supplicate Allah, sincere to Him in religion, “If You should save us from this, we will surely be among the grateful.”
He instilled within you a great need to call upon His Name. A tranquillity envelops your being when you say, “Oh Allah.” If you do not say it by choice, you will say it out of necessity. If you do not utter it in faith, you will cry it out under compulsion. If it is not your word in times of ease, it will be your scream in times of distress.
Get in touchThe Compass
Why do we wait for a calamity to return to Him, for a disaster to remind us of His Name, and for a catastrophe to bring us back to the Masjid?
Does He not deserve our submission and reliance without calamities, disasters, or catastrophes?
Is all that He has granted us—life, health, faith, safety, and happiness—so little that we only bow our heads to Him in times of affliction, that makes us forget all our illusions, with only God remaining in our minds?!
Adjust your heart’s compass toward Him, then move toward Him, even crawling on your knees. You will reach Him: “So wherever you turn, there is the Face of Allah.”
If you turn to someone among people in the morning, they might shut his door on you by evening.
If he supports you against one person, he might abandon you against another.
If he gives it to you today, he might withhold it tomorrow.
As for Allah, Never!
He is the Ever-Living; there is no deity except Him. So call upon Him.
He gives day and night. He supports you against all if you are wronged. He never closes His door before you. His hands are outstretched, granting without measure, the Most Generous of the generous.
This is why all creation turns to Him. If you ever try to rely on anyone else, you will for sure return empty-handed.
If you ask someone else, he may not answer you, or he may answer but delay fulfilling your need, or he may fulfill it partially, or he may fulfill it completely. Still with a humiliating comment, or he may not humiliate you. However, your soul might still have felt broken before.
Get in touchEmpty your heart from anything but Him
Once, I entered the office of a university official, carrying a petition regarding my studies. After explaining some details, he said, “Don’t talk too much!”
People dislike it when you speak excessively, but Allah loves it when you persist in talking to Him. He loves the servant who is persistent in supplication.
So, why do you complain to others and leave Him?!
The Prophet (peace be upon him) said to Ibn Abbas: “When you ask, ask Allah. If there is a need worth asking for, let Allah be the One you ask.”
I was inspired by a saying quoted by Abu Hamid Al-Ghazaly from one of the knowledgeable about the Greatest Name of Allah: “Empty your heart of everything else, and then call upon Him with any Name you wish; He will answer you.”
This is the essence of As-Samad; put Allah within your heart, then know that anything you say or do, in pursuit of His pleasure, will bear the imprint of divinity and godliness … Every hardship you pass by is a message reminding you: You have a Lord—turn to Him.
Illness is a message to humble before Him.
Poverty is a note urging you to prostrate to Him.
Weakness is a call to seek strength from the Ever-Powerful.
Life shouts at you: You have a Lord—resort to Him.
In the pre-mentioned Hadith of Ibn Abbas, the Prophet (peace be upon him) says: “Be mindful of Allah, and He will protect you. Be mindful of Allah, and you will find Him before you.”
Preserve Allah in your thoughts, actions, and intentions, and you will find His protection, companionship, and support.
Hearts find no peace until they place their burdens at the doorstep of their Lord, Al-Samad.
Get in touchSteps
Look wherever you want, but keep two eyes in your heart that see only His Majesty.
Say whatever you wish, but keep a tongue in your heart that speaks only His remembrance.
Listen to everyone, but make an ear in your heart that recognizes only His words.
Walk wherever you want, but carve steps in your heart that lead to the Throne of the Lord.
Turn to Him with your heart, soul, thoughts, body, will, dreams, and illusions.
When you pick up a pen, ask yourself: Does what I’m about to write please Allah?
When you’re about to speak, ask: Will my words bring His pleasure?
When you take a stand, ask: Is this stand beloved to Him?
Hang a reminder in the highest corner of your heart that its beats say:
What does Allah want? What does Allah want? What does Allah want?
Turn to Him at all times. If you wake up in the middle of the night, remember Him. Your thoughts are dark if they lack His remembrance. Your mind is desolate if His Name doesn’t pass through it. Your dreams are swamps—until the mention of the Ever-Living touches them, transforming them into rivers, trees, and singing birds.
Get in touchMajesty
When you teach your soul to remain steadfast in turning to Him, it will feel ashamed to ask too much for worldly things over time. After all, this world is not the purpose for which you were created; all your aspirations should be for the Hereafter.
The Caliph once said to Ibn ‘Umar while circumambulating the Ka’ba: “Ask me, O Ibn Umar.” Ibn Umar looked at him with the majesty of one steadfast in his reliance on Allah and replied: “Are you offering matters of this world or the Hereafter?” The Caliph said: “The Hereafter is for Allah, but I can offer matters of this world.” Ibn ‘Umar responded: “I have never asked for this world from the One who owns it; how could I ask it from someone who does not?”
Being steadfast for Allah transforms you into someone of greatness who does not care for the lords of dust.
The world is a domain unworthy of those who turn steadfastly to Allah.
Once, a ruler told Ibn Taimiyah: “We hear that you wish our kingdom, O Ibn Taimiyah!” He lifted his head with the majesty of a steadfast servant of Allah and said: “By Allah, your kingdom is not worth two pennies to me!”
How a man who spends his nights presenting himself before Allah can humble himself for a piece of clay by day?!
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