THE Glorious Qur'an says: “You (Alone) we worship, and You (Alone) we ask for help.” (1:5) Scholars say that the secret of the Qur'an lies in Surat Al-Fatiha, and the secret of Surat Al-Fatiha lies in this verse: “You (Alone) we worship; and You (Alone) we ask for help”. This one verse summarizes what true servitude to Allah means: We need to worship Allah because that's our purpose in life, yet we cannot worship Him without His permission or help. Similarly, from a productivity point of view, we need to be constantly productive in order to better serve our religion, our brothers and sisters and ourselves, yet we cannot be productive without His permission and help. So as a Muslim, one should constantly ask Allah for His help and support. Khabbab Bin Al-Aratt once urged Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) to call upon Allah to shield him against the adversities he was suffering at the hand of the polytheists. The Prophet's face reddened and he remarked that the true believer must not precipitate things, it was incumbent upon a believer to undergo all the odds of life as much as he could, fearing nobody except Allah until the religion was established, which would surely happen. The Prophet (peace be upon him) in this regard, referred to the perseverance that the Muslims had to show and the hardships they had to undergo in order to establish the land of Islam where peace and security would prevail all over it. Let's face it; we Muslims these days like “fast-food” answers to all our problems. We want “quick wins” to solve the Ummah's issues, and we don't want to sacrifice our comforts for the Ummah's sake. If the Prophet (pbuh) was with us today and saw our apathy toward our Ummah or us complaining to him to make all our problems go, what would he say to us?! Victory and success needs patience. Patience to be constantly productive and active regardless of the odds. Patience to bear the brunt of what others say and continue to do good and stay firm on Allah's path. Patience to see things through till the end till peace and security prevails. It's not an easy path, so let the serious amongst us, roll up their sleeves and be ready to work for the Ummah. Courtesy: ProductiveMuslim.com __
