Letters for Living #56
Helping you move from surviving to living with purpose.
As-salaamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakaatuh,
dear beautiful soul,
Bismillah.
There have been so many little shifts happening within me lately. Not necessarily dramatic moments where everything suddenly became clear, but rather small realisations that have slowly changed the way I see certain things. And that is how transformation happens through those quiet moments of awareness that begin to change the way you see yourself, your life, and ultimately, your relationship with Allah.
One of the things I've been noticing more deeply is the importance of breaking our patterns. We can spend so much time wondering why the same things keep happening in our lives, yet we often don't stop to look at how we are responding to them. We want a different outcome, but we keep returning to the same thoughts, the same reactions, the same fears, and the same behaviours. .
What Does Tawakkul Really Mean?
Another area I've been looking at much more deeply is tawakkul. I thought I understood it, but there are certain things we only truly understand when life gives us the opportunity to experience them.
It is easy to say, "I trust Allah," when everything is moving according to the plan we had in our heads. It becomes very different when the plan changes, when something doesn't happen the way we expected, or when we suddenly find ourselves standing in uncertainty without knowing what comes next.
I've had to ask myself some uncomfortable questions.
Am I really surrendering this to Allah, or am I simply hoping that Allah will give me the outcome I have already decided I want?
Because there is a difference.
Sometimes what we call tawakkul is actually an exchange. We say, "Ya Allah, I trust You," but underneath that is an expectation that because we trust Him, He will give us the outcome we want. And when that doesn't happen, the fear returns.
I don't say this as a judgement. I say it because I've had to recognise it within myself too.
True tawakkul asks something deeper from us. It asks us to trust Allah even when we don't understand what He is doing. It asks us to surrender the outcome, not simply surrender our anxiety until we get the answer we were hoping for.
When Your Body Still Feels Afraid
This has also made me reflect on the importance of nervous system regulation. Because we can know all the right things intellectually and still feel completely overwhelmed internally.
You can know that Allah is in control. You can know that He is Al-Wakeel, the One to whom we entrust our affairs. You can know that He is sufficient for us. Yet your body can still respond with fear and say, "But what if something goes wrong? What if I can't handle this? What if everything falls apart?"
That doesn't necessarily mean your faith is weak.Your nervous system has simply learned to look for danger.Before we can truly surrender, we need to recognise what is happening within us. We need to notice the thought, recognise the fear, and understand the reaction that is taking place rather than immediately becoming consumed by it.
Returning to the Source
This has been one of the most beautiful parts of our 30 Days of Returning journey.
We've been invoking, embodying, and living the Names of Allah, and what I have personally loved about this is how much it has made me aware of where my attention goes when life becomes difficult.
I can worry about provision and then remember Ar-Razzaq.
I can feel as though a door is completely closed and then remember Al-Fattah.
I can become overwhelmed by everything I cannot control and then remember Al-Wakeel.
The situation may not immediately change, but something within me does.
I've returned to the Source.
And that is what we forget so easily. We become so focused on the means that we forget the One behind the means.
We look at what we can see, what we can measure, what we can control, and what appears to be possible with our limited understanding. But Allah sees what we cannot see.
Allah tells us that He is closer to us than our jugular vein. And while our minds may struggle to comprehend that, that is part of what faith asks of us: to trust what we cannot see.
To believe that Allah is present even when we cannot see the movement.To believe that something is happening beyond what we currently understand.
You Don't Have to See the Whole Path
I keep coming back to this. We want certainty. We want to know what's coming, how it's going to work out, which door will open and when everything will finally make sense. But Allah doesn't ask us to see the entire path.Sometimes the next step only becomes visible once we take the step that is already in front of us.So if you are in a season where you don't understand what is happening, you don't need to figure out the next ten steps. you only need to take the one that is in front of you. And then trust Allah with the rest.
A Little of What's to Come
There are also some changes happening quietly behind the scenes in my own work.
InshaAllah, September will bring some restructuring in the way I offer emotional healing, coaching, and transformational support.
I'm being very intentional about this because I want the work I offer to reflect the direction I've been speaking about for some time now: moving from awareness into intentional action, from understanding into living, and from simply knowing into transforming..
I'll share more with you soon, inshaAllah.
For now, I'm allowing the pieces to come together.
A Closing Reflection
Tawakkul isn't something we master once and never struggle with again. Maybe it is a returning. A returning every time we forget. A returning every time fear takes over. A returning every time we start believing that the world rests entirely on our shoulders.Until eventually, something within us begins to understand:
I don't have to carry what was never mine to carry.
Allah is sufficient.
And He has always been.
With sincerity and du'a,
Nazia