Umar (ra) said, “I heard the Messenger of Allah (saw) say, ‘If you were to rely on Allah as He should be relied on, He would provide for you as He provides for the birds. They go out early in the morning hungry and return in the evening full.’”
When we hear this hadith, we often connect it very literally to our physical sustenance. So we trust that as long as we work and strive to the best of our abilities, we can rely on Allah (swt) to provide for us.
But it’s also a very beautiful hadith, because it’s a metaphor for how Allah (swt) fills our emptinesses. We are all beings who are empty and void of everything until Allah (swt) provides for us the things that will fill us. Our hearts are empty until He fills them with faith and love. Our minds are limited until He fills them with knowledge and wisdom. Our lives are empty until He fills them with purpose.
So relying on Allah fully isn’t just about our financial wellness, or our ability to put food on the table. It’s about relying on Him to fill our needs – every need we can possibly imagine – the needs of our bodies, our souls, and our hearts.
It’s just as Ibn Al-Qayyim (ra) says:
“In the heart there is an emptiness, that is not filled except by Allah’s love and continuous remembrance of Him and sincerity to Him, and if one were to be given the entire world that emptiness would not ever be filled!”
May the Most Merciful fill whatever voids and emptinesses we encounter in our lives.
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