We Must Always Humble Ourselves Towards God (Allah)

By Amer Khalid.

From:www.amerkhalid.net

Tadaru' is an arabic term that means exaggerated humility and humbleness caused by despair and is expressed when a person reached his final resort. Imam Ahmed ibn Hambal explained it saying, "Imagine a man drowning in the middle of the sea and all he has is a piece of wood that he is clinging onto. He is getting weaker and weaker and the salty waves are pulling him closer to death. Imagine him with his eager eyes looking desperately at the sky crying out loud ‘O Lord, O Lord!!!’ Imagine how desperate he is and how sincere he is asking for Allah's help. That is tadaru’ in front of Allah".

Allah teaches us in the Quran that tadaru' is a form of worship a believer uses during emergencies and crises. It requires a person to remove the veils of arrogance and ego covering his or her heart. It implies sincere begging to the Lord of the Worlds. It demonstrates that a person has realized how weak he is and how Powerful our Lord is. Sometimes when Allah sees that His servants are becoming distracted with this worldly life and have strayed from the Straight Path, He puts them in a severe situation so that they realize their weakness and run back to Allah for protection. Therefore calamities falling upon Muslims are to make them wake up and turn back to Allah. We must be intelligent enough to understand these messages and act according to them.

Allah The Almighty says, "Verily, We sent (Messengers) to many nations before you (O Muhammad). And we seized them with extreme poverty (or loss in wealth) and loss in health (with calamities) so that they might humble themselves (believe with humility)." (6:42). This verse shows that Allah uses calamities as a routine method to wake people up and encourage them to run to Him for protection. It is as if a calamity is a bitter medicine for us to become better believers. Allah does this for our benefit, because we need to maintain a close relationship with Him. Allah expresses our need for this form medicine in the following verse, "And if We had mercy on them and removed the distress which is on them, still they would obstinately persist in their transgression, wandering blindly." (23:75).

In another verse Allah says, "When Our Torment reached them, why then did they not humble themselves (believe with humility)? But their hearts became hardened, and Shaytan (Satan) made what they used to do seem fair and correct" (6:43). We must not make this mistake and close our eyes and hearts in front of Allah's call to humbleness and humility to Him. We must not let Shaytan trick us into believing that our problems have nothing to do with our relation with Allah.

Allah says, "Say (O Muhammad) ‘Who rescues you from the darkness of the land and the sea (dangers like storms), (when) you call upon Him in humility and in secret (saying): If He (Allah) only saves us from this (danger), we shall truly be grateful.’ Say (O Muhammad): ‘Allah rescues you from this and from all (other) distresses, and yet you worship others besides Allah.’" (6:63-64). No one will rescue us from the darkness we Muslims are in today except Allah, but first, we must call upon Him in humility.