Gems of the Promised Messiah & Imam Mahdi (as) – The Meaning of Trust in God

Those people who trust in their own power and strength, and forsake God Almighty, do not meet with a good end. This does not mean that trust in God is to sit on one’s hands and do nothing. To make use of means and to employ the faculties which God Almighty has granted us is also a manner in which we show gratitude to God. Those people who do not make use of their abilities and only verbally claim that they trust in God speak falsehood. Such people do not appreciate God. In fact, they test God and essentially suggest that the faculties and powers granted by Him are futile. In this manner, they are disrespectful and insolent towards God. They become distanced from the essence of إِيَّاكَ نَعۡبُدُ (Thee alone do we worship) and do not act upon it, yet desire to see the results of إِيَّاكَ نَسۡتَعِينُ (Thee alone do we implore for help) fulfilled in their favour. This is not right. Insofar as possible, and to the extent of one’s ability, an individual ought to make recourse to means, but must not deem them to be his god and the resolver of his difficulties. On the contrary, man must first exhaust these avenues and then hand the matter over to Allah; he must offer prostrations of gratitude, thanking the very same God for having conferred upon him these faculties and strengths in the first place.

Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as), Malfuzat – Volume II (Tilford, Surrey: Islam International Publications Ltd., 2019), 82-83.