Question 5

In times of hardship and life challenges, is my real center of reliance God—the Lord (al-Rabb)—or is it material powers, calculations, and guarantees?

Core Issue

If the question of tawakkul (trust in God) is treated in a general and purely ethical sense, it is reduced to a vague moral recommendation.
The real issue is the position of the soul’s center of trust in relation to divine lordship under conditions of pressure, loss, and insecurity.

Hardship is the true arena in which the reality of tawakkul becomes manifest. In such situations, it becomes clear whether God is actually the “actual Lord (Rabb bil-fi‘l)” in one’s lived existence, or merely a mental refuge after the failure of means and causes.

Qur’anic Evidence
1. Tawakkul as the transfer of reliance from causes to God

﴿وَمَن يَتَوَكَّلْ عَلَى اللَّهِ فَهُوَ حَسْبُهُ﴾ (At-Talaq 65:3)

The term “hasbuhu” indicates existential sufficiency, not the removal of all difficulties.
The Qur’an does not say that problems disappear; rather, it states that God becomes “enough” for him. Tawakkul is therefore a relocation of the center of certainty, not the elimination of hardship.

2. Tawakkul within action, not after failure

﴿فَإِذَا عَزَمْتَ فَتَوَكَّلْ عَلَى اللَّهِ﴾ (Aal ‘Imran 3:159)

Tawakkul follows determination; it does not replace it.
Reasoning, planning, and decision-making are not negated. Rather, after them, the final ontological reliance is withdrawn from the self and entrusted to God.

Both a premature illusory tawakkul and a post-failure desperate tawakkul lie outside the Qur’anic logic.

3. Reliance on material powers as a source of anxiety

﴿الَّذِينَ قَالَ لَهُمُ النَّاسُ إِنَّ النَّاسَ قَدْ جَمَعُوا لَكُمْ فَاخْشَوْهُمْ﴾ (Aal ‘Imran 3:173)

The verse continues: “Hasbuna Allah wa ni‘ma al-wakeel.”

Fear arises from centering one’s awareness on material powers. The believer’s response is not denial of danger, but the re-centering of reliance upon “God is sufficient for us.”
Faith here is a transformation in the perception of ultimate agency.

4. Tawakkul and the negation of self-sufficiency

﴿وَمَا بِكُم مِّن نِّعْمَةٍ فَمِنَ اللَّهِ﴾ (An-Nahl 16:53)

This verse establishes the foundation of tawakkul: no source of support possesses intrinsic independence.
Reliance on means (asbāb) becomes a form of practical shirk in divine lordship when it leads to attributing independent efficacy to them, even if God is verbally affirmed.

Traditions of Imam Ali (a)
“Reliance upon God is salvation from every evil.” (Ghurar al-Hikam, no. 485)
“Whoever relies on other than God, God abandons him to it.” (Ghurar al-Hikam, no. 8937)
“Trust in God is an indestructible fortress.” (Ghurar al-Hikam, no. 3313)
Analytical Discussion
a) Tawakkul as correction of the referent of trust

In the teachings of Imam Ali (a), salvation (najāt) is not the removal of external danger, but liberation from misplaced trust.
The primary harm lies in the soul’s reliance on other than the Lord, not merely in the existence of crises.

b) Divine abandonment as the consequence of misdirected trust

“God leaves him to it” (wakalahu Allāh ilayh) refers to existential confinement within the limited horizon of means.
The Imam indicates that one who relies on other than God is left at that lower ontological level, which itself constitutes loss.

c) Tawakkul as an existential fortress

The “fortress” (hisn) in the Alawite tradition is not a psychological state but an ontological condition of security.
The soul of the one who trusts in God does not collapse, even if all external means collapse. This marks a fundamental distinction between Alawite security and illusory material assurances.

From the perspective of Sadrian philosophy, tawakkul upon divine lordship is a redirection of the substantial motion (al-ḥaraka al-jawhariyya) of the soul.
In confronting hardship, the soul either moves toward contraction and fear or toward expansion and stability.

Reliance on independent causes imprisons the soul at the level of sense and imagination.
Tawakkul is the connection of the soul’s movement to the divine horizon—an ascent from deficient causality to true causality.

From the standpoint of practical intellect, tawakkul does not mean abandoning planning; rather, it negates the independence of planning from God.

Practical Protocol
Identifying the referent of reliance during crisis:
“What is my real source of calm now: material guarantees or divine lordship?”
Distinguishing planning from reliance:
Act and plan rationally, but do not bind the heart to outcomes.
Internalizing “Hasbuna Allah” within action, not after failure:
Establish tawakkul before psychological collapse occurs.
Post-evaluation:
Did this hardship bring me closer to God, or did it increase my dependence on means?
Scholarly References
The Holy Qur’an
Ghurar al-Hikam wa Durar al-Kalim, al-Āmidī, nos. 485, 3313, 8937
Shayrāni, ‘Alī, Translation of Ghurar al-Hikam
Ṣadr al-Dīn al-Shīrāzī, al-Asfār al-Arba‘ah, vol. 8, discussion on substantial motion of the soul (conceptual paraphrase)