HEAVEN HELPS, BUT JUST WHO HELP THEMSELVES: THE PERISCOPE OF THE HOLY QUR'AN

Surah Ar-Rad, Verse 11:

لَهُ مُعَقِّبَاتٌ مِّن بَيْنِ يَدَيْهِ وَمِنْ خَلْفِهِ يَحْفَظُونَهُ مِنْ أَمْرِ اللَّهِ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يُغَيِّرُ مَا بِقَوْمٍ حَتَّىٰ يُغَيِّرُوا مَا بِأَنفُسِهِمْ وَإِذَا أَرَادَ اللَّهُ بِقَوْمٍ سُوءًا فَلَا مَرَدَّ لَهُ وَمَا لَهُم مِّن دُونِهِ مِن وَالٍ

“For each one are successive [angels] before and behind him who protect him by the decree of Allah. Indeed, Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves. And when Allah intends for a people ill, there is no repelling it. And there is not for them besides Him any patron.” 

This is gonna be for the fun of it, pals.

To start with, the motif of this ayah(verse) does not actually centre on one theme because it discusses some other salient messages. Without playing down the relevance of other parts of the verse, a bit explanation would be done on them. But then, the subject of this article lies here —"Indeed, Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves." — which constitutes the point of this piece. The literal and figurative senses of this portion are my concern, insha'alah (God's willing). And, what constitutes my preference for the portion would be justified in the end part of this article. 

Allah(the Most High) reveals to us, in this ayah, the indisputable argument that man will be put to questioning on the Day of Qiyamah(Judgment). This first portion of the ayah appeals to Ilmu-l-Gayb(the belief in the metaphysics). This reality is often a yardstick that separates the Muslim personality from a non Muslim. Why? This is because one of the Articles of Faith is to believe in the metaphysics — the unseen — which is not mostly emphasized in other religions, if not at all, as it is often done in Islam. Indeed, parts of the unseen are Al Qiyamah which is mentioned implicitly and Angels in this verse. The reality of which causes convolution in the minds of the disbelievers. So, the point raised in this part is that Allah has stationed two invisible angels to the sides of every man. Each of whom chronicles the good deeds and the other, the bad deeds, done by every rational living human. Get me, I put Rational! To this extent, it is a mandate on the Muslim characters to believe in the two Angels — Rakeeb and Ateed — that watch over and chronicle the daily deeds of every human, be it a Muslim or non Muslim. Simply put, every man should be conscious of what he puts forth. Because, no man will bear anybody's burden on that Day: every man is to himself.

For the area of concern which is "Indeed, Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves.". My preference for this portion lies in the figurative use, or say the wisdom behind the verse. Fine, the general definition could be that, the moment anyone changes the direction from goodness to evil or otherwise, Allah(s.w.t.) will change towards such one by punishing them or rewarding them for the good move. That is aptly correct as some people say, no doubt. Notwithstanding, the wisdom behind this portion, to the best of my knowledge, is that consequences of matters in life, be it of fortune or evil, are outgrowths of your decision, or say choice. We can rephrase, thus, HEAVEN HELPS THOSE WHO HELP THEMSELVES.

All praise is to Allah for the revelation of His noble Book(Quran) which is a Light and Guidance to the ignorant world of man. In the recent years, I could recall the frequency of my failure whenever I took WAEC. At intervals, I failed, until my fifth attempt before I made my o'level. That's no news, some people took more years. That's funny, though! Whereas, I didn't reach success on the platter of gold if not that I stumbled upon this verse in the year 2014 after several years of my graduation from highschool. Back then, I wonder how many of the Muslim colleagues really got things right. Many of us existed to fill the vacuum in classes. Our relevance in class, as Muslims, was close to nil.

Personally, I was not a brilliant soul not until I "failed out" and discovered the first Ayah. That I failed back then was actually out of my own passivity: we needn't to trade the blame perhaps that was what destiny designed for me. You wanna question that? No need! I believe I'd an alternative, but I chose that path blindly. This ayah justifies the possibility of the disbelievers to excel more than the believing folks depending on their commitments in their individual pursuits of sustenance in life. Allah will not enrich a lazy believer who has done practically nothing to improve his well-being. So, this ayah shows the seamless and perfected Law of life as designed by the Most High. That is, if you are committed to an effort, you stand more chance to hope winning than not having any chance whatsoever. In a nut shell, you're what you repeatedly do, excellence is an habit not an act. Excellence is not subject to faith in life. But then, faith would guide on how to achieve excellence in the right channel and strengthen the vigor of one's hope. If a situation is not suitable for you, try another one irrespective of the level of faith this time.

Lastly, in the last two sentences of the ayah, Allah reveals His authority over His creations. In the first hand, no man is just powerful to decide for himself what he desires. Instead, every decision lies just with Him. And, in the other hand, He pinpoints the exigency that every of his creations should turn to Him as the only "Patron".

In conclusion, as regards the major discourse of this piece, the prophet has been said to be a perfect example for us to emulate, in the Qur'an. It is thus wrong of any Muslim to think that being adherent of this faith would stop him from doing the needful. Sustenance will not come from Allah without man making physical sacrifice. This is the wisdom I discovered in the verse. Technically, Allah will not churn out provisions to you until you request for them. Anyways, this does preclude His unmerited Favor. Favor, however, comes when you might have put in some tad of efforts. The above portion complements Suratul Nisah v79, “What comes to you of good is from Allah, but what comes to you of evil, [O man], is from yourself...”. Again, Heaven helps only when you've helped yourself.

Allah and His noblest Messenger(pbuh) know best.