When All Else Fails…

The panic was starting to settle in, as small flames turned into a blazing fire that engulfed everything in sight. Noah looked around, wondering what else he could possibly try in order to extinguish this inferno. He had already dumped and sprayed water, and used the fire extinguisher until it ran out. What else could he possibly do?

Noah decided it was time to just abandon his house and run away before the whole structure collapsed on him, but he couldn’t find a way out. With shaking hands, he pulled out his phone to text goodbye to his loved ones, when it suddenly struck him: He could call 9-1-1! As a last resort to try to save himself from being consumed by the fire, he dialed the three numbers that just might save his life…

Sounds silly, doesn’t it? Why wouldn’t Noah have just called 9-1-1 in the first place, and let the firefighters handle the situation before it got out of hand? Why would he consider calling emergency responders only as a last resort?

“The problem is, we’ve been taught that we should do everything we can and only call on Allah when all else fails”

Just as our natural instinct would be to dial 9-1-1 in an emergency rather than trying to fix everything ourselves, when life starts beating us down, our response should be to raise our hands in prayer rather than thinking we can handle the situation by ourselves. The One who created us is infinitely more capable of resolving our affairs than we are. The problem is, we’ve been taught that we should do everything we can and only call on Allah when all else fails, rather than rushing to beg for His help and then doing everything else that we can.

I’ve seen posts online that say, “When all else fails… Pray. ❤” This is misleading, and encourages the thought that prayer isn’t good enough to try in the very beginning, and in every stage of a hardship. Our prayers are worth more than just being considered a last-ditch effort.

“Du’a (prayer) is supposed to be our emergency response system. We are not expected to climb mountains unsupported; there is always a lifeline thrown down for us to grab, if only we would ask.”

We shouldn’t think that asking Allah for help is a small thing which “might” work. He (swt) is always listening, and always taking care of us. The power of prayer is not something that we should underestimate. And just because something may not work out the way we imagined it to, or is taking longer than we would like to wait, doesn’t mean that Allah isn’t there for us. There is a greater wisdom behind His actions, which we can’t always understand right away. But this doesn’t mean that we should give up, or not run to Him first. Du’a (prayer) is supposed to be our emergency response system. We are not expected to climb mountains unsupported; there is always a lifeline thrown down for us to grab, if only we would ask.

“The Prophet (pbuh) said, “The du’a of any one of you will be answered so long as he does not seek to rush it, and does not say, ‘I prayed, but I have not had a response.'” [Bukhari]

“The Prophet (pbuh) said, “If you ask, then ask of Allah, and if you seek help, then seek the help of Allah.” [Tirmidhi]