27 - The reformer says:

"Muslims believe that their sustenance has been determined in eternity. They think that Allah the Most Generous will meet their needs. Like an old carriage that may break into pieces at any moment on the road, they drag on along the road of means of subsistence which would be shown to them by some event by chance. They do not think that they may increase their earnings by working. They do not regard it necessary to work. This is the effect of the religion in their sitting lazily and resignedly.

"A free person having power of will believes that he himself has some power capable of doing. This self-reliance gives man the strength of struggle for life. As he struggles, as the hardships obstructing his purpose increase, he feels stronger and wishful to fight more with the increased fire of his shocked pride. He is sure that he will win at last. Nothing can resist against this confidence, this belief. If we want to live, let's form self-reliance."

We learned too much of such bloody and fervent lessons of self-reliance in the First World War. We saw how great troubles we got ourselves into. Self-reliance may also result in such crazy attacks. If tawakkul in Allah had been preferred to self-reliance during the war, none of the subtle points, which were more reasonable and more legal than those actions, would have been neglected, because, in putting one's trust in Allah it is necessary to follow the Divine Rules, which make one esteem every subtle point. Islam commands both to work and to have tawakkul. Those who idle and say that they have tawakkul are the defective people who do not perform one of these two duties. The religion disapproves such people, for they perform one of the two commands of Islam and neglect the other. Reformers who slander them are as defective as they are, because they, too, abandon one of the duties and emphasize only the other duty. Even, their fault is greater than that of those who do not work, since we human beings, after working as hard as we can, are in need of putting our trust in Allahu ta'ala and expecting the reward of our work from Allahu ta'ala; we further need to have a second tawakkul so that we shall not forget Allahu ta'ala but expect His help while utilizing in working the power which is said by reformers to be in us and is given to us by Allahu ta'ala since the real, inexhaustible, unconquerable power can be attained by not forgetting Him. Despite the ayats, "If Allahu ta'ala helps you, no one can overcome you. If He does not help you, no one can help you. Then, Muslims should trust in Allahu ta'ala!" and "O My Beloved Prophet! Tell them, 'Unless Allahu ta'ala wills, I am not able to be of any use or harm to myself,' " and many other ayats, does it befit reformers who claim to help the religion to abrogate tawakkul and look for something named "self-reliance"? They cannot say, "Seeing that tawakkul is misunderstood, we demand this," for self-reliance is to trust only in oneself and is quite contrary to tawakkul and spoils one's tawakkul. Moreover, it gives way to egoism and self-esteem. Self-reliance contradicts the knowledge of logic, too, for it shows inability to find somebody else to trust in, and unless the one who trusts and the other who is trusted do not exist, the word 'trust' does not have any meaning. Explaining the vicious circle in logic, it is said, "One thing must need itself." In literature, self-reliance is dealt with extensively but in the sense of trusting in others' help, and when it is as excessive as to make one forget the trust in Allahu ta'ala, it is evil and harmful. Self-reliance, with this bare meaning, does not have any value except its senselessness against reason and logic, and it does not help one to obtain -from oneself- a great power which does not exist in him. Everybody has self or ego, and self-reliance does not cause one to be distinct from or superior to others. A Turkish proverb says, "He who has not suffered the fist blow of another regards his fist a heavy stone." Two opposing forces each of whom has done his best for the means to success and puts his trust not in himself but in Allahu ta'ala might seem equally powerful to win superiority, but the one who believes his justness also believes that the other will not utilize tawakkul. When they depend on their self-reliance, however, there is no reason for such belief, and though one may say, "Allahu ta'ala will help me because I am right," he may not say, "My ego will help me because I am right." Because, the ego of the unjust one desires superiority more and assaults more wildly. It is not a defect for tawakkul to be useless for the one who knows his being wrong. It shows that it cannot be used for evil purposes as self-reliance is used.

Since in tawakkul there is the belief of working without trusting in others' help but with trusting in Allah alone, much more power results from it than does from self-reliance. The reason why religion reformers speak ill of tawakkul must be because they do not realize this. Neither the person who has tawakkul just trusts in Allah and remains idle, nor the one who has self-reliance just trusts in himself and remains idle. So, both will work and neither will trust in other people. But the person who trusts in himself is lonely, and a Muslim who has tawakkul has his Allahu ta'ala besides his own labor, getting power from this Inexhaustible Source. A Muslim who has tawakkul works with all his strength and does not fall into such self-esteem or egoism of regarding his gain as from himself.

Since self-reliance means to work with much energy without trusting in anybody else to help him, tawakkul, too, puts such hard labor into a shape suitable with reason and logic and embellishes it with modesty. What is expected from self-reliance is provided by tawakkul more decently and more desiredly.