Advanced search
Visit
 8406
Last Updated: 2011/10/23
 
Website code number fa6286 Archive code number 17868
group Theoretical
Summary of question
If every wish is supposed to be granted through dua, then what is our own role in our lives?
question
If every wish is supposed to be granted through dua, then what is our own role in our lives? Is it not better for a man to be industrious and hardworking rather than to engage himself in dua?
Concise answer

The religion of Islam is a religion that combines between the exterior and the interior, the material and spiritual aspects. God is the creator of the wind and cloud, and rainfall depends on the rules which He has embedded in the nature, yet God says that the cause of rainfall is people's faith and piety. [1]

God, the Sublime, has laid out the entire affairs of this world on the basis of order and wisdom; He has fixed a cause for every phenomenon and every event. It is not possible to attain an objective except through its special cause or causes.

First of all, one must move ahead and should pray to God to help him tread in the right path so that he may achieve his desired goal. This is the meaning of dua and seeking divine assistance. A dua is fulfilled only when we endeavor to achieve our goal using its specific means and causes, and pray to God to help us achieve the goal.

One who prays for something, he also puts all his will and efforts into it; but when the occurrence of something is not linked with our will only and there are a lot of other factors involved in order for it to be actualized, then we pray to God, the Cause of all causes, to make other means or causes available for us. If you go through Shiite revayāt (traditions), you will find out that they have been very well combined together. On the one hand we have been instructed to pray for the fulfillment of our wishes, on the other hand we must strive towards achieving it.

Imam Sadiq (a.s) says: "God does not do a task without its means." [2] In some other traditions, those individuals have been introduced whose duas (supplications) are not fulfilled. They are people who do not give importance to hard work and endeavor and wish God to grant them everything. He who does not toil to earn something and expects God to give him sustenance, his dua will not be fulfilled. [3]

Therefore, dua has a very important role in the solution of our problems but it does not at all mean that hard work and endeavor do not pay.

Related links:

1. Question 15808 (site: 15646) The Circumstances under which a Dua is Fulfilled.

2. Question 2145 (site: 2269) Conditions and Ways of Fulfillment of Dua

3. Question 397 (site: 413) The Relationship between Dua and Individual Effort for Marriage


[1] - "And if the people of the towns had believed and guarded (against evil) We would certainly have opened up for them blessings from the heaven and the earth, but they rejected, so We overtook them for what they had earned. " [Al-A'araf: 96]

[2] - Al-Kaafi, pg. 183, excerpted from question 2900 (site: 3109). Of course, it should be noted that generally God does not grant a wish unless it is accompanied with its means. That is because God wants mankind not to depend on material causes very much and not to ignore God's roles in their affairs. God does certain actions without the involvement of their natural causes such as the creation of Prophet Jesus without father.

[3] - Al-Kafi, vol.5, pg. 77.

Detailed Answer
This question does not have a detailed answer.
Related Questions
Question translations in other languages
Comments
Number of comments 0
Please enter the value
Example : Yourname@YourDomane.ext
Please enter the value
Please enter the value

Thematic Category

Random questions

  • Is it true that some Muslim Gnostics can fly or levitate?
    12266 Practical 2007/02/08
    That which you have mentioned is an effect and result of Man’s spiritual strength, sometimes this may come about by acting in accordance with religious laws and legitimate ascetic discipline. This means that; by moving closer to Allah, Man can possess the greatest name ...
  • What are the distinct criteria through which we can distinguish a lafdhi mutawatir report from an ijmali or ma\'anawi one?
    9619 Contextual study 2014/09/28
    Mutawatir literally means for things to come one after another, without any interval between them and in hadithic terms, refers to a hadith that has been narrated by a group of narrators that one can be definite haven’t all agreed on forging and lying about altogether. Any ...
  • What are the features and privileges of Behar al-Anwar?
    6998 Contextual study 2015/05/03
    Behar al-Anwa being a huge hadith collection is the most important work by Allamah Muhammad Baqir Majlisi. It is a big encyclopedia of Shiite traditions encompassing all religious issues and themes including exegesis of the Quran, history, jurisprudence, theology etc. Some of the most important features of ...
  • Please explain the principles of Sheikh Toosi's political thought.
    8594 Laws and Jurisprudence 2010/12/21
     With the emergence of every era new needs and questions are generated which cause scientists and scholars to think and contemplate and strive to find appropriate answers to, and Sheikh Toosi is one the great scholars who has carried such a burden. The fundamentals of ...
  • Are there any women who reached the rank of ijtihad in religious seminaries?
    9574 تاريخ بزرگان 2007/11/04
    A worthy interaction of Islam with science, and requiring that from every Muslim man and woman, has resulted in women always studying the sciences in Islamic communities and finally some of them reached the rank of ijtihad.As an example, lady Mujtahideh Amin who passed away in 1403h. Lady Mujtahideh ...
  • Who were the Ansar?
    9406 تاريخ بزرگان 2010/04/07
    Ansar is the plural form of Naser from the root of Nasr, and means people who help and aid. In the advent of Islam, the residents of Medinah and its outskirts, especially the members of the two tribes of the Aws and Khazraj were called the Ansar, because ...
  • What is the relationship between man’s efforts and the sustenance that has been measured out for him?
    12817 Traditional 2011/08/15
    There are two kinds of sustenance. There is a sustenance that we go after and a sustenance that comes after us. In the traditions, the sustenance that comes after us is called “the sustenance that seeks,” and the sustenance that we seek has been named “the sought ...
  • What is the proof for Prophet Adam and Nuh (pbuh) being buried in Najaf?
    23457 تاريخ بزرگان 2010/07/20
    The main reasoning that proves the burial of Prophet Adam and Nuh (pbuh) in Najaf are the many hadith that disclose this fact. ...
  • Is it permissible to evade government tax in non-Islamic countries?
    7801 Laws and Jurisprudence 2011/01/10
    The answer given by Ayatollah Mahdi Hadavi Tehrani is as follows:1. You must abide by the rules of the country in which you are living except for when the rules may be opposed to Islamic Shari'ah.
  • I wish to know what the seven paradises are. Can you explain them for me?
    47501 Traditional 2012/04/07
    Dar al-Salam (Abode of Peace), Dar al-Jalal (Abode of Glory), Jannatul Mava (Garden of Refuge), Jannatul Khuld (Garden of Eternity), Jannatul Adan (Garden of Eden), Jannatul Firdous (Garden of Paradise) and Jannatul Naeem (Garden of Bliss) (or Delight) are names for the seven paradises which have been ...

Popular

Links

Developed by   AfarineshWeb