Revive Your Heart: Putting Life in Perspective

ṣadaqah
to
the one who is 
faqīr
and to the one who is 
miskīn
, and when you put two words
together like that, it means, they mean two different things. According to Ibn
Manzūr in 
Lisān al-ʿArab
, the 
faqīr
is in the worst possible situation; the 
miskīn
might even own some things. That’s why in the Qur’an, in 
Sūrat al-Kahf
, the
masākīn
own a ship:
As for the boat it belonged to some poor people who worked on the
river…
(Al-Kahf 18: 79)
Even if someone is 
miskīn
, they might still own a boat, they might still be
fishermen, they might still have a job; but a 
faqīr
: He’s got nothing! He’s got
absolutely nothing. He says to Allah that I have absolutely nothing.
They say in Arabic: ‘the one who is walking is happy with whatever ride he
can get’. You know what they mean by that? If there is a guy walking in the
middle of the desert and somebody offers him a donkey, or somebody offers him
a horse, or somebody offers him a turtle to sit on, he won’t mind. He’s not going
to say, ‘I don’t know if this is my kind of ride. I need a more luxury class
vehicle’. He’s not going to say that. He’ll say: ‘Give me that bicycle, I’ll take it!’
Because he has nothing. He is turning to Allah and saying, ‘
Yā Allāh
, I
acknowledge that I have absolutely nothing. And I don’t even have a means to
earn anything. You are the only one who sent this down my way; I am not going

---

to complain’.
The point I am trying to make is just coming. When he made this 
duʿā’
to
Allah, when he turned to Allah and said, ‘
Yā Allāh
my back is broken’. A 
faqīr
,
by the way, is also someone whose back is broken. When your back is broken it
means you cannot lift anything; things have to be given to you because you
cannot even go and get them. That’s why he said, ‘
Yā Allāh
, whatever you sent
towards me is because I’m 
faqīr
, I can’t go and get it. You are bringing it to me!’
Subḥān Allāh
, this is the acknowledgment of 
Mūsā
(
ʿalayhi al-salām
).
When he makes this 
duʿā’
, the next 
āyah
of 
Sūrat al-Qaṣaṣ
is:
Soon thereafter one of the two women came to him, walking
bashfully, and said: “My father invites you that he may reward you for
your having watered our flocks for us...”
(Al-Qaṣaṣ 28: 25)
‘Therefore’, listen carefully now, ‘therefore one of those two girls came back
and said, “my father wants to pay you”.’ The word ‘therefore’ is important. Did
he ask for money? No. Did he ask for a job? No. Did he ask to be invited to their
house? No. None of this, he only turned to Allah and said whatever you have
given me, I was desperately in need of it, I appreciate it. You turn to Allah in
appreciation and as a result, there’s a formula, there’s a rule. You know how we
call them the laws of nature; there are laws of Qur’an and they are more
powerful than the laws of nature. The laws of nature change: fire is supposed to
burn but it will stop burning when 
Ibrahim
(
ʿalayhi al-salām
) is thrown inside;
water is supposed to retain its shape but it will change when 
Mūsā
(
ʿalayhi al-
salām
) strikes his staff and Allah makes the water not keep its shape. The laws
of nature can bend when Allah wants them to but the laws of Allah in His book,
the laws of guidance, they don’t bend. The laws of 
duʿā’
, they don’t bend. And
what is this law? That when you appreciate what Allah has given you, then Allah
will take care of you!
What happens? She comes to him and says, ‘My dad wants to pay you’. He
doesn’t turn to her and say, ‘No thank you sister, I did that