Ask Allah, the Bestower and Giver of everything

The other day whilst driving along the beautiful North Shore, my friend Ateena commented on the beauty of Bermuda.

She went on to say how grateful she is to be living in such a scenic environment. 

I agreed; Bermuda is a very beautiful place. 

Ateena went on to say she is thankful for so many things and that when she prays, sometimes she does not ask God for anything, she just thanks Him for everything. 

I expressed to her how profoundly humble that was — imagine, just to go to God in prayer and say ‘thank you’. You know how it is, most of us when praying forget to say thanks but have a long list of wants. Most of us use our prayer as request time.

I thought about what Ateena had said and for the most part, I agreed that sometimes it’s just nice to give thanks and not make requests; however, on reflection, God wants us to make requests of him, all the time;  I mean really, who else can we ask? 

Some of our requests are mighty big — it would take only God to be able to bestow us with it and really He is the only resource — the one and only Bestower.

In Islam, one of Allah’s attributes and names is ‘The Bestower’ or in Arabic — Al Wahhab. 

Only Allah can bestow anything that He wills or anything that we lowly human beings can perceive in our limited minds to ask for.

“To Allah belongs the kingdom of the heavens and the earth. He creates what He wills. He bestows females upon whom He wills and males upon whom He wills. Or He bestows both males and females, and renders barren whom He wills.Verily, He is All-Knower and is Able to do all things.”  (Quran 42:49-50)

We can draw from the many stories of old to support that Allah is indeed the Bestower and Giver of all, any and everything, even things that seem impossible.

For instance, Allah granted some of His prophets with offspring even though they were very old. 

In Sura Ibrahim (14:39) Ibrahim is declaring what Allah had bestowed on him, a wonderous miracle in the birth of his sons: “All praises and thanks be to Allah, who has given me in old age Ishmael and Isaac. Verily! My Lord is indeed the All-Knower of invocations.”

 Zacharia also knew the power of Allah, the Bestower. The obstacle of Zacharia’s old age and his wife’s inability to have children did not stop him from asking of his Lord something, which many of us would have said was impossible.

But Zacharia, being of strong faith, asked anyway; and he prayed: “O My Lord! Grant me from You, a good offspring. You are indeed the All-Hearer of invocation.” (Aal-Imran 3:38).

Allah responded to Zacharias’s Du’aa (invocation) as the Holy Quran says in Al-Anbiya’ 21:90: “So we answered his call, and we bestowed upon him Yahya (John), and cured his wife (to bear a child) for him.”  

Supanallah! Indeed Allah of all the worlds is Awesome and Glorified, be He the Most Generous, the Bestower. 

So let us continue to ask Allah, no matter how ridiculous or impossible our request may seem, no matter if we have asked for a million things already; just keep on asking.  

Allah wants us to come to Him in prayer, humility, hope and faith. 

Only Allah can intercede into our condition, whatever it may be — God knows and He will bestow upon us a better condition if we but ask Him, the Bestower of all things. Ameen.