Lesson 4 of 6 · Living with an open question
What changes when the target changes
If the target is certainty, every day is a pass or a fail and most days are a fail.
If the target is being able to carry an open question, the whole picture rearranges. You are not trying to prove anything to yourself before Fajr. You are a person who has a question that is not currently settled, which is an ordinary condition and one that a great many believing people are in, quietly, without saying so.
This is not the same as being told to stop caring, and it is not resignation. Ibrahim asked. He asked out loud and he was not rebuked for asking. What changes is that the not knowing stops being an emergency that has to be cleared before the day can begin.
We are not going to give you a technique for tolerating it. Doing that properly is a treatment, and lesson six says who does it and why it is not us.
Qur’an and Sunnah
My Lord, show me how You give life to the dead. Ibrahim asked out loud, was asked in return whether he did not believe, and answered yes, but to put my heart at rest. He was not rebuked for asking.
وَإِذۡ قَالَ إِبۡرَٰهِـۧمُ رَبِّ أَرِنِي كَيۡفَ تُحۡيِ ٱلۡمَوۡتَىٰۖ قَالَ أَوَلَمۡ تُؤۡمِنۖ قَالَ بَلَىٰ وَلَٰكِن لِّيَطۡمَئِنَّ قَلۡبِيۖ قَالَ فَخُذۡ أَرۡبَعَةࣰ مِّنَ ٱلطَّيۡرِ فَصُرۡهُنَّ إِلَيۡكَ ثُمَّ ٱجۡعَلۡ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ جَبَلࣲ مِّنۡهُنَّ جُزۡءࣰ ا ثُمَّ ٱدۡعُهُنَّ يَأۡتِينَكَ سَعۡيࣰ اۚ وَٱعۡلَمۡ أَنَّ ٱللَّهَ عَزِيزٌ حَكِيمࣱ
And when Abraham said, ‘My Lord, show me how You give life to the dead,’ He said, ‘Do you not believe, then?’ ‘Yes,’ said Abraham, ‘but just to put my heart at rest.’ So God said, ‘Take four birds and train them to come back to you. Then place them on separate hilltops, call them back, and they will come flying to you: know that God is all powerful and wise.’
Qur’an 2:260
We have more right to be in doubt than Ibrahim, said of the very moment he asked. Like the verse beside it, it is here because the asking was not treated as a fault.
Narrated Abu Huraira:Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said, "We have more right to be in doubt than Abraham when he said, 'My Lord! Show me how You give life to the dead.' He said, 'Do you not believe?' He said, 'Yes (I believe) but to be stronger in Faith
Sahih al-Bukhari 4537graded sound, sahihaynthe Arabic and its grading
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.