Rizq, Livelihood, and Potential
There is a concept of rizq in Islam which, usually,
is rendered as referring to the Divine apportionment
for Creation - both collectively and individually. Often
times, when people speak about rizq, they do so in
terms of permissible and impermissible means of
striving for what is fated for one.
Rizq does not refer to just material goods. It
encompasses everything, on every level, in every
realm within Creation.
The rizq of spirituality transpires at the same time
as the rizq of material gain and losses. In fact,
Creation gives expression to a multi-dimensional
set of rizq transactions ... everything which occurs
is the manifestation of the principles of rizq at
work, and rizq is but a simple term which is
underwritten by the Divine play of Names and
Attributes in accordance with Divine purpose.
The profits, the losses, the blessings, the Divine
gifts, expansion, contraction, illness, well-being,
family, talents, birth, death, spiritual progress, sin,
repentance, wisdom, understanding, learning, forgetting,
insight, faith, unbelief, redepmption, food, comforts,
difficulties, poverty, and wealth are all manifestations
of the principles of rizq transactions at work. Human
beings stand at the heart of such transactions and,
unlike the rest of creation (with the exception of the
species of being known as jinn) have a unique role
to play with respect to rizq transactions.
More specifically, through our choices, through the
degrees of freedom which are extended to us, we
align ourselves or oppose ourselves to the rizq
transactions which take place. The choices we make
will not affect the rizq transactions which take place
one way or the other, but the intentions with which
we engage those transactions matter - to us and to
God.
To engage rizq transactions with the right intention
is what forms the basis of, among other things, right
livelihood. When the right intention is present, then,
work becomes a form of ibadat and zikr, for one
realizes that whatever happens this is a manifestation
of the Divine Himma in the form of a rizq transaction
of which one is a part.
All rizq transactions have a right over us because such
transactions constitute the way in which God wishes
events to unfold. We can work with such wishes or
we can seek to treat them with kufr and shirk - that is,
we can cover up/deny the truth of what is transpiring or
we can propose alternative ways of accounting for what
is going on that give explanations which are dependent
on something other than Divinity as the causal principle
for what takes place.
Everything in existence is unique - even if it shares some
similarities with other beings of its class of Creation. The
nature of Divine creation is such that nothing is repeated -
everything manifests ever different modalities of Divine
beauty and majesty in infinite combinations of possibility.
Each human being is unique. Each human being has a
unique role to play with respect to the realm of rizq
transactions. God uses each of us differently to serve as
loci of manifestation for rizq transactions.
Our souls have a right over us in this respect for each
of must seek to find what is uniquely inherent in the
fitra which is our spiritual potential and, then, we must
strive to, God willing, give expression to this. There is
a beauty, harmony and spiritual quality which arises
from rizq transactions which are engaged through the
right niyat or intention ... a niyat which is rooted in
awareness, understanding, faith, integrity, submission,
dependence, love, and character ... such beauty, harmony
and spiritual quality are, themselves, part of the rizq
transactions which God ordains.
The lives of the prophets and saints bear witness to the
foregoing. There is the aura of beauty, harmony, and
spiritual quality emanating from their lives as they
engage in the dance of rizq transactions which is
utterly captivating.
One’s heart and mind are drawn to the purity and
sincerity of intention by means of which rizq transactions
are manifested through their lives. We seek to follow
their example as best we can, according to the rizq of
spiritual potential we have been apportioned.
To do what is right for oneself and, simultaneously,
right for the world is to enter into rizq transactions
with the quality of intention which is most pleasing to
God. To achieve this level of quality is a very difficult
thing to do for it consists of, God willing, purifying,
calibrating, and bringing into active form all of the
different dimensions of the human being - including
mind, heart, sirr, spirit, kafi, and aqfah - which give
expression to the ‘so-called’ perfect human being -
which is not really perfection per se (for only God is
perfect) but rather the expression of capacity to
its fullest extent ... something which varies from person to
person.
No matter what one does for an occupation, there should
be an vocation or calling which underwrites it. The vocational
aspect is the spiritual quality with which one seeks to embrace
all of life, including the means through which God uses to
provide one with the material rizq of day-to-day living.
There are many people who earn their livelihood through
permissible means. There are very few people who do
this with the sort of spiritual balance, beauty, wisdom,
and quality which transforms such means of livelihood
into the acts of worship and zikr which human beings
have been given the capacity to achieve if God wishes.
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