Supplication for Fortitude and Strength During Tribulations: Quranic Supplications 23
During Ramadan 2023, Sheikh Faraz Rabbani gave a series of daily video talks on supplications in the Quran. This series of articles are drawn from those talks and the related eBook. This article is about asking for fortitude and strength. The video series can be viewed here.
رَبَّنَآ أَفْرِغْ عَلَيْنَا صَبْرًۭا وَتَوَفَّنَا مُسْلِمِينَ
“O Lord, pour down unshakable patience upon us, and take back our souls in utter submission as Muslims.” [Quran, 7:126]
The nature of life is that God in His tremendous wisdom has made it deeply trying. This life is a test, and tests by their nature are trying. We will be shaken, disappointed, distressed, troubled. We may well feel overwhelmed. But in all of that, when we feel weakness, we turn to our caring Lord.
“Pour down upon us great, unshakable fortitude,” – صَبْرًا رَبَّنَا أَفْرِغْ عَلَيْنَا. We feel weak and alone before many of the tests of life, but we aren’t alone. We ask Allah to shower down that fortitude for us. That fortitude is not only fortitude from within, that we find strength from within. Part of Allah’s Mercy is that He has given us circles of mercy, circles of strength.
Sources of Strength
Some of us may be blessed to have a spouse that may be a source of strength. We may have children, siblings, parents, cousins, relatives, friends, teachers, mentors, community that are sources of strength and steadfastness. In this, just as servants of God we are not alone in the tests of life.
When we ask Allah, “Pour down upon us great fortitude,” we should also see the sources of strength in our lives. Not only the strength we find within – that I’m a servant of God and to know the truths of faith – but also the social strength that is facilitated.
Sometimes you may find yourself alone. Your parents may have passed away, your spouse may have left you, you may have never married. Your friends might not be responding. But there, as a servant of God, seek out the sources of strength.
Seek out those whom you can consult. Seek out community, because our Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, tells us that “Aloneness is misery and community is mercy.” Sometimes we don’t have that community, so we seek it.
Trials and Triumphs
In all of this, when we are tested, we keep our end in mind: “And cause us to die in utter submission to You as Muslims.” Because there’s a point to all the tests, which is how we respond to them and how things end up.
May Allah grant us strength in our tests from Him. Grant us to take the means to find strength. May He cause us to die in utter submission to Him as believers in gratitude, in love, in certitude.
Praise be to Allah, Lord of all the worlds.
