Our yaqeen (conviction in Allah Ta'ala) should not be like the yaqeen of the dog.

A train is about to travel from Johannesburg station to Cape Town. It is parked beside the platform so that the passengers may board the train. There is a dog sleeping under the train. When the time of departure approaches, the train starts moving. Co-incidentally, the dog happens to wake up at that time and starts moving as well. Therefore a conceited thought comes to the dog’s mind. It thinks, “As long as I was sleeping, the train was standing. When I started walking, the train started moving therefore I am causing the train to move.”

The dog then becomes a bit more alert. It wakes up properly, gets a bit more refreshed and starts running. The train also picks up speed. Now the dog is even more convinced and thinks, “When I was sleeping, the train was standing. When I started walking, the train started moving. And when I started running, the train picked up speed. I am really the one that causes this train to move.”

But for how long is that dog going to run? Very soon, the dog is going to tire down. Its tongue will be hanging out of its mouth. It will be panting and finally it will lie down, exhausted. Perhaps the train will drive over it and kill it. And the train will travel fifteen hundred kilometres to Cape Town, leaving the dog behind.

Similarly, when we think,

مَنْ رَبُّكَ

“Who is your Rabb,”

In addition to that we also think, “I am handling the house.” We say, “If I am not here, what’s going to happen? I am running the shop. If I am not here, what will happen? I am looking after my wife and children.” How many people have departed from this world and left the wife and children behind? How many husband and wives died together? Did the small, orphan children die of neglect? Did they perish? Rather they grew up despite the absence of their parents.

We should therefore firmly believe that Allah alone is doing everything, unlike the dog that thinks that it is he actually doing everything.