Trust God Tie Up Your Camel

I’ve talked with a few students who have the opinion that all they need to do to be a good Sufi is to trust in God.  Meaning they don’t really have to “do” anything, God will just drop what they want in their laps.  My experience says that that doesn’t necessarily happen.  Even birds go out in search for food each day.  God doesn’t just drop worms into their nest.  Here are a couple of Sufi examples to add to this point of view.

There once was a man who was on his way back home from the market with his camel.  He’d had a good day at the market and decided to stop at a local mosque on the way home and offer thanks to God.  He left his camel outside the mosque and went in to pray.  He offered many thanks to God and promised that he would be a good Muslim by helping the poor and being a good example for the community.

When he came out of the mosque he found that his camel was gone!  He immediately began to rage at God and shook his fist at the sky.  He yelled at God saying, “How could you do this to me? I put my trust in you completely and you betray me this way!”

A passing Sufi Dervish heard the man yelling.  He said to the man, “Trust in God, but tie up your camel.”

This is a classic story.  Its message is for those who believe that having faith in God, trust in God, is all that is needed in life.  Trust in God is important, but God expects us to do our part as well.  If you jump off a cliff trusting that God will save you, you will find that the law of gravity will still be in force and you will fall to your peril.  If you leave a jar of honey open overnight, by morning the jar will be full of ants.  No amount of faith or belief will change the basic laws of the universe.

“Should I tether my camel, or trust in God alone?” a man asked the Prophet.  “First tether your camel, then trust in God,” replied the Prophet.  – Qushayri al-Qushayriyya.

The point of this teaching is that as we live our lives, take action – do the best we can in each moment.  Then trust in God.  We can’t control the results we will get.  Sometimes we do everything right and the thing we expected to happen just – doesn’t.  Other times, we stumble through life and wonderful things abound.  We have no control over how things turn out – only God does.  Tie up your camel and trust in God.  Do the best you can and let go of expectations about the results.  Each moment is perfect and the results we get are exactly the results we were supposed to get to continue to grow and  move forward.