Believers feel a close love for and closeness to Allah in order to win His approval, and they take Him as their close friend and guide.
They are devoted to Almighty Allah with a great loyalty and close bond. Their aims, endeavors and prayers are solely directed toward winning Allah’s approval. This effort, by Allah’s will, gives great spiritual strength to believers that unbelievers can never possess.
With their devotion to Allah, deep fear and powerful love of Him, the prophets are role models for all Muslims. They properly discharged the duty to preach that our Lord Allah bestowed on them and called on people to adopt fine moral values, commanding what is good and forbidding what is evil.
Muslims who take the prophets as role models also come to notice their rational thinking and behavior, their powerful characters and sincere language and their noble appearance.
Like the prophets, they never fall prey to fear or sorrow in the face of events, regard everything as being for the best and constantly call on those around them to behave well. They remember Allah a great deal, know that Allah creates everything that happens, unhesitatingly spurn all of satan’s empty promises, by Allah’s leave, and pay no heed to the transitory attractions of this world. These superior attributes of believers also endow them with spiritual strength.
People who are ignorant and do not live by the moral values of the Qur’an may be amazed to notice that believers are never distracted by the deceptive baubles of this world, never fall prey to panic and sorrow, never fear and always maintain their moderation.
The way that true believers always live happy and placid lives, despite being subjected to oppression and violence by unbelievers, and even being threatened with exile, imprisonment and even death by them, is something that unbelievers can never understand.
Believers, who are certain that Allah will never leave them without help or inflict a heavier burden on them than they can bear, and who hope for paradise as a reward for their troubles, always submit to Allah under all circumstances.
However, submission to Allah does not mean, as some people imagine, keeping oneself outside the sphere of events.
On the contrary, according to the moral values of the Qur’an, a believer assumes all kinds of responsibility. He knows that it is Allah Who causes him to do what he does and that the control of his own existence is in Allah’s hands, and that he achieves all his aims as a representative of our Lord.
A believer who has submitted to Allah is sure that Allah will never leave him without help, will never impose a heavier burden than he can bear and will eventually reward him with paradise.
This belief helps him become strong in the world. He fears nothing and nobody apart from our Almighty Lord Allah. Qur’an describes it in this way: “They say, ‘If we return to Madinah, the mightier will drive out the inferior.’ But all might belongs to Allah and to His Messenger and the believers. But the hypocrites do not know this. (Surah Al-Munafiqun, 8)
Their excellent knowledge of and sincere faith in the moral values of the Qur’an are highly influential in believers’ acquisition of spiritual strength.
Believers know that Allah is omniscient and infinitely just. He creates everything that happens on Earth, both great and small. Allah is infinitely compassionate, loving and forgiving. He will respond to all prayers in the finest manner. He will send divine aid to His servants when they are troubled or afflicted.
Submitting to our Lord, the infinitely wise, just, compassionate, loving and helpful, is thus a great source of comfort.
Allah has created destiny in a flawless manner and that even if they returned to Earth thousands of times over they would still undergo the same destiny, unaltered, and that destiny is created in the most auspicious form for believers.
Allah creates everything that happens with great wisdom and for the best for believers, and that human beings have no power to work any good or harm of their own.
It must not be forgotten that, as revealed in the verse “But those who were sure that they were going to meet Allah, said, ‘How many a small force has triumphed over a much greater one by Allah’s permission! Allah is with the steadfast” (Surah Al-Baqara, 249).
Even if few people have their faith and love of Allah, they will still overcome much larger communities and acquire much strength of will.
Adnan Oktar's piece on Arab News: