Tie your camel...

I heard a Sufi talk about trusting Allah but tying one's camel.

Some people think that they have to do everything, that only their actions make things happen, that there is no God. These people become frantic and eventually frustrated. There is no one to trust--or blame--other than ourselves.

Others think that God makes everything happen and our efforts are of no avail, one way or the other. These people become lazy and resigned to the repitition of what has always happened and to caprice. God is responsible for everything. Nothing is required of us.

The third way is to realize that we do what we can and if the result is not as we wish we trust Allah to know what should be.

We are not responsible--there are so many different people doing so many different things and all these different actions interact so as to bring about a result.

Our actions are not without consequence, nor are they determinative. We need to act, to throw the weight we have on to one side or the other of the balance. In this way our actions become a kind of prayer. And, once we have acted, once we have prayed, then we need to trust God with the outcome.