Two men came to the Prophet ï·º to settle a dispute. When Rasulullah ï·º decided the matter in favor of one of the men, the other man walked away saying, “Hasbi Allah wa Ni’mal-Wakeel.”
When the Prophet ï·º heard that, he said, “Allah condemns inadequate effort. Conduct your affairs diligently and intelligently.” Look at that. In this case, saying “Hasbi Allah wa Ni’mal-Wakeel” could actually displease Allah.
Look, when you are serious, when you say “Hasbi Allah wa Ni’mal-Wakeel”, and you mean it; Allah will take it even more seriously than you. Because when you declare that Allah is Enough for you, it is no longer about you, it is about Him.
To prove that Allah is indeed Sufficient for His slaves, He will do miraculous things. He isn’t doing them for your sake, He does it because when you say “Hasbi Allah wa Ni’mal-Wakeel”, you are making a statement about Allah, about His Power and His Greatness, and He, Subhanahu wa Ta’ala, will validate that.
But you have to mean it when you say it. You have to be serious. And how can you know if you are serious or not? Well, the answer is in this hadith. “Hasbi Allah wa Ni’mal-Wakeel” has a prerequisite, a precondition, before Allah will take it seriously.
The condition is that before you say it, you try your utmost, you exert your maximum effort, you face your challenge with as much intelligence and strength and energy and bravery as you possibly can. If you do that, and fail, if you have tried everything you possibly can, drained every resource of your mind and body that you can, and then you say “Hasbi Allah wa Ni’mal-Wakeel”, Allah will take you seriously; because you have proven that you tried your best.
We all know the hadith about changing an evil you see by your own hands; and if you can’t change it by your hands, then speak against it, and if you can’t change it by condemning it, then at least hate it in your heart. Brothers and Sisters; implicit in every obligation is the prohibition of neglecting it, the prohibition of falling short, the prohibition of doing less than what is required.
Your Prophet ï·º told you, “Allah condemns inadequate effort”. If you can change an evil by your own hands, speaking out against it is inadequate. If you can change it by condemning it, hating it in your heart is inadequate. Doing less than what is required is forbidden in the battle against evil and oppression and tyranny and injustice. You have to do your utmost.
Do you think your utmost means anything short of risking imprisonment? Do you think it means doing anything less than risking death? Do you think it means anything less than putting your freedom and your life on the line? Then I don’t know how you understand the Qur’an. Find me an example of the Prophets or their companions saying “Hasbi Allah wa Ni’mal-Wakeel” when their lives weren’t on the line. When they weren’t face to face with imminent death. When they weren’t ready to spill their blood and risk everything to make the Word of Allah supreme.
Have you done your utmost? Have you been diligent and intelligent and exerted the maximum effort in Egypt?
Do you think that going out into the streets with signs and shouting slogans is enough? Why, that is nothing but asking your oppressor to stop oppressing you, it isn’t fighting him, it isn’t damaging him, it isn’t disrupting the power structure that is crushing you and enslaving you and enslaving your children.
Are you risking imprisonment? Yes, sure, of course you are. But for what? You are risking imprisonment in order to carry out an inadequate effort. Because you know and I know, and Allah Subhanahu wa Ta’ala certainly knows, you are not going to liberate yourselves by asking your oppressor to be just with you, to be fair, to allow you to be free.
Everybody knows this won’t work.
It won’t work because your oppressor in Egypt is not in charge, he is not in a position to give you what you want, because he is just a slave himself. Egypt is integrated into a clearly defined global imperial power structure, an imperial hierarchy.
Sisi is not at the top of that pyramid. The International Monetary Fund is above him, the World Bank is above him. And the multinational corporations and foreign investors are above the IMF and the World Bank.
At the top of the pyramid of imperial power, there are shareholders, the global owners of capital. They are the rulers of Egypt, and they are never going to listen to you, because they do not speak the language of decency, or morality, or principle; they don’t speak the language of social and political rights. They speak the language of money, of profits. They don’t understand demands, they understand consequences.
Their shops, their offices, their facilities, are all around you. So have you done your utmost?
Their trucks and cars and transport containers, pass by you every day. Their corporate offices, their warehouses, their factories, their distribution centers, are vaults containing their wealth and power; and they are everywhere you look. So have you done your utmost?
They pick up and deliver and transport their goods along the same roads you use. They are not hidden; they don’t have to hide, because you are not even looking at them. They are profiting every day by your oppression, and yes, that is why you are oppressed; and they so have you done your utmost? While the forces of imperial domination operate freely and openly all around you?
Sisi can’t defy them, he can’t say “no” to them; he never has and he never will. He can afford to lose the support of the population; he never had it anyway; but he can’t afford to lose the support of his masters. If you inflict loss on corporate power, and the only way they can restore profitability is by complying with your demands, they will do it, and Sisi will do as he is told, and if he doesn’t, he will disappear.