Al Quran, Chapter 43: Surah Zukhruf
- And He Who created pairs of all (things) and made for you the ships, and from among the cattle, those on which you ride,
- that you may balance yourselves on their backs, then remember the favour of your Fosterer on you when you balance yourselves on them and say, “Glorified be He Who has subjected these to us (for our use) and we were not able to do it,
- and we will certainly return to our Fosterer.”
- And they assign to Him from His servants, a part (as sons, daughters, partners, etc), man to be certain is clearly ungrateful.
- وَالَّذِي خَلَقَ الْأَزْوَاجَ كُلَّهَا وَجَعَلَ لَكُم مِّنَ الْفُلْكِ وَالْأَنْعَامِ مَا تَرْكَبُونَ
- لِتَسْتَوُوا عَلَى ظُهُورِهِ ثُمَّ تَذْكُرُوا نِعْمَةَ رَبِّكُمْ إِذَا اسْتَوَيْتُمْ عَلَيْهِ وَتَقُولُوا سُبْحانَ الَّذِي سَخَّرَ لَنَا هَذَا وَمَا كُنَّا لَهُ مُقْرِنِينَ
- وَإِنَّا إِلَى رَبِّنَا لَمُنقَلِبُونَ
- وَجَعَلُوا لَهُ مِنْ عِبَادِهِ جُزْءًا إِنَّ الْإِنسَانَ لَكَفُورٌ مُّبِينٌ
We all know, the bold parts of the above verses as Prayer before journey (Dua e safar), as has been demonstrated by our beloved prophet Muhammad SAWS through the below Hadees:
Sunan Abi Dawood H: 1093,
Narrated Abdullah ibn Umar, When the Apostle of Allah (peace be upon him) sat on his camel to go out on a journey, he said: “Allah is Most Great” three times. Then he said: “Glorified be He Who has subjected these to us (for our use) and we were not able to do it, and we will certainly return to our Fosterer. O Allah, we ask You in this journey of ours, uprightness, piety and such deeds that are pleasing to You. O Allah, make easy for us this journey of ours and make its length short for us. O Allah, You are our Companion in the journey, and the One Who looks after the family and property in our absence.”
In the verses quoted above, Allah SWT is asking us to be thankful to Him when we mount the things and balance ourselves on them, which Allah SWT has provided to us for conveyance, the above verse mention Ships and Cattle.
If we analyze, the meaning of Dua e Safr, we can understand that due to the nature of the means of transport available in the days of revelation of the Quran, such as, ships which required wind for them to move in the sea and cattle such as Camels, Horses, Mules and Donkeys, it was required to thank Allah SWT as he had subjected them to the service of human beings without which travelling would have been difficult.
This makes one wonder, is this Dua applicable in the present day, as we are using different means of transport?
The following verses of the Quran seem to answer this question:
Al Quran, Chapter 36: Surah Yaa Seen
- وَآيَةٌ لَّهُمْ أَنَّا حَمَلْنَا ذُرِّيَّتَهُمْ فِي الْفُلْكِ الْمَشْحُونِ
- وَخَلَقْنَا لَهُم مِّن مِّثْلِهِ مَا يَرْكَبُونَ
- And a sign for them is that We carried their progeny in the loaded ship.
- And We created for them (vessels) similar to it, on which they ride.
Al Quran, Chapter 31
- أَلَمْ تَرَوْا أَنَّ اللَّهَ سَخَّرَ لَكُم مَّا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَمَا فِي الْأَرْضِ وَأَسْبَغَ عَلَيْكُمْ نِعَمَهُ ظَاهِرَةً وَبَاطِنَةً وَمِنَ النَّاسِ مَن يُجَادِلُ فِي اللَّهِ بِغَيْرِ عِلْمٍ وَلَا هُدًى وَلَا كِتَابٍ مُّنِيرٍ
- Did you not consider that Allah has subjected to your service that which is in the skies and that which is in the earth and has (showered) His favors on you excessively (both) externally and internally? And among mankind is he who disputes regarding Allah without knowledge and without guidance and without a book giving light.
The words Tarkaboon and Yarkaboon meaning ‘you ride’ and ‘they ride’ use a tense which may also mean ‘you will ride’ and ‘they will ride’, respectively in the future.
From the above verses we can derive that it is Allah SWT who has subjected all materials, fuels and the rules that govern them, to our service and has provided human beings the control on various energies, without which human progress in science and technology would have been impossible, hence this dua is not only applicable to all means of transport but should be to every single technical equipment that we use.
By this way we can express our gratitude towards our Fosterer (Rabb) and if we don’t thank Allah SWT then the following verse will be applicable:
Al Quran, Chapter 14
- وَإِذْ تَأَذَّنَ رَبُّكُمْ لَئِن شَكَرْتُمْ لأَزِيدَنَّكُمْ وَلَئِن كَفَرْتُمْ إِنَّ عَذَابِي لَشَدِيدٌ
- And when your Fosterer announced: If you are grateful I will definitely give you more, but if you are ungrateful, My punishment is certainly severe.”
We don’t know the extent of this severe punishment, which Allah SWT Himself knows best, but on this earth man has been experiencing strange behavior with the equipment he has been most relying on.
Due to control on energies provided by Allah SWT to human beings, man has been developing and creating things which make him feel that he is the ultimate being on this earth, he feels invincible.
Leaving aside the stories of prophets appearing in the Quran at various locations and the major natural disasters that man has been experiencing since time immemorial, a simple power outage in any developing city like Dubai or similar has a major impact on the way we live.
The title of this article, “The Thankful Troubleshooter” aims to highlight this thankfulness a troubleshooter should always offer to his Fosterer while solving technical problems through Dua e Safr, which has been observed to help in identifying the cause of any technical problem, as it is a widely accepted fact that finding the cause of the problem is half the solution.
The above claim of Dua e Safr, takes into consideration that the troubleshooter is qualified to handle the job and has basic knowledge about the equipment and is using proper tools and necessary equipment for his troubleshooting.
Gaining Allah’s attention through thankfulness, is the main idea behind solving not only problem at work (as discussed above) but also in our daily lives by thanking Allah (SWT) and looking for solution through the Quran and the Sunnah of His Prophet SAWS.