Trust in God, but tie your camel.🐫

Hey friends,

I posted something last week on my WhatsApp status: ‘Tie your camel. Trust in God, but make sure your camel is tied’. Obviously at first glance this is a bit hard to comprehend, like what does that even fully mean? So most friends inboxed me to ask what I meant, and I gave them the back story, therefore why not share it here too?

I read the phrase from a newsletter of one of the creators I follow. It’s a narrated story by some 9th-century Islamic scholar Tirmidhi. It goes a little like this:

And immediately I read that it got me thinking a bit.

Essentially what it means is that there are things within our control, there are things partially in our control, and there are things outside our control. In this case, tying the camel was in the Bedouin’s control. Someone stealing it or the camel wandering off was not in his full control.

And this is often so hard, especially for me. I’ve been told a million times already this year alone, that I am controlling. Of which at first I did not take lightly. But after a few sit downs with my journal and with myself, I realized there is a partial truth to it. I like things done my way or not done at all. And this makes things that are out of my control, such as people’s behavior, choices, beliefs etc affect me so much. Have you ever gotten angry at what someone has done/chosen yet it doesn’t affect you at all? That was/is me🌚.

Most things are majorly out of our control. In high school, our Director often told us once we enter the gates, forget all of family’s problems. Focus on the problem at hand, or rather, what you can control, your studies. And now I better understand this.

Best thing to do, tie the camel and let the God whom you believe in protect your tied camel.

Tie Your Camel reminds us to put the effort into helping ourselves (within our control), but beyond that, from being free of expectations about the outcome (outside our control). We’d all live happier lives if we focused our attention only on the stuff we could control, and let the rest go.

✍🏽Quote of the Week

Have a wonderful week ahead.

✍🏽Reagan.