Surrendering to Allah completely, known as Islam itself (meaning "submission"), is a lifelong journey of aligning your will and actions with divine guidance. While complete surrender encompasses all aspects of life, a crucial part involves releasing the need for control in challenging moments.
One practical way to practice surrender is by consciously letting go of the negative emotions and futile efforts to control outcomes that cause distress.
A Practical Step Towards Surrender
As highlighted in the provided reference, surrendering involves recognizing the limits of your own power, especially when dealing with anger, fear, shame, guilt, or blame.
Here's how you can incorporate this practice:
- Pause During Your Day: Make a conscious effort to stop what you are doing, even for just a moment. This pause allows you to gain perspective.
- Recognize Futile Control: Become aware of situations where you are trying intensely to control things through negative emotions like anger, fear, shame, guilt, or blame. Understand that this struggle often leads to more pain and anguish.
- Embrace the Act of Surrender:
- Take a deep breath.
- As you exhale, consciously surrender. Realize and accept that your intense efforts to control this specific situation or emotion are causing you harm.
- Know that it is Allah who can help you feel calmer. Shift your reliance from your own strained efforts or negative emotions towards seeking peace and help from the Divine.
This specific practice focuses on surrendering the struggle for control and the negative emotional responses associated with it, recognizing that true calm and resolution come from Allah.
Why This Matters
Trying to control every situation and outcome through stress and negative feelings is not only exhausting but contradicts the essence of relying on Allah (Tawakkul). Surrendering in these moments doesn't mean inaction; it means performing your best while releasing the anxiety about the outcome, trusting in Allah's plan and seeking His help for inner peace and clarity.
This act of conscious surrender during moments of stress is a microcosm of the larger concept of submitting your entire life to Allah's will. By practicing it daily, you strengthen your awareness of Allah's power and your reliance upon Him, paving the way for more complete surrender in all facets of your existence.
