Tawakkul
Trust in God: placing one's affairs in His hands after doing what had to be done, a classical station of the path.
Tawakkul comes from wakala, to entrust an affair to an agent: it is placing oneself in God’s hands, entrusting Him with the business of one’s life after doing one’s part. The Qur’an ties it to a promise: ‘Whoever puts his trust in God, God is enough for him’ (LXV, 3).
Tradition long debated the relation between trust and action. The masters’ attachment is clear: tawakkul does not abolish effort, it orders effort towards its true object. One acts, earns a living, seeks treatment; but the outcome of the act does not belong to the actor. The manuals report a companion’s saying: ‘Tie your camel, then tawaqqal’: trust is not inaction.
In the progression of the stations, tawakkul comes after repentance and patience: it already presupposes a living relation to God. Al-Qushayri ranks it among the acquisitions one no longer loses. On the journey as a whole, see maqam and salik.