faith is earned, not given

Today in our online class my sweet lecturer shared a conversation she had with her student. It stayed with me so I decided to write about it.

👧🏻: انتي بتعرفي يا دكتوره. احنا عندنا الاسلام فقط بكون بالوراثه. يعني الأغلب بكون مسلم فقط لأن ابويه ديانتهم الاسلام وانا زيي زي اي انسان. لكن بالفتره الاخيره حسيت بفراغ بالقلب، حسيت انو فعلا هل دين الاسلام هو الصح
👧🏻: بدأت أفكر بم‎.

🧕🏼: كل الاشياء كنت تقودني لوجود رب، وحتى من خلال تجاربي عند دعوتي  لربنا انو يحسن اوضاعي‎ عوجود ربنا‎.

Translation:

👧🏻: Prof... you know, for many of us, Islam is something we inherit. Most people are Muslim only because their parents are Muslim. And I’m just like everyone else. But lately I’ve been feeling an emptiness in my heart. I started wondering, is Islam truly the right path?
👧🏻: I’ve started thinking a lot about it.

🧕🏼: Every experience in my life kept pointing me to the existence of Allah. Even in my lowest moments, when I asked Him to ease my situation, something always happened that reaffirmed His presence.

I guess it's common to feel spiritually lost, especially during the lockdown where we have a lot more time by ourselves. It touched me because I believe she was confessing out of hope that she finds an answer.

For a while I was reminded of one particular story in the Quran.

And [mention] when Abraham said, ‘My Lord, show me how You give life to the dead.’
[Allah] said, ‘Have you not believed?’
He said, ‘Yes, but only so that my heart may be satisfied.’
[Al-Baqarah: 260]

Nabi Ibrahim is a prophet and his faith was not in question. But he asked something that many of us might not expect coming from a firm believer.

“Rabbi arini kaifa tuhyil-mawta”

My Lord, show me how You give life to the dead.

Allah then asked him gently. Not as a rebuke, but as a reassurance. And Nabi Ibrahim responded:

“Yes, I believe, but I want my heart to be at ease.”

This is beautiful, because even a prophet longed for طمأنينة القلب, a satisfied and peaceful heart. Faith is not always a straight line. It has seasons.

In later verses, Allah then instructed Nabi Ibrahim to take four birds, train them, and place their parts on different hills. When he called them, they returned to him alive. This was not just a miracle. It was a deeply personal response from Allah, a direct answer to Nabi Ibrahim’s request for reassurance.

This teaches us that:

• Asking for our heart to feel at peace is not a weakness. It is part of the journey.
• Doubts that lead us to seek Allah are different from doubts that lead us away from Him.

So when someone says, “I feel empty,” we should remember that this is a path walked even by the prophets. It is discovered, strengthened, and chosen by the heart.