Provision · a Light
Provision in Arabic is a portion allotted, not earned
Rizq means provision: food, income, whatever sustains a life. The root r z q carries the sense of a share handed out, and classical usage applies it to the daily ration issued to a soldier. It is not a word about earning. The Qur'an says there is no creature moving on the earth whose provision is not upon Allah, and it places rizq in the sky alongside what has been promised. What follows in practice is a division of labour that runs through Muslim ethics: the effort belongs to the person, the outcome does not. Somebody who works and does not receive has not failed at rizq, because rizq was never the thing he was doing.
Root r z q, an allotted share
Source · Qur'an 11:6, 51:22
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