Discover the meaning of the term Al-twkl (توكل) in Islamic vocabulary.
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Updated on 11 April 2026 at 1:05 AM
📖 3 min readIt is trust in what is with Allah, and despair of what is in people's hands.
In language: the negation of doubts and the delegating of the affair to the Possessor of dominions. In technical usage: the casting of the body into servitude and the heart's attachment to Lordship.
In language: the manifesting of incapacity, reliance upon another, delegation and surrender; one says: 'wakkaltu al-amra ilay-hi' (I entrusted the matter to him): I delegated it and was content with him. Al-tawakkul also means accepting the agency; one says: 'wakkaltu-hu tawkilan' (I made him my agent). In technical usage: surrender to Allah, delegating the affair to Him, relying upon Him and trusting in Him; this is what is taken from the scholars' definition. The masters of the path have expressions about tawakkul: some say: 'tawakkul is the heart's casting itself before the Lord; it is forsaking choice and drifting along the courses of the decrees.' Sahl said: 'tawakkul is drifting with Allah in what He wills'; that is his explanation of it by stillness and the quenching of the heart's motion. Some explain it by contentment, saying: 'it is contentment with the decreed'; and it is said: 'tawakkul is forsaking attachments and pursuing realities.' (Al-Misbah al-Munir, entry 'wakala', p. 257; Mu'jam al-Maqayis, entry 'wakala', 1102; Tahdhib Madarij al-Salikin, p. 337).
'Tawakkala al-rajul bi-l-amr': he undertook to guarantee its doing. : He accepted the agency. : 'Tawakkala 'ala Allah ta'ala': he surrendered to Him. In the noble Quran: 'Allah suffices me; there is no god but He; in Him I trust; and He is the Lord of the Mighty Throne' (al-Tawba, 129).
Trust in what is with Allah and despair of what is in people's hands; it is said: the absence of vexation in the place of need; it is said: the negation of agitation when means are absent; it is said: the lifting of aspiration above what precedes the lot; it is said: the forsaking of effort in what exceeds human capacity.
It is reliance upon Allah and not turning to what is besides Him. Al-Sayyid said: it is trust in what is with Allah and despair of what is in people's hands.