Knowledge of Hearts- Lesson (30-54): At Tawheed (Believing in Allah Alone) and Tafreed (Negating one's Ownself and Negating Anything Other Than Allah) 2- Fleeing to Allah- Say: "All things are from Allah"

The rank of fleeing to Allah the Almighty:

Dear brothers, Allah the Almighty says:
﴾ So flee to Allah (from His Torment to His Mercy Islamic Monotheism), verily, I (Muhammad ) am a plain warner to you from Him.﴿

[Adh-Dhariyat, 50]

Some scholars drew a conclusion from this Ayah by saying, "Fleeing to Allah is actually a rank (a status)." When you fear something you flee from it, but only Allah is the One to Whom people should flee, and in the Prophetic supplication the Prophet PBUH said:
((There is no fleeing from You, and there is no place of protection and safety except with You O Allah!))

In another supplication, the Prophet PBUH said:

((I seek refuge in You from You.))

Also, the Prophet PBUH said:

((O Allah, by Your Leave we live and to You we flee.))

"By Your leave we live" is an inclusive supplication which means that whatever graces I have, whatever success I achieve, whatever skill I master and whatever goodness I have got are but due to Your Favor. Everything should be for Allah's Sake.

Regarding the previous Prophetic inclusive supplications, some scholars have comments on the following Ayah:

﴾ So flee to Allah (from His Torment to His Mercy Islamic Monotheism),﴿

[Adh-Dhariyat, 50]

This means, do not bother yourselves with managing your matters, for everything is provision that is given by Allah Alone, and do not devote yourselves to pleasing people, to pleasing them will never be achieved, but rather you should flee to Allah, so that He will become your destiny.
Sincerity is a very crucial matter on the path to Allah the Almighty, because while one is calling to Allah and is striving to please Him, he might slip and might seek pleasing people more than Allah, and this is part of falling behind.
Success of man lies in being balanced in all aspects of life:

Allah the Almighty gave us two explicit examples: the example of our Master Dawood and the example of our Master Sulaiman, may Allah be pleased with them. The stories of these two great Prophets, peace be upon them, have impressive morals. Our Master Dawood PBUH gave preference to being with Allah over being with people, so Allah the Almighty lamented him for that. On the other hand, our Master Sulaiman PBUH gave preference to offering goodness over being with Allah, and so Allah the Almighty lamented him.
It is very easy to go to the extreme, but success lies in balance. You can be very successful among people, but that will be sometimes at the cost of losing your connection with Allah, or you can be with Allah the Almighty all the time, but sometimes that will be at the expense of the purpose you are created for. Abu Bakr may Allah be pleased with him, said, "Fear Allah O Umar, and know that Allah has deeds to be done for Him in the day which He will not accept if done at night, and He has deeds to be done for Him at night which He will not accept if done during the day." As I said earlier, it is easy to go to the extreme, but success lies in being in balance with all these aspects. Thus, you should devote some of your time to strengthen your connection with Allah, and you should do nothing else during this time. Also, you should devote some of your time to people during which you do nothing else.
Man should abandon sins and ignorance and seek obedience and knowledge:

Being with people will lead to offering good deeds. When you get involved in your society, you will be exalted by offering a good deed, a service, a donation, a sacrifice, a piece of advice or guidance. Nonetheless, you need a spiritual charging. In other words, man is in dire need of being spiritually charged, and this is done through Salah, Sawm and Hajj. Since this charging fades away by time, man should recharge himself spiritually again, and whoever realizes this secret of charging and recharging (after offering good deeds), and being in balance between the two, actually fulfills the major purpose of this balance.
Some scholars interpreted "Flee to Allah" by saying, "Flee from sins to obedience, from ignorance to knowledge and from meaningless assemblies to assemblies where Allah is remembered." Unfortunately, the majority of people are heedless in their meetings and assemblies, for they spend their time in laughing, backbiting, calumny, transgressing and telling dirty jokes which do not please Allah, and sometimes they elevates some parties or people to the Divine Status unintentionally. Such assemblies are full of heedlessness, so you should flee from them to other assemblies where Allah is mentioned.
Some assemblies are full of lying where every word that is said is a lie, and all the attendants lie, so the outcome of such assemblies does not reflect what they believe, but rather it reflects their hypocrisy. You should flee from such assemblies to assemblies where honest prevails, you should flee from the assemblies of heedlessness to the assemblies of remembrance (of Allah), you should flee from the assemblies of ignorance to the assemblies of knowledge and from assemblies of sins to the assemblies of obedience. This is the meaning of the following Ayah:
﴾ So flee to Allah (from His Torment to His Mercy Islamic Monotheism),﴿

[Adh-Dhariyat, 50]

The meanings of the rank of fleeing to Allah:

You should also flee from befriending Mukhliteen (those who do good and commit sins) to befriending the Mukhliseen (those who are obedient to Allah). Some people offer good deeds, but they sin, and they have shortcomings. Being in an assembly with those is not good for you, and you should flee to the more exalted assembly where people who are devoted to the religion of Allah are around. Those people flee from loving the worldly life to loving Allah, they flee from Allah's Torment to His Mercy and they flee from His Wrath to His Content.
Concerning this rank, Ibn Al-Qayyim said, "The rank of fleeing to Allah embraces subtle meanings. It means to flee from Allah's Wrath to His Content; to flee from a stance, a speech or behavior which brings about Allah's Wrath to a stand, a speech or behavior which brings about His Content. It is to flee from Allah's Torment to His Mercy, from loving the worldly life to loving Allah the Almighty, from befriending Al-Mukhliteen (who sin and offer good deeds) to befriending Al-Mukhliseen, from heedless assemblies to the assemblies of remembering Allah the Almighty, from the status of ignorance to the status of knowledge and from sins to obedience." This is the meaning of the following Ayah:

﴾ So flee to Allah (from His Torment to His Mercy Islamic Monotheism),﴿

[Adh-Dhariyat, 50]

Abu Ja'far An-Naisaboori said, "It bewilders the mind that we are told to flee from whatever brings fear to us, yet we are ordered to flee to Allah though we fear Him." This means that man tends to flee from whatever brings fear to him (other than Allah the Almighty), but when you fear Allah the Almighty you should flee to Him.
Allah tells man about his incapability of knowing the unseen:
Here is another Ayah related to Tawheed:
﴾ Say: "All things are from Allah,"﴿

[An-Nisa', 78]

This exclusiveness in the Ayah means that everything, whether it is accidental or it belongs to the unseen, is from Allah, given man is incapable of knowing the unseen as Allah the Almighty mentions in the following Ayah:
﴾ And with Him are the keys of the Ghaib (all that is hidden), none knows them but He.﴿

[Al-An'am, 59]

Allah the Almighty also tells us in another Ayah the difference between the Divine Status and the status of man:
﴾ Whatever is with you, will be exhausted, and whatever with Allah (of good deeds) will remain.﴿

[An-Nahl, 96]

Pay attention to the following Ayah, please:
﴾ Say: "All things are from Allah,"﴿

[An-Nisa', 78]

In fact, this is the gist of Tawheed.
Man should not start knowing Allah through observing His Actions:

I told you previously that you can get to know Allah the Almighty through His Creations, through His Words and finally through observing His Actions, so my advice to you is that never start with the third one (observing Allah's Actions), but rather start with reflecting on His Creations, because it is the safe and the passable path to Him, then know Allah the Almighty through His Words (i.e. Quran), and this is also safe and passable path. After these two steps, you are able to know Him through observing His Actions. Hence, starting with Allah's Actions is not safe, because you might lack the knowledge that explains the wisdom and the justice behind Allah's Actions.
There are two kinds of Divine Tests people are put to. In the first kind there are situations where Allah's Existence is manifested strongly to such an extent that even those who are far from Allah and who are heedless will admit that it is a Divine Action. A fierce wind once hit some farms and it destroyed 130 green houses, and each one of them brings 200.000 Liras as profits. Amazingly, the green houses of the sinners where plucked out entirely. Two brothers were afflicted with that wind, and one of them was disobedient, while the other was obedient, so the greenhouse of the obedient was saved from destruction. This is an explicit Action of Allah, and the Divine Wisdom behind it was crystal clear to people. Thus, the people of the worldly life are Divinely tried.

Allah is the Only Law-Giver in the universe:

Nowadays, some people say (due to the prevailing oppression), "There is one powerful country on earth which can do whatever it likes", and this is a kind of elevating this country to a Divine Status, which is Shirk. In such cases, when Allah's Action is not that obvious to people (so is the wisdom behind it), people's trial is to believe that it is from Allah the Almighty. However, people elevate the powerful party to a Divine Status instead, because the actions of this powerful party are more obvious to them. Hence, people are tested either with something very explicit (i.e. it is referred to Allah the Almighty by believers and non-believers), or with something implicit, and their test is to know that it is from Allah, otherwise they will fail. This is the meaning of the following Ayah:

﴾ Say: "All things are from Allah,"﴿

[An-Nisa', 78]

Common people refer explicit Actions to Allah, but they do not do so when the Actions are implicit, and so they refer them to such and such person. The true sincere believer always refers everything to Allah.
There is another meaning of the Ayah; it means that none in the universe can be a law-giver, and Allah is the Only Law-giver. It is said in this regard:
They said, "This is not permitted according to us",
but who are you in the first place?
***

No man can be a law-giver and disregard the Divine Revelation or cancel it by saying: "This is my law", because Allah is the only Law-Giver:
﴾ It is not for a believer, man or woman, when Allah and His Messenger have decreed a matter that they should have any option in their decision.﴿

[Al-Ahzab, 36]

You can give your opinion in the permissible matters, but as for the Laws, the Orders and the Bans of Allah the Almighty, you have no option in abiding by them as a believer. These are the meanings the following Ayat embrace:
﴾ So flee to Allah (from His Torment to His Mercy Islamic Monotheism),﴿

[Adh-Dhariyat, 50]

Allah the Almighty says:
﴾ Say: "All things are from Allah,"﴿

[An-Nisa', 78]

Translation : Noura Sharabi