When we are worried thinking about the future, we need to work hard but have full trust in God that He will not leave us, and we must always think well of God because that is what we will find.

Yet in certain circumstances we just feel broken. Perhaps it is the death of someone close, perhaps a hurtful word, or perhaps a reason we cannot pinpoint. Yet this feeling of brokenness can be an invitation to be better acquainted with Al-Jabbar.

But isn’t Al-Jabbar one of God’s Names that indicates Majesty and Strength, not Mercy and Beauty?

The root of Al-Jabbar is “ja-ba-ra” and has a wide variety of meanings indicating God’s strength and majesty. One of the basic meanings of this name is the one who compels and restores, and demonstrates God’s majesty and strength over His servants. This is a name for the tyrants and oppressors to be aware of, because their misdeeds will not go unpunished.

Yet God’s name has another dimension: Al-Jabbar is the one who is able to restore and mend what is broken. Some of the great scholars would supplicate “Ya Jaabir kul kaseer” when they were faced with overwhelming difficulty, meaning “Oh You who mends everything that is broken.”

The Arabic word for a splint that is used to help an arm heal when it is broken is “jibeera” from the same root “ja-ba-ra”. Thus, when we feel broken, we need to go to the only one who can mend our state–“Al-Jabbar”.

Sometimes when we get this broken feeling, Satan tells us not to turn to God because we are being hypocritical by only going to God when we are down. Yet this is untrue– God has named Himself Al-Jabbar and given Himself this attribute; you cannot go to the one whose attribute is mending what is broken, and not be healed by Him.

Prophet Muhammad’s Journey to Al-Ta’if

The example of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is a beautiful one. Imagine being 50 years old, having just lost both your wife of twenty-five years and your uncle who took care of you as a child.

Imagine walking into a town in order to ask people for their protection, and instead have them throw stones at you until your feet bleed. How would you have felt? How exhausted, both spiritually and physically, would you have been? And yet, the Prophet calls out to God in one of the most beautiful and heartfelt du`a’ (supplication):

“O Allah! To you alone I complain my weakness, my scarcity of resources, and the humiliation I have been subjected to by people. O Most Merciful of those who have mercy! You are the Lord of the weak, and You are My Lord too.

To whom have you entrusted me? To a distant person who receives me with hostility? Or to an enemy to whom you have granted authority over my affair?

But as long as You are not angry with me, I do no care, except that Your favor is a more expansive relief to me. I seek refuge in the light of Your Face by which all darkness is dispelled and every affair of this world and the next is set right, lest Your anger or Your displeasure descend upon me.

Yours is the right to reproach until You are pleased. There is no power and no might except by You.”