{"id":811,"date":"2015-12-06T14:32:41","date_gmt":"2015-12-06T20:32:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/?p=811"},"modified":"2015-12-06T15:49:28","modified_gmt":"2015-12-06T21:49:28","slug":"god-can-fix-this-but-he-wants-us-to-do-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/god-can-fix-this-but-he-wants-us-to-do-it\/","title":{"rendered":"God Can &#8220;Fix This,&#8221; But He Wants Us To Do It"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>In the Name of God: The Extremely and Eternally Loving and Caring<\/em><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_814\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-814\" style=\"width: 240px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/files\/2015\/12\/image1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-814\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/257\/2015\/12\/image1-240x300.jpg\" alt=\"NY Daily News said, &quot;God Isn't Fixing This&quot;\" width=\"240\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-814\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">NY Daily News said, &#8220;God Isn&#8217;t Fixing This&#8221;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In the wake of the horrific shooting and apparent terror attack in San Bernardino, California, the NY Daily News <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nydailynews.com\/news\/the-week?pdate=20151203\" target=\"_blank\">raised eyebrows with their headline<\/a> saying, &#8220;God Isn&#8217;t Fixing This.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>And on the cover, it showed pictures of the tweets of various politicians who called for prayers of the victims of the massacre. I, too, added my prayers for the victims as well.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families of the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/CaliforniaShooting?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#CaliforniaShooting<\/a>. God shower them with Light and Love.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Hesham A. Hassaballa (@GodFaithPen) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GodFaithPen\/status\/672248894496055296?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 3, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Yet, leaving aside the accusation by some <a href=\"http:\/\/thehill.com\/blogs\/blog-briefing-room\/news\/262229-cruz-blasts-new-york-daily-news-for-prayer-shaming\" target=\"_blank\">politicians<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newsmax.com\/Newsfront\/franklin-graham-new-york-daily-news-prayer-san-bernardino\/2015\/12\/04\/id\/704585\/\" target=\"_blank\">religious leaders <\/a>that the NY Daily News is somehow &#8220;prayer shaming,&#8221; I think there is a larger point that has been missed.<\/p>\n<p>As a person of faith, I believe wholeheartedly in prayer. I do it every day: both ritually and non-ritually. It is my opportunity to talk to God, all day and every day. It is incredibly powerful and comforting. It helps me feel and live the presence of God in my daily life.<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, however, prayer alone is not enough. It is not enough that I pray for &#8220;a lot of money&#8221; but then refuse to get out of bed and go to work. It makes no sense to pray to God for &#8220;protection&#8221; but then not lock the door to the house or car. Yes, we should pray to God for the victims of gun violence all over our country (and world), but we must also act &#8211; in numerous ways &#8211; to help prevent such tragedies from happening again.<\/p>\n<p>I think this is what the NY Daily News was trying to say, and I agree.<\/p>\n<p>Make no mistake about it: God <em>can<\/em> fix the problems of the world; in the blink of an eye. But, He wants <em>us<\/em> to strive and work to fix those problems, and at that moment, we should ask for His help and guidance and strength. Many of the problems of our world are by <em>our<\/em> own hands, and thus it is up to us &#8211; with God&#8217;s help &#8211; to do what we can to alleviate those problems. The Qur&#8217;an tells us so:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>Corruption has appeared on land and in the sea as an outcome of what the people&#8217;s hands have wrought: and so He will let them taste [the evil of] some of their doings, so that they might return [to the right path] (30:41)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In another passage of the Qur&#8217;an, it says:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>&#8230;Verily, God does not change the condition of a people until they change their inner selves&#8230; (13:11)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>We have to work to fix our world; we have to pick up the gauntlet thrown down by God to make our world better; we have to struggle &#8211; to do <em>jihad<\/em> &#8211; to rid our world of the evils which plague it.<\/p>\n<p>And that &#8220;we&#8221; is any number of groups: we Americans must enact common sense rules to prevent guns from getting into the hands of mentally ill or radicalized violent extremists; we Muslims must never cease countering the satanic, toxic narrative of the savages who commit horrific violence in the name of our preccious faith; we citizens of the world must come together to solve the growing number of threats that endanger us all.<\/p>\n<p><em>We<\/em> have to get up and do it, and as we do the hard work necessary, we should look to the sky and turn our hands up &#8211; in complete humility &#8211; to the Lord our God and ask for His help and guidance. This is the way of the Prophets, such as Jesus Christ (pbuh), whose birth Christians the world over are celebrating later this month.<\/p>\n<p>Jesus could have asked God to fulfill his mission for him, which God could do straightaway. But, Jesus did not do that. He struggled, he worked, he preached, he hit the streets of Galilee and Jerusalem, all the while praying to God for help and strength. The same was true for the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), whose birthday we Muslims will also celebrate later this month.<\/p>\n<p>As a believer, I know that God <em>can<\/em> &#8220;fix this&#8221;; He can fix anything. But, He wants us &#8211; all of us, regardless of race, creed, culture, or status &#8211; to work together to do good on this earth, and when we do so and ask for His help, He will come to our aid like only He can.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the Name of God: The Extremely and Eternally Loving and Caring &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; In the wake of the horrific shooting and apparent terror attack in San Bernardino, California, the NY Daily News raised eyebrows with their headline saying, &#8220;God Isn&#8217;t Fixing This.&#8221; And on the cover, it&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":175,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[685,9,11,446,684,167,686,401,18],"class_list":["post-811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-common-word","tag-california","tag-god","tag-islam","tag-jihad","tag-ny-daily-news","tag-prayer","tag-san-bernardino","tag-shooting","tag-terrorism-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>God Can &quot;Fix This,&quot; But He Wants Us To Do It<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"God can fix anything. But, He wants us to struggle - to do jihad - to solve our problems and make the world better. And we should ask His help to do so.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"God Can &quot;Fix This,&quot; But He Wants Us To Do It\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"God can fix anything. But, He wants us to struggle - to do jihad - to solve our problems and make the world better. And we should ask His help to do so.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/god-can-fix-this-but-he-wants-us-to-do-it\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Common Word, Common Lord\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-12-06T20:32:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-12-06T21:49:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/files\/2015\/12\/image1-240x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Hesham A. Hassaballa\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@GodFaithPen\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"God Can \"Fix This,\" But He Wants Us To Do It","description":"God can fix anything. But, He wants us to struggle - to do jihad - to solve our problems and make the world better. And we should ask His help to do so.","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"God Can \"Fix This,\" But He Wants Us To Do It","og_description":"God can fix anything. But, He wants us to struggle - to do jihad - to solve our problems and make the world better. And we should ask His help to do so.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/god-can-fix-this-but-he-wants-us-to-do-it\/","og_site_name":"Common Word, Common Lord","article_published_time":"2015-12-06T20:32:41+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-12-06T21:49:28+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/files\/2015\/12\/image1-240x300.jpg"}],"author":"Hesham A. Hassaballa","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@GodFaithPen","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/god-can-fix-this-but-he-wants-us-to-do-it\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/god-can-fix-this-but-he-wants-us-to-do-it\/","name":"God Can \"Fix This,\" But He Wants Us To Do It","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/god-can-fix-this-but-he-wants-us-to-do-it\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/god-can-fix-this-but-he-wants-us-to-do-it\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/files\/2015\/12\/image1-240x300.jpg","datePublished":"2015-12-06T20:32:41+00:00","dateModified":"2015-12-06T21:49:28+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/#\/schema\/person\/c2d50a46198edad19abb055001c4cd21"},"description":"God can fix anything. But, He wants us to struggle - to do jihad - to solve our problems and make the world better. And we should ask His help to do so.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/god-can-fix-this-but-he-wants-us-to-do-it\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/god-can-fix-this-but-he-wants-us-to-do-it\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/god-can-fix-this-but-he-wants-us-to-do-it\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/files\/2015\/12\/image1-240x300.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/files\/2015\/12\/image1-240x300.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/god-can-fix-this-but-he-wants-us-to-do-it\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"God Can &#8220;Fix This,&#8221; But He Wants Us To Do It"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/","name":"Common Word, Common Lord","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Hesham Hassaballa","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/#\/schema\/person\/c2d50a46198edad19abb055001c4cd21","name":"Hesham A. Hassaballa","description":"Hesham A. Hassaballa is a Chicago doctor and writer. He has written extensively on a freelance basis, being published in newspapers across the country and around the world. He has been a Beliefnet columnist since 2001, and has written for the Religion News Service. He is also a columnist for Patheos. His articles have been distributed worldwide by Agence Global, and he was also a guest blogger for The Chicago Tribune and has blogged on ChicagoNow\" . In addition, Dr. Hassaballa has appeared as a guest on WTTW (Channel 11) in Chicago, CNN, Fox News, BBC, and National Public Radio. Dr. Hassaballa is co-author of The Beliefnet Guide to Islam (Doubleday), and his essay, \u201cWhy I Love the Ten Commandments,\u201d was published in the award-winning book Taking Back Islam (Rodale). His latest book, Noble Brother, is the story of the Prophet Muhammad told entirely in poetry, and it is now published in its second edition. In 2007, his blog \"God, Faith, and a Pen\" was nominated for a Brass Crescent Award for a blog that is \u201cthe most stimulating, insightful, and philosophical, providing the best rebuttals to extremist ideology and making an impact whenever they post.\u201d \"God, Faith, and a Pen\" has also received an award for being one of the \"Top Muslim Blogs for 2010\" by Awarding The Web. In addition to writing, Dr. Hassaballa helped found the Chicago Chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations and currently serves on their board of directors. He also co-founded the Bayan H. Hassaballa Charitable Foundation and now serves as its Treasurer.","sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/GodFaithPen"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/author\/hhassaballa\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/175"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=811"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":820,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811\/revisions\/820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}