Cultivate Your Garden: Lessons from Voltaire and the Quran

But this is not apathy. The Quran commands us to advocate righteousness and forbid evil, to live as examples of honesty, gratitude, and sincerity. Abraham prayed, “Let the example I set for the future generations be a good one” (26:84). Shuaib declared, “I only wish to correct as many wrongs as I can. My guidance depends totally on God” (11:88).

The responsibility of the believer is to act faithfully within the sphere God has entrusted them—family, work, community—while recognizing that the outcome lies with Him alone. We change what we can. We accept what we cannot. We trust God to know the difference.

And in this striving, there is reward even now. “God’s allies have nothing to fear, nor will they grieve… for them, joy and happiness in this world, as well as in the Hereafter. This is God’s unchangeable law” (10:62–64). To believe and live righteously is to walk in refuge, to find joy no matter the turbulence of history. As Psalm 91 declares, “Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.”