Qul lan yuseebana illa ma kataba Allahu lana huwa mawlana waAAala Allahi (surah Tawbah: 51)

Tafseer Tafheem-ul-Quran by Syed Abu-al-A'la Maududi

(9:51) Say to them, "Nothing (good or badcan befall us except that which Allah has destined for us: Allah is our Guardian and the Believers should put their trust in Him alone." *51

Qul lany-yuseebanaaa illaa maa katabal laahu lanaa Huwa mawlaanaa; wa `alal laahi falyatawak kalimu `minoon

*51) In this passage a demarcation has been made between the attitudes of a man of the world and of a man of God. Whatever the man of the world does, he does it to please his own self. He exults if he attains some worldly ends but feels utterly dejected if he fails to attain them. Besides, he depends entirely on his material resources for his success and feels encouraged if these are favourable, but loses heart if these are unfavorable.
In contrast to the man of the world, whatever the man of God does, he does it to please Him and trusts in Him and not in his own powers nor in material resources. Therefore he is neither exultant over his success in the cause of AIlah nor loses heart by failure, for he believes that it is the Will of God that is working in both the cases. Therefore he is neither disheartened by disasters nor is filled with conceit by successes. This is because he believes that both prosperity and adversity are from AIlah and are nothing but a trial from Him. Therefore his only worry is to do his best to come out successful in His test. Besides, as there are no worldly ends before him, he does not measure his success or failure by the achievement or failure of his ends. On the other hand, the only object before him is to sacrifice his life and wealth in the Way of Allah, and he measures the success or failure of his efforts by the standard he achieves in the performance of this duty. Therefore if he is satisfied that he has done his best to perform this duty, he believes that he has come out successful by the grace of God, though he might not have been able to accomplish anything from the worldly point of view; for he believes that his Allah in Whose cause he has expended his life and wealth will not Iet go waste the reward of his efforts. As he dces not depend on the material resources only, he is neither grieved if they are unfavourable, nor feels exultant when these are favourable. His entire trust is in God Who is the controller of all the resources; therefore he goes on doing his duty even under the most unfavourable circumstances with the same courage and perseverance that is shown by the worldly people infavourable circumstances alone. That is why Allah asked the Holy Prophet to say to the hypocrites, "There is a basic difference between you and us in regard to the conduct of affairs. We believe that both the good and the bad are from Allah: therefore the apparent result dces not make us happy or sad. Moreover, we depend on Allah in our affairs and you depend on material resources: so we are content and happy in all circumstances."