Submitters, Quran and the 12 Steps

This is the last in this series of articles on the 12 Steps and how they relate to the Quran and Submission. So far in the series we have discussed all of the steps except the last two. Since this is the last article we will quickly summarize the earlier steps. For the verses and much greater detail on each step you can refer to the articles in the February, March, June, August and October Submitters Perspective issues of this year.

The first three steps form the foundation of the 12 Steps, and when closely examined they are also very relevant to Submission. Step 1 as applied to Submission is “We admitted we were powerless over anything; that our lives had become unmanageable.” If we do not recognize that only God has any power, things do indeed become crazy and unmanageable. If we try to control our lives by ourselves, without turning to God for help, we soon find that we have no power at all.  One would think that this step is unnecessary for Submitters, but how often have we tried to take things into our own hands only to find everything falling apart? Step 2 is “Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.” In this step we recognize that only God can help us and make our lives happy and good.

We remember that only God can do anything, and only He can help us in any way. Step 3 is “Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood God.” For many of us this defines the essence of Submission. We strive to totally trust and depend on God alone and turn everything over to Him. However once again we have to work hard at it. It’s in our own interests to examine ourselves. Are we always totally trusting in God alone or do we sometimes try to depend on someone or something else, including ourselves.

This is where the remainder of the steps can be of help in our striving. Getting to know ourselves well so we can see our defects and address them can help us "turn our will and our lives over to the care of God" (Step 3). To honestly see ourselves, we make a "thorough and fearless moral inventory of ourselves" in Step 4. Then in Step 5 we admit to ourselves and to God what we have discovered about ourselves. We can also share our findings with another person whom we trust. While the Quran does not require that we share our negative aspects with anyone else besides God, doing so is an opportunity to work on killing our egos and also follow the Quranic principle of consultation.

In Step 6 we become ready for God to heal us of any and all moral and spiritual defects. In Step 7 we humbly implore Him to remove our shortcomings. In Step 8 we make a list of all people that we have harmed and become willing to make amends to them. In Step 9 we make those amends, God willing.

As part of this process we repent to God for anything unrighteous that we have uncovered, and we do everything reasonable to make things right with others. We firmly intend to reform. By God’s mercy and with His help we do our best to “clean our slate”. Once we reach this point, we want to keep that slate clean. Step 10 encourages us to do this by continuing to take personal inventory, quickly recognizing and admitting our errors, God willing. Some of us do this nightly, others may do it at dawn as part of praying for forgiveness and others do this periodically.

This brings us to Step 11: Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying

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