I read in Kitab at-Tanwir fi Isqat at-Tadbir, many places where Ibn ‘Ataullah advises the salik, never to despair of Allah providing provision for him, citing such examples as:

-Will not the one who provided for you protection and sustenance when you were a clot in the womb, and brought you up to your state of independence, provide for you now?

-Does not the man who saves and works to provide for children he has not even had yet, put so much effort into that provision. Is not Allah infinitely greater than this, who provides for His Slaves while knowing every matter of their seen and unseen.

And many other such examples.

In addition, we are given the ayah:

“And do not kill your children out of fear of poverty; We shall provide for them and for you”

Question:

When we are confronted with daily images of people, Muslim and non-Muslim, in places like Africa, literally dying of hunger and famine, where there is no provision that they can eat, dying in the thousands, how are we supposed to understand this verse?

Does the meaning of the aayah then become metaphorical and in regards to rizq in the Hereafter? Please help us understand?