In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate
Assalaamu alaykum
Dear Friends
I pray that you are well.
All the big paychecks, big houses, fame, popularity, influence, trophies, world cup, great wonderful children, spouses and family, social friends, academic degrees and accomplishments, life of the rich and famous, or even the encyclopedia of knowledge that we might have, is not success. Success is having a pure heart.
Allah Almighty says,
قَدْ أَفْلَحَ مَن تَزَكَّىٰ ﴿١٤[Qur'an Al-A'la 87:14]
He has certainly succeeded who purifies himself (14)
Muslims are people who constantly purify their hearts. The heart is mentioned repeatedly in the Qur’an. One of the mentioned du'a (supplication) of Prophet Ibrahim 'alayhissalaam, beseeches to Allah:
وَلَا تُخْزِنِي يَوْمَ يُبْعَثُونَ ﴿٨٧﴾ يَوْمَ لَا يَنفَعُ مَالٌ وَلَا بَنُونَ ﴿٨٨﴾ إِلَّا مَنْ أَتَى اللَّـهَ بِقَلْبٍ سَلِيمٍ ﴿٨٩٨﴾ إِلَّا مَنْ أَتَى اللَّـهَ بِقَلْبٍ سَلِيمٍ ﴿٨٩[Qur'an Al-Shu’ara 26:88-89]
And do not disgrace me on the Day they are [all] resurrected - (87) The Day when there will not benefit [anyone] wealth or children (88) But only one who comes to Allah with a sound heart. (89)
The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him peace, said,
Indeed there is a piece of flesh in the body if it becomes good (reformed) the whole body becomes good but if it gets spoilt the whole body gets spoilt and that is the heart.[Bukhari and Muslim]
We may be praying 5 times a day, fast in Ramadhan, perform hajj and umrah every year and outwardly living a life of piety, but most of us don't look deep into our hearts -- jealousy, envy, hatred, ostentation, pride, arrogance, greed, miserliness, etc, may have crept into our hearts; we don't watch our tongues all that well -- we backbite, gossip, slander, say words that hurt others knowingly or unknowingly, lie, break promises, etc; we don't lower our gazes and we look at things that we are not supposed to; we allow our ears to hear/listen things that we are not supposed to hear/listen; we don't pay attention to what we eat and what we feed our family whether it is halal or haram; we don't cover ourselves properly and attract people's attention to our body that are not supposed to be shown, and so on. These caused internal blemishes.
We all have internal blemishes. If we don't consciously clear these internal blemishes while they are tiny, it will get big and bigger and eventually kill the heart.
There are people with internal blemishes and never worked on it. They may have issues with backbiting, miserliness, greed, etc, i.e they don't submit to Allah 100%, and all of a sudden when life takes a turn -- losing loved ones, marital infidelity, husband taking a second wife, losing jobs, losing property, savings or investments, accidents, serious illness, losing fame, etc -- they exploded, spiritual explosion ensues. We want to protect ourselves from losing our iman (Faith in the Oneness of God) by constantly working on purifying our hearts.
If we don't purify our heart in this life, it will be purified in the Hereafter and that will be very painful.
Think of the hospitals around us -- they have different wards for different illnesses. They have wards for terminally ill patients where patients receive hospice care, and that's all the hospital can do until the patient die. Those with serious illnesses, but not terminal, they stay in different wards and receive treatment for their illness, maybe for a day, a few days, a week, or longer but eventually they will come out of the hospital. Others who have minor symptoms are treated in the hospital outpatient clinic -- they go in, get checked, get prescription and they can leave the hospital -- some may stay for a few hours to get some tests.
We really don't need to be in the hospital of the Hereafter even as outpatients. Hell is a way to purify Muslims who have sinned before they can be admitted into Paradise. Everyone even with a mustard seed of iman (faith in the Oneness of Allah) by default is destined for Paradise eventually. But there is no guarantee that we will be in that position at the end of our life.
Some hearts cannot get purified and these are hearts that Allah has sealed. It is not because Allah wanted to do this to them, but they asked for it by their continuous bad actions and disobedience of Allah. Allah gives people many many many chances to remedy themselves. He is As-Sabur, Al-Haleem. That's why we see some people even though they don't pray, don't care about Islam, doing all kinds of bad things, they still live a very long life. Part of this is because Allah is giving them the opportunity to come back to Him.
Allah loves all His creation. He is ar-Rahman ar-Rahim (Most Merciful, Most Compassionate). His mercy outweighs His wrath.
وَمَا ٱللَّـهُ يُرِيدُ ظُلْمًا لِّلْعَـٰلَمِينَ ﴿١٠٨ ...[Qur'an, AleImran 3:103]
... and Allah wants no injustice to the worlds. (108)
We should constantly doing tawba (repentance), leaving the desires of this dunya (material world) and fill our hearts with remembrance of Allah. We have to remove all attachment to the dunya. You can constantly test yourself whether or not you are attached to the dunya -- e.g. if you lose something or someone took away something belonging to you without your permission, and your heart is right with that thing and you can't get over it, that is an indication you have love of the dunya in your heart. But if you say Alhamdulillah and move on, that is an indication that you don't have that love of the dunya.
If we are looking more to the World Cup this Ramadhan, that shows who is more important in your heart. This is can turn into a big problem. No one is saying we should live in a cave. We can have big causes and big things as long as they are not in our hearts.
We have to submit to Allah 100%. Take all the means to accomplish this. Avoid those things that is haram (forbidden). We cannot tell ourselves we can do a little haram as long as we are praying and fasting. Don't sins lightly. Use Allah's blessings only for His pleasure. If we are humble, have manners with Allah, and have that sincerity of worship, He will give us that purity of heart.
So, we have two options -- we either live a life of piety (taqwa) for the sake of Allah or choose the hard option and allow yourself to be burned in the Hellfire to get that purity.
Make a Ramadhan resolution that you will not waste your time to watch the World Cup, movies and shows, listen to music, and engage in idle chats and gossip. Tawfiq.
We ask Allah to purify our hearts and remove the love of the dunya from our hearts. Ameen.
Please don't forget us in your night prayers. Jazakallahu khairan.
And Allah knows best.
Wassalaam
Related Archives
Sound Heart
Grateful for Alhamdulillah
It is the Sound of Music
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