SOFTNESS OF A HEART IS THE CHARACTERISTIC OF A TRUE MUSLIM Al-Hasan al-Basri had said, If a man seeks knowledge, it will appear in his face, hands an tongue and in his humility to Allah. - The opposite is true - that nothing corrupts knowledge and dawa more than the harshness of the heart. Where hearts have become hardened, the knowledge is of no benefit to the individual, nor can that individual benefit others with it. - Softness of the heart is the characteristic of true Muslims. If it becomes absent, then a persons life is filled with distress and discomfort. - This is the promise of Allah. Those who lack hearts that are soft will lead woeful lives. As Allah said in Al-Quran (39:22), ...فَوَيْلٌ لِّلْقَاسِيَةِ قُلُوبُهُم مِّن ذِكْرِ اللَّهِ... Woe to those whose hearts are hardened against the remembrance of Allah. - They are in obvious misguidance. Woe to those whose hearts hear the Quran and they do not become fearful and humbled as a result of it. - Woe to those whose eyes are reminded of the Words of Allah, but they do not weep in fear of Him. -Woe to those who are reminded of the Warnings of Allah and they do not humble themselves to His Words. - It is a curse to have a hardened heart and it is a blessing to have a soft heart. - Those with hardened hearts suffer in this life, even though they may have all of the trappings of this life. What seems to be an enjoyable life is empty - it is filled with loneliness. - They cannot find peace of mind and of heart because their hearts are hardened to Allah to belief in Allah, to submission to Allah. That is why Allah said: وَمَنْ أَعْرَضَ عَن ذِكْرِي فَإِنَّ لَهُ مَعِيشَةً ضَنكًا وَنَحْشُرُهُ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ أَعْمَىٰ Whoever turns away from my remembrance will have a wretched life. [Al-Quran20:124] and, Whosoever turns away from My Message, verily for him is a life narrowed down, and We shall raise him up blind on the Day of Judgement. - What is most beneficial in this life is a soft heart. We should strive to achieve it because everything else would be meaningless and useless if we do not have softened hearts. How do we achieve this? It is not a secret. It is not something known only to a few, handed down in special sessions and gatherings. As the Prophet said, I have left you on a clear white plain, whose day is like its night. Anyone who deviates from it is destroyed. The way of the Prophet clarifies for us how to achieve a soft heart. #TheFirstWay: Dua or Supplication - The first method is dua or supplication. Nothing softens the heart more than asking Allah to soften it and make it merciful. This is the promise of the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, when he said: Call on Allah being certain that your prayer will be answered, but know at the same time that Allah will not answer the prayer of a heart which is negligent. Our dua to Him will be answered, but we have to believe it. If we just raise our hands and ask, O Allah, soften my heart! and not really ask from the heart, it is just something we said · and we could have said ANYTHING else! If we call on Allah SINCERELY, He will soften the heart. Call on Me and I will answer you. وَإِذَا سَأَلَكَ عِبَادِي عَنِّي فَإِنِّي قَرِيبٌ أُجِيبُ دَعْوَةَ الدَّاعِ إِذَا دَعَانِ فَلْيَسْتَجِيبُوا لِي وَلْيُؤْمِنُوا بِي لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْشُدُونَ When my servants ask thee concerning Me, I am indeed close to them: I respond to the prayer of every suppliant when he calleth on Me; let them also, with a will, listen to My call and believe in Me: that they may walk in the right way. [Al-Quran2:186] #TheSecondWay: Remember Death The second way is that we remember the Hereafter, to remember our death. The one thing that we are one hundred per cent certain of — even if we have some doubt as to whether there is really a God; even if we wrongly wonder if what we are practising is really the truth when there are so many other people doing so many other things — is that we are going to die. But our lives are such that we become so occupied with the things of this life that we forget that we are going to die. As Allah said, the gathering of wealth has deluded them to the realities of life and they only come awake when they end up in their graves. أَلْهَاكُمُ التَّكَاثُرُ ، حَتَّىٰ زُرْتُمُ الْمَقَابِرَ ، ثُمَّ كَلَّا سَوْفَ تَعْلَمُونَ The mutual rivalry for piling up (the good things of this world) diverts you (from the more serious things), until ye visit the graves. But nay, ye soon shall know the reality … [Al-Quran 101:1-3] This is a fearful statement, that we should live lives unconscious of our deaths and thereby be lost in trivialities, things that are really ultimately not going to benefit us in the next life. #TheThirdWay: The Quran The third way by which we can soften our hearts is theQuran itself. Allah states in the Quran, Al-Hadid, 57:16: أَلَمْ يَأْنِ لِلَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَن تَخْشَعَ قُلُوبُهُمْ لِذِكْرِ اللَّهِ وَمَا نَزَلَ مِنَ الْحَقِّ وَلَا يَكُونُوا كَالَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْكِتَابَ مِن قَبْلُ فَطَالَ عَلَيْهِمُ الْأَمَدُ فَقَسَتْ قُلُوبُهُمْ وَكَثِيرٌ مِّنْهُمْ فَاسِقُونَ Has not the time come for those who believe for their hearts to fear Allah when they hear the Quran [dhikrullah here is in reference to the Quran] and what truth there is in it, so that they not be like those who received the Scripture before, but in the passage of time, their hearts became hard. And most of them are corrupt. - If we reflect on the Quran, it has the power to soften our hearts. Allah said, about the Jinn who heard theQuran: إِنَّا سَمِعْنَا كِتَابًا أُنزِلَ مِن بَعْدِ مُوسَىٰ مُصَدِّقًا لِّمَا بَيْنَ يَدَيْهِ يَهْدِي إِلَى الْحَقِّ وَإِلَىٰ طَرِيقٍ مُّسْتَقِيمٍ Indeed we heard an amazing Quran; it guides us to Allah and we believe in it and we will set not partners besides Allah. [Al-Quran 46:29-32] #TheFourthWay: Good Deeds The fourth way for us to soften our hearts is by way of good deeds. Righteous deeds done sincerely for Allah will soften our hearts. In the initial stages, maybe we cant see how it softens our hearts, but we have to stick with it and believe. As the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam told us, that the slave of Allah does not come closer to Him except by doing the deeds that He has made compulsory for him. The compulsory deeds — the 5 daily prayers, the fast, etc. While praying, sometimes we wonder, Where is the benefit? Where is the change? The point is that if we keep working at it, there will be benefit. We may not see it immediately. It is something that becomes cumulative, like a person growing. They can hardly wait till they are going to be big and they put a mark on the wall, wondering when they are going to get up there. They cannot perceive themselves growing because it is something accumulating within them. So I pray and I ask Allah to give us all soft hearts, hearts that are filled with mercy for the creating of Allah, our children, our parents, our brothers and sisters in Islam … #note: The heart has a qiblah like the qiblah of ṣalāh; the sincere is he who directs it to the sky. للقلب قِبلة كقِبلة الصلاة، المخلص من صوّبه إلى السماء So, I ask Allah to give us success to turn back to the Quran, to read it regularly, seeking understanding and guidance from it and I ask Allah to give us soft hearts.
Posted on: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 17:43:38 +0000
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