Reflecting With Our Hearts

“And it is He who produced for you hearing and vision and hearts; little are you grateful.” (Surat A-Mu’minun; 23:78)

The most difficult counting task ever would be to count Allah’s blessings upon us. SubhanAllah, we do not truly fathom the great blessings we have until we lose them! Everything we are blessed with should be put to good use and be a means for us to gain great rewards from Allah, yet many times throughout the Qur’an Allah describes human beings as being ungrateful for the blessings of sight, hearing and hearts. These gifts are the most pivotal in our lives, without them most of us would not be able to function properly, yet we are ungrateful.

Every occurrence in our lives and every scenery we pass by can act as a spiritual reminder; if we train our hearts to be thoughtful and reflective. By using the senses we have been blessed with, our eyes and hearts will be opened up to a sea of emotions and a treasure of secrets that are not exposed to the passive passerby. I was having a walk outside when I saw a small plant emerging from between two concrete plates. It reminded me of a short video by Ustadh Nouman Ali Khan and it really made me reflect, for what I saw was the product of a small seed that grew to become a beautiful plant; indeed, it is Allah Who Has given it life, after it was dead. It was more than that though, it reminded me that life after death is not just relevant to our souls, but also to our hearts. The days where we feel spiritually dehydrated or low on iman, these are the days where our hearts are almost dead, but just like that plant, Allah can bring back life to our hearts. If we truly believe in it and sincerely ask Allah to grant us closeness to Him; then our hearts will be rejuvenated once again, by His Infinite Mercy.

Training ourselves to see Allah’s glorious signs in *everything* is a noble act that not only uplifts our hearts with a spiritual boost but also helps us to remember Allah more often. Imagine this typical day: Sitting down in the park with your family, you hear the birds chirping and you spot the ants marching; they are all exalting Allah in ways we cannot fathom:

“And there is not a thing except that it exalts [Allah] by His praise, but you do not understand their [way of] exalting” (Surat Al-‘Isrā’; 17:44)

As human beings created with a brain, should not we be making greater efforts in the remembrance of Allah  rather than being distracted by trivial matters that waste many of our precious hours, such as our smartphones for example? Moments later, you see the water from the river streaming smoothly, reminding you of the rivers that will flow around the believers in paradise:

“…wherein are rivers of water unaltered, rivers of milk the taste of which never changes, rivers of wine delicious to those who drink, and rivers of purified honey…” (Surat Muĥammad; 47:15)

It strikes you that all the beauty of this world is incomparable to what Allah has in store for the believers in Jannah, compelling one to strive a little harder to please their Lord.

It’s maghrib time, the sun is about to set and the sky has turned into a beautiful array of colors, a shadow of pink overlapping the translucent orange, and all you remember is:

“So return [your] vision [to the sky]; do you see any breaks?” (Surat Al-Mulk; 67:3)

You are overcome with humility and awe, for how can there be any cracks or breaks in the creation of the All-Mighty Allah? A scientist would ponder over the types of the clouds, the weather forecast and much more, but what benefit would there be for the revival of his heart? His thoughts would be lacking emotional and spiritual depth, it would not fulfill one wholeheartedly,  as it is our *hearts* that needs to wake up!

Everything around us can become an ayah- a sign- if we train our hearts to continuously reflect and ponder upon our surroundings. The moment a Muslim finds himself struggling to breathe whilst making his way through a crowded hallway, he realizes that the plains on the Day of Judgement will be much more suffocating and intolerable. When engulfed by darkness from all around, his mind wanders off to the darkness of the grave. The clustered clouds that you pass by while driving or the overlapping sea ripples that soon seem to fade away, they are all reminders that nothing in this life is permanent. The pain and suffering you may be enduring, that too will fade away, so why must we linger on the things that upset us? Why do we feel helpless when The All-Mighty who causes the sun to shine bright after a stormy night can do the same to our hearts?

Spiritual reminders that highlight Allah’s Supremacy and Magnificence thereby strengthening one’s imaan are what we seek, hence, we really need to get into the habit of reflecting with our hearts. We need to become wakeful Muslims and revive this Sunnah of our beloved Prophet , who never ceased to remind his companions of Allah and the Hereafter at countless ordinary occurrences. Help us all benefit in sha Allah by sharing your thoughts and reflections down below!

For further watching:

Comments

comments