Post Ramadan Firmness – part 1
Tuesday 28th August 2012.
Post Ramadan Firmness – part 1
Sister Eman al Obaid
After Ramadan the Sahabah worried about their Ramadan being accepted by Allah subhana wa ta'ala more than Ramadan itself. We worry we have to do this and do that during Ramadan. But the sahabah worriedwould Allah subhana wa ta'alaaccept their deed before worrying about the deed itself. For six months after Ramadan they would ask Allah subhana wa ta'ala for the acceptance for their deeds.
When the virtues of the deeds are in your heart this will allow you to gain the maximum reward, this is the promise from Allah subhana wa ta'ala. Everything in Islam has a virtue. The parables of the Qur’an will draw for you the siratal mustaqeem, how you need to be in your life and what you need to be aware of.
The journey in Ramadan was between love, fear and hope,this is the heart of the worshipper. Our main concern before and during Ramadan is our heart. Now after Ramadan what do we need to do? You need to focus on the heart even more.
What is the most beautiful divine gift from Allah subhana wa ta'alaafter Ramadan? The month of Ramadan is for you to obtain the taqwa.
After the taqwa – you need the firmness in the taqwa. The taqwa, the actions of the heart, the guidance, the ibadah, the faith, this is a gift from Allah subhana wa ta'ala, this is easy. What is more difficult is to stay firm. When you are guided and have the faith it is difficult not to fall, not to go back. This is the real jihad.
Hadith: Narrated Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al-As: The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, said: “Verily, the hearts of the Children of Adam, all of them, are between the two fingers of the Most Merciful as one heart. He directs them wherever he wills.”Then he said: “O Allah, the Turner of the hearts, turn our hearts to Your obedience.”
[Sahih Muslim, Book 33, Number 6418]
Whomever Allah subhana wa ta'ala wills He will make them firm, whomever Allah subhana wa ta'ala wills he will make them go back, to go astray.
You don’t have power over your heart. We cannot keep our heart firm or stable.
Yaa Muqallibal Quloob Thabbit Qalbee ‘alaa Deenik
“O changer of the heart, keep my heart firm on the religion, don’t divert my heart because I know that I do not have power over my heart.”
Hadith: the hearts of the people are between the two fingers of Allah subhana wa ta'ala, Allah subhana wa ta'ala turns the hearts as He wills. We learn two things from this:
- Allah subhana wa ta'ala has power of the hearts.
In life you find one minute you hate something and the next minute you like it. So what about the bigger things? You don’t know what will come tomorrow. Some people used to love Ramadan, Hajj, the dars etc. but the heart can go in the opposite direction at any moment.
– Qalb is the general word for heart. It comes from the root which means something that turns around and about and upside down. It is the nature of hearts that they are constantly changing.the heartcan be turned.
Some of us may have a very dangerous feeling inside of us. We go to the classes, we do all the obligations, my husband is very religious etc; you feel secure that nothing can change my heart – this feeling itself can change the heart. Feeling pity for those whose environment does not help keep them firm can change the heart, maybe that person will be firm and I will fall.
- to be firm is very critical in moments of our life. in the beginning the munafiqeen (hypocrites) knew the religion, they were with the Prophet ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam but they turned upsideside down. Keeping firm negates the hypocrisy. No one can keep you firm except Allah subhana wa ta'ala.
Chapter (14) sūrat ib'rāhīm (Abraham)
14:26 And the example of a bad word is like a bad tree, uprooted from the surface of the earth, not having any stability.
14:27 Allah keeps firm those who believe, with the firm word, in worldly life and in the Hereafter. And Allah sends astray the wrongdoers. And Allah does what He wills.
– The Firm Word is in the grave when the angels will come ask;
Who is your Lord?
Who is your Messenger?
What is your Religion?
You need firmness in life to answer these questions in the grave. Then you will be firm on the sirratt.
Allah subhana wa ta'ala describes those who are not firm in their life as;
Chapter (22) sūrat l-ḥaj (The Pilgrimage)
22:11 And of the people is he who worships Allah on an edge. If he is touched by good, he is reassured by it; but if he is struck by trial, he turns on his face [to the other direction]. He has lost [this] world and the Hereafter. That is what is the manifest loss.
When there is no firmness it is as if you are worshipping Allah subhana wa ta'ala on the edge. The test is when something bad happens, a problem happens and he will fall on his face. His faith is very weak.
When your faith is strong you will be firm. When your faith is weak you will not be firm.
For example some people say when they go back home to their country they feel that their faith goes down. If you know your faith is weakening your firmness is decreasing.
Faith = ???
Do you notice when your faith is up or down? When your faith is up you feel happy you are excited, energetic, you have hope – things do not irritate you. you feel you have gardens full of fruit in your heart. When your faith goes down the smallest things can make you explode, everything bothers you.
The faith will be equivalent to;Al Ilm + Yaqin = iman (faith).
To be firm in your faith all the time you need to increase your faith, as soon as your faith will go down due to some situation your firmness will go down, you will fall.
Ilm – is the easy part
Yaqin – is the means to get the firmness.
Lots of people have knowledge about Allah subhana wa ta'ala but they lack firmness. Why? People lack the firmness because of a lack of certainty.
How will you be firm?
How will I increase my faith?
Yaqin – how will you have it in your heart?
For example you learn about the name Al Hakim – this is the knowledge. The knowledge itself cannot keep you firm. This is half of the faith. You need the knowledge and the Yaqin. Allah subhana wa ta'ala will make it easy for you by His nurturing. When you learn about one of Allah subhana wa ta'ala’s names don’t isolate it from your life. You need to apply it. you need to see Allah subhana wa ta'ala’s action in the decree. In your life you will see hikmatAllah. Everything that we go through in our life is nurturing from Allah subhana wa ta'ala. Allah subhana wa ta'ala is reforming us and Allah subhana wa ta'ala is nurturing us through the decree.
For example you married somebody, you came to this country, you have a house etc. you need to use everything to get the Yaqin.
We learn about HikmatAllah, Allah subhana wa ta'ala is the All Wise, Allah subhana wa ta'ala is choosing for us what is best but I didn’t apply Al Hakim in my life. How will I put into practice Al Hakim so that I have Yaqin in it? Allah subhana wa ta'ala will teach you about His Hikmah through the decree.
Can you trust a doctor who only knows the theory? No, he needs to practice the theory. You say you want to learn to cook – you need practice. It is the same with the faith. The practical experience will keep you firm on the faith. You learn about patience, as soon as you are put to the test you fail. We know Allah is Al Qadeer, Al qaadir, but when we hear the news we say how come this / that happened. All of this is nurturing from Allah subhana wa ta'alain order for you to put it into practice. The firmness is when you speak with your heart.
For example during you life you lived in one country, then you married someone you didn’t want to marry. Allah subhana wa ta'ala is showing you His choice is better than your choice. Allah subhana wa ta'ala is teaching us His Wisdom.
We learn the theories but in life we have so many experiences about the theories, this is the nurturing from Allah subhana wa ta'ala until it will be Yaqin in your heart – this will keep you firm. the more experiences you accumulate, the more this will keep you firm.
The problem is that;
▪Weforget Allah subhana wa ta'ala’s nurturing,
▪we forget these experiences,
▪we forget Allah subhana wa ta'ala’s choice is better,
▪we forget Allah subhana wa ta'ala is the All Wise.
And we are thinking about my choice or so and so choice. Forgetting the experiences and the nurturing of Allah subhana wa ta'alawill not make you to have the Yaqin.
In order to be firm you need iman. To increase your faith does not necessarily mean you need more knowledge.
Maybe the same knowledge which I am hearing again and again will keep me firm more than obtaining further knowledge. For example we continuously hear ‘do not be attached to other than Allah subhana wa ta'ala’– the more you hear this, the more Allah subhana wa ta'ala will show you this in your life. The theory is not to be attached to something worldly – when you first hear it you start thinking am I attached to my children – then the first person you attach to, they will turn against you, or they will leave you, or there will be a misunderstanding. And you don’t understand why this happened. This is Allah subhana wa ta'ala bringing this in front of you for you to get the Yaqin.
Yaqin is with the knowledge you heard previously and you keep hearing it again and again.
The reminder will keep you firm. people need to understand that this is the nurturing from Allah subhana wa ta'ala,this in order for you to have the Yaqin. If you don’t have the Yaqin you will have the opposite – doubts. Who is the one who has doubts? The Munafiqeen (hypocrites).
You see that people have the knowledge but there is no firmness – because there is no certainty. You need to look at and observe everything as you need to see the nurturing of Allah subhana wa ta'ala.
Allah subhana wa ta'ala deals with the people according to what they have in their heart. If you are truthful Allah subhana wa ta'ala will give to you. if you are insincere Allah subhana wa ta'ala will withhold from you. if you want the barakah, everything is based on the heart.
For example you talk with somebody – your heart is very good, there is no jealousy or envy, you will see that your words will be cool, happy and nice because of your heart, and Allah subhana wa ta'ala gives to you according to your heart. You then say the same words to another person but it will be like poison to them – this is according to the hearts of both people, the person saying and the one receiving. The best relationship between two people is when both their hearts are pure and clean. When there is a bad experience between two people, no matter how one of them tries to beautify the kalaam, it will be like poison for the other person.
The knowledge will be firm in your heart with the more experiences you have. Then you will understand what Allah subhana wa ta'ala meant by this statement. Allah subhana wa ta'ala deals with you according to what you have in your heart. If you have goodness in your heart you will get the good.
To get the firmness you need the faith to increase. One part of the faith is the knowledge but with the knowledge you need the Yaqin, the experiences in the life.
I know the virtues of patience but I am not firm in being patient. The lack is not in the knowledge but in the Yaqin. So what will I do? This is the nurturing of Allah subhana wa ta'ala. Maybe all your life you are facing a trial in order to make you patient, but you are not benefiting from it. maybe you have an impatient husband or impatient children, this is in order for you to get the patience. This is how you will have the Yaqin in your life.
You need the firmness when you are dealing with Allah subhana wa ta'ala. You need firmness when you are praying, when you are fasting, when you doing your obligations, when you are abstaining from the sins, when you are dealing with the people. How will I be firm? You will be firm through the knowledge and the certainty which you get through the life.
Allah subhana wa ta'ala will nurture you throughout your life. But you need to take the means to hasten the Yaqin. For some people it may take them many years to be patient or firm.
there are three things required to hasten the firmness.
- a source that keeps reminding you
For example, the Qur’an, a lecture etc. you will get the Yaqin through Allah subhana wa ta'ala’s nurturing, but you need something to make it quicker. You need a source that will be flowing, constant, like the parable of the rain in the valley. (13:17)
The shaitan will tell you that you have enough knowledge now – you need to act first. However, to give you the Yaqin you need a continuous reminder that will give you the firmness.
- A companion reminding you all the time
Don’t have a companion of the dunya – this will dry you up. You need someone who reminds you of the obligations etc.
- invoking Allah subhana wa ta'ala
these three things are in order to make you have the yaqin faster. Sometimes you don’t always appreciate these three things but they will help you in a time of difficulty. When you are in a time of ease increase in yourlearning as this will help you to be firm in the time of affliction.
Don’t say the du’a only when you need it, we need to make the du’a all the time, whether we need it or don’t need it. when people are sick they are confused in that situation. Before anything happens make du’a to Allah subhana wa ta'ala, make istighfar, say the morning and evening supplications etc. This will help you in the time of difficulty, when your heart is scattered and you are confused. Firmness is required when you are in a time of difficulty.
InshaAllah to be continued.
We ask Allah subhana wa ta’ala for His forgiveness and His Mercy. Anything that is good from these notes is from Allah subhana wa ta’ala. Any mistakes & misrepresentations are my own. I ask Allah subhana wa ta’ala for His forgiveness and to put forgiveness in the hearts of those who read them. JazakAllah Khairan.
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