Girl with a Pearl Drum » heart

The Soul as a Temptress

Hifzin114 — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:13:51 +0000

My good friend Jafrin sent this to me and I had to post it:

“The soul is a temptress and loves to look at beautiful forms and the eye is the guide of the heart. The heart commissions its guide to go and look to see what is there and when the eye informs it of a beautiful image it shudders out of love and desire for it. Frequently such inter-relations tire and wear down both the heart and the eye as it is said:

When you sent your eye as a guide for your heart one day, the object of sight fatigued you for you saw one over whom you had no power neither a portion or in totality, instead you had to be patient.”

~ Imam Ibn ul Qayyim al Jawziyyah, rahimullah (May God’s Mercy be upon him)

Battle Between Heart and Mind

Hifzin114 — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 18:17:07 +0000

This is the most painful battle on earth. It seems that no matter how hard I try to reason with my heart, to tell it to stop hurting and worrying over trivial matters…it continues to resonate with pain. I basically walk around with a random pain in my chest. My mind is perfectly fine and I can study, but then the pain in my chest is so bothersome that I lose focus easily. I must have some sort of spiritual disease. Yesterday I even took a tylenol tablet, but the cause of my pain is not a medical/bodily one, its an emotional one. I’ve had this pain once before.

My mom sent me this beautiful article on Dhikr by Shaykh Yasir Qadhi–I really liked it:

http://muslimmatters.org/2009/06/12/yasir-qadhi-khutbah-transcript-blessings-of-dhikr/

I liked the passage, “a sign of true life, a sign of spiritual life, a sign of real life is that you need the Giver of life.”

Shaykh Yasir said that dhikr will protect you from your own desires.

He also said that ‘hisnul haseen’ means protective fortress..who would have thought? If you know me, you will understand why I get a kick out of this phrase. :)

There was one part where he said it is better to perform dhikr that the Prophet (pbuh) himself did on a daily basis, rather than the dhikr of someone else (such as a Wird). I think it’s important to mention, that most Wirds (if not all), contain Dhikr that comes straight from the Quran and Sunnah. For example, the Wird of Imam Al Haddad contains Dhikr from the Quran and ahadeeth*. It was just compiled in a certain order that Imam Al Haddad wanted his students to learn and recite them in.

*ahadeeth-plural of hadith

Harmony: Science and Islam

Hifzin114 — Wed, 13 May 2009 02:12:00 +0000

I was bored of studying and started reading this article: http://nawawi.org/downloads/article6.pdf

The following passage made me really happy because of the bold emphasis that science and religion do not clash.

“Conflict between religion and science was virtually unknown In Islamic Intellectual history. The harmony between the two is epitomized in the life and work of the brilliant ninth century Muslim Chemist Jabir Ibn Hayyan, who repudiated alchemy as a valid science and laid the empirical foundations of chemistry. His religious devotion earned him the spiritual designation of “the sufi.” Ibn Hayyan began one of his renowned works on chemistry, The Book of Seventy (Kitab al-Sab’in), with the words: “Certainly the mention of God is more noble, majestic, and great than what follows.” He opened the book with a lengthy discussion on the imperative of purifying the soul from ostentation and other spiritual defects as a prerequisite to the pursuit of scientific learning.

Islam produces an array of religious scholars who also excelled in the rational and empirical sciences. Ibn Rushd (Averroes), the learned Andalusian judge and legal scholar, left an influence on Islamic law that is felt even today. His commentaries on Aristotle affected the course of European intellectual history. He composed more than fifty works ranging from his primary fields of law and philosophy to medicine, psychology, zoology, and astronomy. It is said that his medical opinions were as eagerly awaited in Muslim Spain as his interpretations of the law. Likewise, Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, a noted Qur’anic commentator, theologian, and legal theorist, mastered the rational and empirical sciences of his age and compiled The Consummation of Ancient and Modern Ideas, in which he summarized the philosophical, theological, and scientific thought of prominent ancient and latter-day thinkers.”

Wow—I really like the line that I bolded. Imagine…one needs to purify his heart/soul before embarking on scientific study! It makes so much sense, and it embodies perfect adab (manners)! I LOVE this. Wouldn’t it be awesome if we could take a course on Tazkiyyat-un-Nafs (purification of the soul) before we had to take Chemistry and Biology?

Then people would REALLY be studying for the sake of Allah!

This reminds me…I really need to be studying physics.

<3 humanity fi-sabeelilah (for the sake of Allah)

Teardrop

Hifzin114 — Tue, 12 May 2009 00:05:58 +0000

This teardrop that falls down my cheek.
Originated from an image.
That filled my vision.
Which sped fast to my heart.
Which went to my mind for a check-up.

Alas! It failed my intellect!
My heart longs for what my mind avoids!
This inner tug-of-war has resulted.
In a heart that aches, a mind that thinks.
And tears that fall.

Then a wise man on the road,
His glasses shimmering in the heat of thought
Said to me with concern on his brow
The burning you feel in your heart…
Target it to God! To God!
Whatever beauty you see in temporal forms, is within God…
And He is reachable to all!
Ache for what you can have! Aim for Eternal Meaning!

My heart, dumbfounded and amazed,
Slowly gave in to the wise man.
Yes! She cried, to the mind and to God.

Though the heart promised to change.
The struggle persists.
“It may be that this temporal form
Is a path to God.”

Time is running out, uncertainty prevails.
But in the end, If I lose out on the form.
I can never lose out on finding Him,
Unless death takes me by surprise.

God is my companion
Whether I gain the form or not.
I will never be alone.
The heart smiles. The mind meditates.
Peace.

If you are unfortunate enough to have come across this post, I apologize for the weirdness. This is what happens during finals week. :)

Independence from Others. Tawakkal (Trust) in God

Hifzin114 — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 23:14:58 +0000

A friend once quoted to me a gem from a scholar: “Get used to loneliness, because afflictions arise with people.”

Sometimes people hurt you. Sometimes the pain is inconceivable. Once I had an emotional pain that turned into a physical pain; it was so strange. I was ready to move on, forgive and forget, but something in me did not want to let the pain go. It’s truly strange. Your mind is ready to move on, but the pain in your heart remains. Your mind tries to reason with your heart, but the heart refuses to listen.

In reality, this pain is a blessing from Allah. He wants us to cry out to Him for help; He wants to drive us away from people and towards Himself.

Once when I was going through a rough situation, I wrote this journal entry:

“Trust should only be placed on Allah. Never leave your home hoping to find salvage and peace with others, the irony is that you are leaving the very place that can unite you with your Lord—the privacy of your own bedroom. Need someone to cry to? Wake up in the last third of the night and cry to Allah. Need someone to consult with, talk to, vent to, sing to (I’m not joking), show love to? Wake up and express yourself to Allah. Allah is the origin of all beauty and pleasure. Is there something in your best friend that you just can’t fathom and enjoy being in their company because of this “special” quality? Guess what, Allah has this quality…and even more! He has this quality infinitely. The BEST thing about consulting and revealing your secrets to Allah is that he is the BEST secret keeper. Humans are imperfect when it comes to keeping secrets and amanas (trusts).”

One of the greatest lessons I learned is to place full trust in God. Sometimes we get excited, and immediately want to relay things to others. But we should control our excitement, and immediately want to relay things to Allah. We should cry out to Allah when we want to rid our chest of worries. We should seek out Allah when we need advice. And if we really need the advice of others, we should clearly dictate our intentions: to God, to ourselves, and to the advisor.

My mom told me once that it is not good to have an ultimate *best* friend, because if there is any conflict, the pain will be harder to overcome. In Islam we must have moderation. We should not rely on others excessively for companionship and ease, but neither should we cast people off. Our most enjoyable companionship and ease should be with God. If we find it with others, we should never let it overpower our relationship with God, nor should we fail to realize that the joy we find with others is a manifestation of the Ultimate Joy we seek in God.

If one lacks depth in his/her relationship with God, than he/she will seek it out in others. Dependence on others is an indication of one’s station with God.

A good hadith that is relevant to the topic:

It was narrated that Anas [May God preserve him] said that the Prophet [pbuh] said:

Whoever is mainly concerned about the Hereafter, Allah will make him feel independent of others and will make him focused and content, and his worldly affairs will fall into place. But whoever is mainly concerned with this world, Allah will make him feel in constant need of others and will make him distracted and unfocused, and he will get nothing of this world except what is decreed for him. (narrated by al-Tirmidhi, Hadith No. 2389)

(Source: al-Fawaa’ id, page 159)

And beautiful poetry from Ibn Ata’illah:

“He only made afflictions come at the hands of people
so that you not respond to them.
He wants to drive you out from everything
so that nothing would divert you from Him.”

“Appeal to no one but Him to relieve you of a pressing need
that He himself has brought upon you.
For how can someone else remove what He has imposed?
And how can he who is unable to free himself of a pressing need
free someone else of one?”

“When He alienates you from His creatures,
then know that He wants
to open for you the door of intimacy with Himself.”

(Source: Ibn Ata’illah’s Al Hikam [Book of Wisdoms])

Precious Pain

Hifzin114 — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 15:08:49 +0000

This pain that lurches from the unknown future and past.
Is a leash that binds me to my Lord.
A pain of mercy; lessons learned that will last.
That beautifies the mind and grants me a sword.

A weapon of inner charisma and newfound strength.
I can tackle the future with a secret trust.
Humanity is flawed, a heart of short length.
But the mercy of my Lord is expanse and full-thrust.

This trust beckons a new start with my Lord.
Yes, I confide in You now, only You!
I will battle the evil forces with the sword.
And at night, to You, I’ll expose all that is true!

Run away from You to humans I shall not.
Humans don’t help, they worsen, in fact.
In open arms I’ll call…sing out to You all that I sought!
I’ll fall asleep under Your gaze, satisfied with Your love-pack.

Eye of the Soulstorm

Hifzin114 — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 03:58:10 +0000

There are numerous meanings behind this title and images that pop out in the mind, but I will describe the meaning that stands out the most to me.

The “eye” of any storm is always peaceful. A storm rages and rebounds between calmness and severe thunder, lightning, and rain. In the case of a hurricane, there are violent winds and ocean waves that have the ability to destroy. The events of our daily lives cause us to recoil between calmness and complete anxiety and rage. This rage can eventually create our downfall. Thus, the soul of a human is similar to the storm because it is continually bouncing between peace and strife. The goal is to permanently break free from the storm, for surely a believer is always content–even during times of tribulation.

The eye of the storm is like the fitra of the human being. The fitra is the natural inclination within every human to believe in the Oneness of God, and thus we all have the ability to believe in Him and do good things. There is a hadith that says, “Every child is born according to fitra. Then its parents make it into a Christian, a Jew, or a Zoroastrian.” The fitra is like the “eye” of the storm because it is pure and free from the corruption of the storm. The purpose of life is to expand and nourish the eye so that it overtakes the storm or to break completely free from the storm and remain outside of it forever. The fitra helps us to develop ourselves into Muhsineen (those who act beautifully, perfectly)–the highest spiritual level of a Muslim. Once you are a Muhsin, YOU control the storm, instead of IT controlling you. When strife comes to greet you, the Muhsin greets it with open arms because he/she has realized that it is actually a blessing, a purification, and a test from Allah. Who can refuse a gift from Him, except one who is ignorant? InshAllah we will all die as Muhsineen. Ameen.

Three types of souls (The Arabic terms come directly from the Qur’an)

1. Soul that commands to evil (Nafs Al-Ammara)
This soul is obedient solely to the desires of the flesh, whether these desires are in accordance to God’s laws or not. It seeks instant gratification. These souls are heedless of God.

2. Blameworthy soul-(Nafs Al-Lawwama)
This soul obeys the desires of the flesh, but then feels guilty. It rebounds between peace and strife (just like my description of the “soulstorm”). These people struggle on the path to God.

3. Soul at peace-(Nafs al Mutma’inna)
This soul only desires God. It obeys Him and does so willingly and enthusiastically. This person is willing to sacrifice the desires of his/her flesh for the sake of God. But then again, these sacrifices are actually what they want because…their only happiness is in pleasing God. So in the end, you win!

The three types of souls match up with the three types of hearts. I found a good article on the three types of human hearts: http://www.jannah.org/articles/purific3.html.

Peace…and may the eye (the good one) be with you! :)