By Raeesa Hoosain

Life comes with many setbacks and challenges that we become so engrossed in what it wants from us that it takes over our heart completely. During times of hardship or losing someone that is so close to one’s heart, then only does one realise, the heaviness, the love for that person, and the pain the heart carries. Only when losing a loved one, the realisation kicks in that it is not too late to reclaim your heart. Just recently I stumbled upon a book, titled “reclaim your heart”- I found it so intriguing and it related to me in many aspects, as well as having the experience of losing a loved one. I would like to share my personal view of how the desires of the world affects one and how one can heal the heart from this illness.

 

WORLDLY DESIRES THAT AFFECTS THE HEART

As mentioned above – how we become engrossed in life and how it takes over our heart completely. As human beings, we all have dreams and desires. There is no sin in dreaming and having desires, as long as our desires do not consume us. We live in a western world, where we yearn to fit with all the greed, lust, wealth and sin, this world has to offer, that we allow it to consume our hearts and take full control of our body and soul. Once we allow it to take full control of our whole being that is when we allow our hearts to become blind and to forget Our Creator, Our Prophet(SAW) and his companions, as well as our own loved ones-due to this, we end up harming ourselves in the process and end up hurting our hearts.

Hadith: Prophet Muhammad(SAW) said: “Surely there is in the body a small piece of flesh, if it is good, the whole body will be good, and if it is corrupted, then the whole body is corrupted, and that surely is the heart” (Sahih Bukhari).

The mere fact that we seek everything from creation, can ruin even our happiness. The more we run after creation, the more it evades us. But if we run towards Allah, happiness will run towards us. The moment we allow the worldly desires to enter our hearts – we will surely sink.

Allah says in the Quran: “What is life of this world but amusement and play? But verily the Home in the Hereafter- that is life indeed, if they but knew” (29;64)

 

HOW TO PURIFY THE HEART FROM THE WORLDLY DESIRES

There are many diseases that can have an effect on our heart but our main aim should be to strive to purify our hearts and turn back to Allah (SWT).

If we glance back at the life of the Prophet (SAW)-he did not withdraw himself from the world, rather his withdrawal was much deeper. It was the detachment of the heart.

In a profound Hadith, a man came to the Prophet(SAW) and said: “O, Messenger of God direct me to an act, which if I do, God will love ma and people will love me”. He(SAW) said: “Detach yourself from the world and God will love you. Detach yourself from what it is with people and the people will love you”. (Ibn Majah)

The steps which I learnt in order to stay away from this worldly chaos and whim is:

  • Salaah : this withdraws our attention from the dunyah and allows us to focus on Our Creator. With praying 5 times a day, we withdraw ourselves from worldly desires and supplicate only to Allah.
  • Zakaah: giving zakaah, we are able to break our attachment to wealth. Zakaah is giving our money for the sake of Allah.
  • Siyaam(fasting): through fasting, we detach ourselves from our physical needs, desires and pleasures, we also refrain from food, drink, intimacy and vulgar speech- through this we are purifying our spiritual self.

All the above ways that I have mentioned should be practiced with love and sincerity and focus of Allah. When your daily life is practiced around salaah, when you give zakaah and fast with a present heart, we can then reclaim our hearts. When we face setbacks and challenges, we will see it as strengthening our hearts.

Shukran