make your heart soft
Have A Soft Heart
By Sheikh Muhammad
Al-Mukhtar Ash-Shanqiti
THERE are many ways through which one can become deeply devout and pious and have a soft heart. The best and most important of such ways is to have deep faith in Almighty Allah. True believers who deeply understand Almighty Allah’s attributes and names revere Allah with all their heart and show complete obedience to His commands. Whenever they hear a verse of Almighty Allah’s Book or a Hadith of the Prophet (peace be upon him), they hasten to abide by the teaching implied therein, uttering in deep faith: “... We hear, and we obey. (We seek) Thy forgiveness, our Lord. Unto Thee is the journeying. (Qur’an 2:285).
When believers contemplate Almighty Allah’s names and attributes and believe that only in Almighty Allah’s hand is the dominion over all things and that only He Almighty can protect them but none can protect against Him Most High, they will do their best to vie in doing good and avoiding evil. Thus, understanding Allah’s attributes is the best and most important step that fills one’s heart with reverence for Almighty Allah and draws one closer and closer to Him Most High.
When you experience such a state, you will be ever mindful of Allah Almighty, and in every moment of your life, whether a moment of blessing or trial, your faith in Allah’s greatness and bounty is asserted.
One who truly knows Allah Almighty has a heart filled with awe of Him Most High. On the other hand, one who never cares about knowing Allah Almighty is far away from understanding His attributes. One who is in such a state is hardhearted and never beholds how severe Almighty Allah’s punishment may be and how limitless His mercy and bounties are. One who has no concern for knowing the Almighty deviates from the right path and is not bothered by violating His laws and commands.
Moreover, such a one keeps deviating from the right path, despairing of Allah’s mercy, for he or she is ignorant of Allah’s boundless forgiveness that He grants to whoever returns to Him in repentance.
Contemplating Almighty Allah’s Book: It helps one become more pious and devout to contemplate Allah’s Book, whose verses guide one to the right path. Mind what Allah Most High says about His Book: (This is) a Book, the verses whereof are perfected (in every sphere of knowledge), and then explained in detail from One (Allah) Who is All-Wise, Well-Acquainted (with all things). (Qur’an 11:1).
When believers deeply contemplate the verses of Almighty Allah’s Book, their eyes fill with tears and their hearts turn unto Allah Most High in deep penitence. Their hearts in such a state are like a barren land that blooms after being watered with Allah’s illuminating words. They find themselves then thirsty for doing good for Allah’s sake and wholeheartedly willing to do what pleases Him Most High.
A true believer who reads Almighty Allah’s Book in deep contemplation feels great awe of Him Most High.
The influence of the Qur’an on its attentive listeners is amazing. There are some Companions of the Prophet (peace be upon him) who embraced Islam immediately after listening to some of the Qur’anic verses. When they listened to these verses, they promptly believed in the truthfulness of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and gave up worshiping the idols, declaring faith in Almighty Allah alone.
We are to bear in mind that the Qur’an is the speech that the Only Lord directs to His creatures of mankind and jinn, and thus its teachings are to guide them to His right path. Allah Almighty guides the one who is keen to comprehend its words and contemplate its meanings.
Remembering The Day Of Judgment:
One of the things that helps one get closer to Almighty Allah and hasten to return to Him in repentance is remembering the Day of Judgment. One must bear in mind that there is an end to every beginning, that after death there is no chance to reform one’s mistakes.
When you deeply realize that the life of this world is temporary and that its pleasures will inevitably come to an end, this certainly will lead you to despise this world and return to Almighty Allah in sincere repentance. If you visit graves and reflect on the conditions of its dwellers and how, sooner or later, you will join them, you will realize the ineffectiveness of running after the worldly gains, and will, in deep awe, submit heart and soul to Almighty Allah’s will.
» posted by alima on 8th October 2008 - 1 comment
words of advice
The Prophet's Advice to Mu`aadh ibn Jabal... by Shaykh Muhamad ibn Uthaymin
The Prophet's Advice to Mu`aadh ibn Jabal Shaykh Muhamad ibn Uthaymin
Mu?aadh bin Jabal reported from the Messenger of Allaah(SAW) that he said,
"Fear Allaah wheresoever you may be, and follow up and evil deed with a good one, it will efface it (the evil deed). And deal with mankind with good manners." Reported by at-Tirmidhee and he said that it was a Hasan hadeeth.
[al-Haakim reports it in al-Mustadrak and states that it meets the conditions of Bukhaaree and Muslim. Adh-Dhahabee agreed.]
This hadeeth is one of the Forty Ahaadeeth of the author, may Allaah have mercy upon him, and in it is that the Prophet(SAW) gave three great and important pieces of advice:
THE FIRST: He said, "have taqwaa of Allaah wheresoever you may be." Taqwaa means to stay away from the forbidden matters and to enact the obligatory matters ? this is taqwaa! That you enact what Allaah has commanded you, sincerely for Allaah and in compliance to the Messenger of Allaah(SAW), and that you leave what Allaah has forbidden due to His prohibiting it and to steer clear of it.
For example that you establish the greatest obligation that Allaah has imposed upon you after the testimony of faith ? the prayer, and you establish it completely - fulfilling all of its conditions and pillars and obligations, fulfilling all of these perfectly. So whosoever leaves off any of these conditions, pillars or obligations then he has not feared Allaah (to the best of his ability), rather he has been deficient in this to the extent of what he left out.
In Zakaah, the Taqwaa of Allaah lies in your calculating all of your property on which the zakaah is due, and your giving the zakaah as a means of purifying yourself without any miserliness or tightfistedness, or delay. And whosoever does not do this than he has not feared Allaah.
In fasting, the Taqwaa of Allaah lies in your establishing the fast as you have been commanded, distancing yourself from idle speech, obscene words and mannerisms, boisterous behaviour, backbiting and spreading tales and other such things that would make the fast deficient and remove the spirit of fasting. The true meaning of fasting is to fast from that which Allaah, Azza wa Jall, has made forbidden. The same applies to all of the obligations that are used to establish obedience to Allaah, and compliance to His command, sincerely for Him and in following His Messenger. Likewise all the forbidden actions are to be left in compliance to His prohibition.
THE SECOND: "and follow up and evil deed with a good one, it will efface it (the evil deed)." Meaning that when you perform an evil action then follow it up with a good action for the good action effaces the evil. And from the good actions to be performed after the evil is that you repent to Allaah for this evil action, for indeed repentance is from the most noble and excellent of the good actions as Allaah has said, "indeed Allaah Loves those who repent and those who purify themselves." (2:222) And He said, "and repent to Allaah all of you, O believers so that you may be successful." (24:31)
Similarly righteous actions expiate the evil actions as the Prophet(SAW) said, "the five daily prayers and one Jumu?ah to the next Jumu?ah, and one Ramadaan to the next Ramadaan, is an expiation for what lies between them as long as one refrains from the major sins." [Muslim], and he said, "one Umrah to the next is an expiation for what is between them." [Bukhaaree].
Therefore the good actions efface the evil.
THE THIRD: "and deal with mankind with good manners." The first two pieces of advice were those related to relationship with the Creator, this third relates to relationship of the creation to the creation. This being to deal with mankind with the best manners such that you will be praised and not blamed. This by having a cheerful complexion, being truthful in speech, speaking to others nicely and other such good manners.
There are a large number of texts concerning the excellence of having good manners to the extent that the Messenger(SAW) said, "the most complete believer with respect to faith is the one with the best manners." And he informed us that the most deserving of mankind to him(SAW) and the closest to him in ranking on the Day of Judgement would be those with the best manners.
So noble manners, along with their being a way to beautify gatherings and the person who possesses them being beloved to the people, contain a huge reward which will bestowed upon the person on the Day of Judgement.
So preserve these three pieces of advice from the Prophet(SAW) and Allaah is the Grantor of Success.
» posted by alima on 8th October 2008 - 0 comments
