First step of turning back to Allah

The First Step of Turning Back to Allah: Tawbah

The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم says:

(Sunan Ibn Mājah, Hadith 4244; also recorded by Imam al-Tirmidhī, Hadith 3334)

Every time somebody makes a mistake or has a sin, a black dot is placed on their heart. This continues until the heart is completely covered. It's rusted.

I want you to think about a bicycle that you've left out in the rain, and the gears are completely rusted. Can you ride the bicycle? It doesn't operate, it doesn't move. It's out of operation. It's past maintenance — you need a new bicycle. It's gone.

This is the same thing with the heart. When you continue to sin, you don't feel the pain of the sin anymore. And it accumulates and accumulates. You get to a point Allah describes in the Quran as the sealing of the heart.

The heart is so rusted, it is so covered, that it is now lifeless. Meaning you don't feel salah, you don't feel reminders, you skip your salah, you hurt others, insult others, attack others — you cross boundaries and you feel nothing.

Congratulations — you've reached the point of no return. Which is the point in which the heart has been sealed. And it needs some serious action. It needs CPR. It needs to be jolted back to life. It needs serious action, because this is not something small.

The Death of the Heart Is the Real Death

The death of the heart is the real death. The soul is the real essence of the human being. If the soul — the heart — dies, that's it. It's game over for you and me. Everything then goes away with it.

And so this is the first thing: realization.