Finding Peace in Your Heart - Islamic Reminder

Finding Peace in Your Heart

Around Maghrib time, the friend approached him again: "Are you sure you lost that money?" He said, "Yes, absolutely sure." He said, "Where did you lose it?" He said, "I lost it inside my house." He said, "Why are you outside looking for it?" He said, "The light was better outside, so I was looking for it outside."

So we find ourselves in exactly the same kind of predicament. What we have lost is inside. What we have lost is that sukoon of our heart.

And what do we do? Just like that person, we are just running around, looking to fill that gap from outside pleasures. That was a joke, but in reality what is happening is that the ruhani taskeen — the spiritual fulfillment — doesn't exist anymore. So we try to fill that with nafsani pleasures. Pleasures that we have made our nafs so used to, right from our childhood. We try to get more of those nafsani pleasures. It just doesn't happen.

The Divine Cure: Remembrance of Allah

Allah mentions in the Qur'an — azimu shan, Allah:

That we must know this. It must be grilled down in our brains, in our minds, that the itminan of our qalb, the sukoon, the tranquility of the heart, only lies in the remembrance of Allah. In the dhikr of Allah.

But not the kind of dhikr that we do every so often. No — the kind of dhikr that Allah ta'ala wants from us is actually mentioned in the Qur'an:

O you who believe — become those people who are doing dhikr katheer, an abundance, excessive dhikr of Allah. Ask anybody who understands Arabic: kasrat is actually more than half. So it means if you're living a 24-hour life cycle, 12 hours or more, we should be mindful of Allah.

That you are mindful of Him while you're standing, and sitting, and lying down. So this is the divine ilaj — the cure — that Allah ta'ala has given us. It's very clear. There is no confusion about it. But we gloss over these ayahs and then we are asking ourselves, "I don't feel sukoon, I don't feel peace, what should I be doing?" Allah ta'ala is giving us the cure, the medicine, and we are looking for it elsewhere.

So it is sad — it is almost tragic — to see our youth and adults stuck in this vicious cycle day in and day out. Whether they're going into school, they're just stuck in that thinking: "Oh my God, if I don't get into a good college, my life has ended." Once they get into college: "Oh my God, if I don't make med school, my life has ended." And they are so stressed out. They are so extremely stressed out. "If I don't get a good job, if I don't get a good family, if I don't buy that house, if I don't buy that car." We are measuring ourselves — our own lives — in terms of these material possessions. We need to get out of that kind of thinking mindset.

So if we want sukoon, if we want peace and tranquility, this dhikr has to be part of our life. Whether you are doing it jahri or you are doing it lisani or khafi, whatever methodology you are following, it has to be with kasrat.

The Sign of the Munafiqeen

Because in the Qur'an, it mentions the sign of munafiqeen — really people who are living this dual identity, dhul wajhayn, two-faced people. Allah ta'ala mentions in the Qur'an that the sign of those people is that they do dhikr of Allah illa qaleela — very little. It's a big sign. If they look at their lives, they won't find any dhikr or remembrance of Allah. They will find their hearts full of ghafla — this heedlessness towards Allah — while we are being ordered:

Do not be amongst those who have this heedlessness, this covering over the heart. They will find themselves with that covering. Mutazabzibeen — the Qur'an tells us. Sometimes they are good, sometimes they are bad. They are always stuck in that. You come to the masjid, you feel so good. As soon as you walk outside, the same lifestyle precedes you. So they are stuck in that cycle. They want to improve, they just cannot improve.

So we need to look at these divine ayahs and we need to bring these cures into our hearts. This is on an individual level, and this is really on a societal level as well — that we have become people who have neglected completely, completely this faculty that Allah ta'ala gave us, this faculty of our hearts. We have neglected it.

The Signs of a Dead Heart

People will say, "Well, I don't really see it." Just because you don't see it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. The heart is there, but we have neglected it so much that it has literally died off. And our ulama and our mashayikh, they talk about the signs of the death of a person's heart. And this is a moment for self-reflection for us.

First Sign: Constant Heedlessness

The sign of the death of one's heart is that the person will always be in ghafla — heedlessness towards each other, heedlessness towards Allah. They cannot sit down, and even when they want to think about Allah, they can't. They feel wahsha — unease — when asked to sit down and do their dhikr. They want to do something else. That is the first sign. And Allah is actually telling us: do not follow those people whose hearts have become heedless of Allah.

Second Sign: No Sense of Loss

Second: because they have become so desensitized, you will find that people who have not worked on their hearts will have no sense of loss when the tawfiq of amal-e-saleha is taken away from them. There is no sense there. So: "I'm not praying tahajjud — well, at least I'm doing this," and we pat ourselves on the back. "At least I'm doing this, at least I'm praying two times a day, one time a day, once a week." There is no sense of loss. The same person — if the dunya is taken away from him — subhanAllah — will feel like everything in this dunya and akhira has been taken away. That is the second sign.

Third Sign: No Remorse for Sin

Third: when this person falls into the trap of ma'asiyah, of ithm and dhunub and sins and disobedience towards Allah, there is no remorse and regret. Nothing like that. So — no remorse, no regret, no sense of loss, complete ghafla. In all reality, these are just the symptoms of what is happening inside.

The Hepatitis C Analogy

I usually tell people about one of my own experiences. One time I was traveling in the New York City subway station, and during that time it was hepatitis C awareness week. Their marketing campaign was just amazing. What they had was pictures of men and women, and they were really gory — because on their faces there were wounds, and blood was seeping out of them. It was scary to look at, but they really wanted to get the point across. And underneath the picture, they had this title: "Imagine if this is what your face looked like — because this is what your liver looks like if you have hepatitis."

SubhanAllah, there is so much ma'rifa in just that message. Because this deen, the ruhaniyat, the spirituality — it is exactly about this. Just because we are unable to see it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Imagine if our ruhani shakal — our spiritual face — were to manifest itself on our faces. We would not get out of our houses. Because that is what will happen in the akhira.

Allah ta'ala will open up the chest. Allah ta'ala will make bare what we were hiding. We took Allah ta'ala's sattari — that Allah ta'ala hides our faults — and we abused it. We abused it. Because Allah ta'ala, just because of His infinite mercy, is not showing our true faces — it doesn't mean that those faces don't exist. Just like that ad: if that face were to manifest itself, can you even imagine?

Imagine what our wives would think of us: "I used to think you were mashaAllah so pure and righteous and pious — this is the kind of person you are?" Imagine your own children: "Dad, I used to look up to you — but this is the filth that was in your heart?" Imagine our own teachers, our own mashayikh — look at the disappointment on their faces. Imagine the disappointment on the face of Rasulullah ﷺ: "I sacrificed for him? I cried for him? I did everything for this person?" Because that will happen on the Day of Judgment. Just because Allah ta'ala is Sattar — He's keeping our darkness inside — it doesn't mean, my dear brothers, that darkness doesn't exist.

So this is really a moment of muhasiba for us — that we become people who are introspective, who look inside of themselves. If we feel that desensitization — halal, haram doesn't matter, good and bad doesn't matter, it's equally fine if I'm sitting in the sohbat of awliya or in the company of people who are really disengaged with the deen — if it doesn't matter to us, then really we need to think about this. We need to worry about this.

The Hadith of the Heart

Rasulullah ﷺ mentioned in a hadith that truly in every single human being there is a morsel of flesh in their chest. If that morsel of flesh is corrupted, then every action that will come out of their existence will be corrupted. And if that morsel of flesh is sound and untainted, then every action that will come out of that existence — from that body — will be sound as well. And he said: indeed, it is the heart.

So even on the individual level, if we think that the nafsani lazat is enough for me and I don't really care about the itminan-e-qalb — which we really should — then from this perspective, we should think: if our hearts have become so hardened and blackened and darkened inside, then a'mal will follow. And then the halat from Allah follow the a'mal. Whatever the condition of the heart, that will be the condition of our a'mal. And whatever is the condition of our a'mal, my dear brothers, then we should not complain: "Ya Allah, why are these halat coming on this ummah?" We should not complain. Because that is exactly the kind of halat that will come down upon us — individually, as a family, as a community, and as an ummah of Rasulullah ﷺ.

So if we need to improve the halat of the ummah, we need to start with ourselves. We need to look inside and clean and purify our hearts. This tasfiyah-e-qalb. Whether you do it by sitting in the company of awliya of Allah — because that is such a shifa, sitting in their company; just the nuraniyat of that company is such a shifa — or whether we do it with dhikr.

Rasulullah ﷺ said: dhikrullahi shifa'ul quloob — the remembrance of Allah is the cure of hearts. That if you have this ailment and this disease — and you feel excessive shahwa, and ghussah, and gheebah, and ghadab, and hirs, and hasad, and so on and so forth, and bukhul, and ujub, and takabbur, and ghil — there are so many spiritual diseases that we are suffering from, and we know we have them — so if we want to do something about them, then do the dhikr of Allah. Engage with the mashayikh. Cry and weep in front of Allah. Doing that is essential.

The Currency of the Akhira: Qalbun Saleem

Because honestly, my dear brothers, we cannot afford — we cannot afford — to present ourselves in front of our Rabb in this hal. Allah ta'ala mentions in the Qur'an, negating our own worldview — those people who are excessively engaged with the dunya, and the maal, and their banoon, and their children, and relatives, and makhluk, and dunya all the time. Remember: you can find some benefit maybe in this dunya, but in the akhira, there is nothing for you.

It will not benefit you — your maal, your banoon — they will not benefit you. Except the one who comes to Allah with a qalbun saleem — a sound and untainted heart.

Remember the currency that will work in the akhira. Just like the currency that works in this country is dollars — you cannot bring 5,000 rupees and expect to get something out of it. Similarly, we cannot present our degrees, we cannot present our houses, our cars, our worldly possessions, our relationships to Allah: "O Allah, I have all of this — give me Jannah." No, it won't work.

إِلَّا مَنْ أَتَى اللَّهَ بِقَلْبٍ سَلِيمٍ — the token, the key to Jannah, to our salvation, is truly in our sound and untainted hearts. So we should start working on it. Working on this hardened earth — just like drop by drop by drop, even rocks break. So even when we find that our hearts are so hardened, even drop by drop by drop of dhikr of Allah, it will have effect.

The Story of Hasan al-Basri

Last story, and insha'Allah we'll end with this. Hazrat Hasan al-Basri rahmatullahi ta'ala alayh — this great wali of Allah, one of our elders and our mashayikh — a person came to him. And you know, there was a time that people would engage with their elders like this. He said, "You know, Sheikh, I come and I sit in your majlis and you are explaining the kalam of Allah and you are telling us the farman of Rasulullah ﷺ. We hear these things, but I feel that I am unmoved by it. I am unmoved by it. It feels that I am sleeping inside."

And the Sheikh — I mean, this was just the mentality at that time — he was shocked. It's like: you listen to the kalam of not a makhluk, but Allah. And you are listening to the farman of Rasulullah ﷺ, the best of people. And you are unmoved by that? Then know, my brother — you are not sleeping from inside. You are dead from inside.

سو نہیں رہے — مو رہے ہو۔ You are dying from inside.

"But Sheikh, what does that mean?" He said: because when somebody is sleeping, all you need to do is just shake them up a little bit. That's all that is required. You shake them up and they will wake up. The kalam of Allah is shaking up. The kalam of Rasulullah ﷺ is shaking up. Naseeha by our elders is shaking up. And if we find that despite all of this we are unmoved — unfazed — still thinking about what we have been thinking about, then it is a moment of reflection that really we are not sleeping inside. We have become dead inside.

Du'a and Closing

So we make du'a to Allah that Allah ta'ala — He gave us the cure:

We ask Allah, O Allah, help us — help us implement the cure in our lives as well. He gave us the opportunity to sit with our elders, with our mashayikh, with awliya of Allah. May Allah ta'ala now give us the tawfiq to literally sit at their feet and benefit from them as well. May Allah ta'ala give us the tasfiyah — the pureness — of our hearts. And may Allah ta'ala help us take this qalbun saleem to Him — the thing that He is looking for.

Ameen.