THE FASTING HEART (QALB - E - SAYM)

ASSALAMUALAIKUM WA RAHMATULLAHI WA BARAKATAHU ,

Hey my lovely readers..How are you ?? Hope doing great with the grace of Allah. And How is your preparation for Ramadan ... I believe it must be going on in full swing Masha Allah. The homes must be spick and span by now, the food list made, the qaym al layl planner decided, iftar and suhoor timings checked and the list goes on and on. BUT one thing that we least take care or pay attention to is the cleaning of our HEARTS. It is very important for us to have a clean heart (free from all dirt and malice towards others, jealousy, hatred, anger, love of world, hypocrisy etc) before we enter Ramadan... and its high time now.




The question you may ask is why do I clean my heart, are not my good actions enough.. Let us know why.....

WHY SHOULD I CLEAN MY HEART?WHY SHOULD I TAKE IT SERIOUSLY?

• THE CONTROLLER OF OUR BODY:

Narrated An-Nu'man ibn Bashir رضي الله عنه  that Prophet Muhammed صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم said: Beware! There is a piece of flesh in the body if it becomes good (reformed) the whole body becomes good but if it gets spoilt the whole body gets spoilt and that is the heart." ( part of hadith from Al - Bukhari).

Every action we do depends on the heart. Always ask yourself,  Does my heart incline towards goodness or towards indecency. CHECK YOURSELF! CHECK YOUR HEART!!

• THE PLACE WHERE ALLAH LOOKS:

Abu Hurairah رضي الله عنه reported that the Messenger of Allah صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم said: "Allah does not look at your appearances or your financial status, but He looks at your hearts and your actions." (Al-Bukhari)

When there is some guest coming to your house, you clean it and make sure it is pleasant, sweet smelling and beautiful, THEN imagine ALLAH SUBHAANAHU WA TAA'LA looks at your heart...Imagine ALLAH TAA'LA looking at your heart constantly, every moment ALLAHU AKBAR then how would you like it to be? Ask yourself, Do I just like to have my habits and nature good in front of people and let ALLAH TAA'LA look at my rusted heart??...CHECK YOURSELF!  CHECK YOUR HEART!!

• ALLAH VALUES A GOOD HEART:

     اِنۡ يَّعۡلَمِ اللّٰهُ فِىۡ قُلُوۡبِكُمۡ خَيۡرًا يُّؤۡتِكُمۡ خَيۡرًا مِّمَّاۤ اُخِذَ مِنۡكُمۡ وَيَغۡفِرۡ لَـكُمۡ​ؕ وَاللّٰهُ غَفُوۡر رَّحِيۡمٌ

'If Allah finds any goodness in your hearts He will give you that which is better than what has been taken away from you, and He will forgive you. Allah is Ever-Forgiving, Most Merciful.' ( Al Anfal : 70)

Now this ayah was revealed in context of the captives of the Battle of Badr, who were non - believers, now THINK for a while ALLAH TAA'LA is saying to Rasool صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم that if there was any goodness even in the heart of a kafir (i.e his innate quality {fitrat} is sound despite being midst of all corruption) He will not let it go in vain, rather forgive and give better in return. THEN, if we as believers try to search for khair (goodness), how much of HIS pleasure can we get? Subhaan ALLAH. Here we are reaching Ramadan, let us spend it in cleaning our hearts and fill it with the desire to do and spread good.

• DUA FOR A STEADFAST HEART:

A believer always makes dua for the steadfastness of his/her heart. It is his most important dua as he knows that ALLAH TAA'LA is looking at him always.

The prophet صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم said in an authentic hadith reported by Imams Ahmad and Al-Hakim, "The heart of the son of Adam is up to be more unstable than the boiling water in a pot." The prophet صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم also said about it in another authentic hadith reported by Imam Ahmad, "It was called "al’qalb" (meaning the heart) from "Taqalub" because of its changing nature; the example of the heart is like a feather at the trunk of a tree that the wind keeps turning it upside down." 

For this reason, the prophet صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم used to supplicate frequently for the steadfastness of heart. There are many duas we find from the Qur'an and the sunnah, I'll list 2 of them.

                              

Another dua is :

        رَبَّنَا لاَ تُزِغْ قُلُوبَنَا بَعْدَ إِذْ هَدَيْتَنَا وَهَبْ لَنَا مِن لَّدُنكَ رَحْمَةً إِنَّكَ أَنتَ الْوَهَّابُ

[Who say], "Our Lord, let not our hearts deviate after You have guided us and grant us from Yourself mercy. Indeed, You are the Bestower. (Surah Ale Imran, Ayah 8)

• TOOL TO UNDERSTAND:

وَاللَّهُ أَخْرَجَكُمْ مِنْ بُطُونِ أُمَّهَاتِكُمْ لا تَعْلَمُونَ شَيْئًا وَجَعَلَ لَكُمُ السَّمْعَ وَالأبْصَارَ وَالأفْئِدَةَ  لَعَلَّكُمْ تَشْكُرُون

Allah brought you forth from the wombs of your mothers when you knew nothing, and He gave you hearing, sight and hearts so that you may give thanks (to Him). (Surah Al Nahl: 78)

ALLAH TAA'LA says in this ayah that He gave the sight (eyes), hearing (ears) and hearts so that we are grateful. If a person recites the Qur'an then he is using the two faculties of seeing and hearing, but its of no use until the message reaches the heart. If the eyes are the monitor and the ears are the speakers; then the heart is the electricity to it, which if is not there then the other two are useless. Hence, the tool to understanding is the heart and we need to clean our rusted heart to understand and be grateful to ALLAH TAA'LA in the best manner.

Ask yourself, when I recite the Qur'an do I feel happy on any goodnews like glad-tidings of paradise, endless reward? Do I feel scared of the hell fire? Does the Qur'an have an effect on me like it did on the Companions رضي الله عنهم? CHECK YOURSELF! CHECK YOUR HEART!!

• ACCOUNTABLE ON QAYAMAH:

إِنَّ ٱلسَّمْعَ وَٱلْبَصَرَ وَٱلْفُؤَادَ كُلُّ أُو۟لَٰٓئِكَ كَانَ عَنْهُ مَسْـُٔولًۭا............

Verily! The hearing, and the sight, and the heart, of each of those you will be questioned (by Allah). (Surah Al - Isra, Ayah 36)

Along with the sight and the hearing, the heart shall also be questioned. What filled our hearts : the love of  ALLAH TAA'LA or the world? The hope to spread goodness or evil? Doing good for the sake of ALLAH TAA'LA or for the sake of fame?? CHECK YOURSELF! CHECK YOUR HEART!!

• Last but one of the most important point, INTENTION MATTERS:

No good one does is beneficial if the intention is not sincerely for ALLAH TAA'LA.

 'Umar bin al-Khattab رضي الله عنه, who said: I heard the Messenger of Allah صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم say: "Actions are according to intentions, and everyone will get what was intended."  (Bukhari and Muslim)

Therefore, before we do any good we need to have a pure heart full of sincerity (ikhlas) and hope for reward only from ALLAH TAA'LA as only if our intention is right , it will be accepted. Renew your intention before any act you do. Ask yourself, Am i doing for ALLAH's pleasure or people's praise? CHECK YOURSELF! CHECK YOUR HEART!!

Just like if you have a dirty glass and you fill it with clean water ..what will be the result?? The water will get dirty too. Similarly,The dirt accumulated on our heart cannot be cleaned with one month's good. But if the same dirty glass, you overflow it with clean water, the glass will be clean even without washing it. In the same manner, however rusted our hearts are if we fill it with abundance of khair , purify it with seeking forgiveness and sincere efforts, make dua for its purification and steadfastness during the entire month (and even after that) then our hearts will be shining and crystal clear in the end of Ramadan In sha ALLAH.

Keeping these 7 points as criteria check the condition of your heart because that is how a fasting heart should be. Once the internal part is clear, the external (actions) are bound to be good too in sha ALLAH.
I'll take your leave now with the dua that hope ALLAH TAA'LA bless us with Ramadan in the best of our healths and Imaan. May HE bless us with the taufiq to earn HIS pleasure and forgiveness. May we turn into better muslims this Ramadan and remain steadfast on our righteousness....AMEEN!

Assalamualaikum!!

JazakiaAllah hu khairan for reading. Make sure you Rate, Share and Follow us. If you have similar views please do comment

GEAR UP FOR RAMADAN!!!

                     Assalamualiakum wa rahmatulllahi wa barakatuhu

First thing to do is awaken our hearts....we know we can't save ourselves from hell fire if we ransom the whole world....this material world has no value infront of Allah...what Allah wants from us is His servitude that we worship Him by totally submitting and humbling ourselves to our Rabb.

Narrated Abu Huraira(r.a): The Messenger of Allah (saw) said:"... whoever fasts during Ramadan out of sincere faith and hoping to attain Allah's rewards, then all his past sins will be forgiven." (Imam Bukhari).

There are 3 things included in this hadith 1- Action which is fasting 2- Conditions that is with Iman and seekin reward 3- And reward and promise of forgiveness of previous sins.

So first we should have faith that we're keeping the fast in obedience to Allah following His hukm. We should consider fasting ibadah/worship and not adat/habbit,, we are fasting to please Allah

We come to know from this ayah that one fasts to attain taqwa.....whats taqwa ? Its to fulfill the commands of Allah and to stay away from the prohibitions out of love and honour of Allah. Taqwa saves the person from sinning and following ones desires and fulfill ones obligations and duties. So the month of Ramadan is a chance to cleanse our hearts from all evil and fill it up with taqwa, we need to gear up from now to benefit the most from this month and achieve the purpose of bringing goodness in our hearts and purify our souls.

lets see now what actions we can do to gear up for Ramadan from now

1-Voluntary fasts- If we fast from this month of shaban then this will bring perseverance and self control we'll be able to discipline ourselves from now itself...the prophet Sallahu aliahi wasalam use to observe fast in the month of shaban.

 Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) said: "The Messenger (p.b.u.h.) used to fast until we thought he would never break his fast, and not fast until we thought he would never fast. I never saw the Messenger of Allah fasting for an entire month except in Ramadan, and I never saw him fast more than he did in Sha'ban." (Bukhari and Muslim).

2- Reciting the Quran - we should recite and ponder on the verses of the quran and seek closeness to Allah while we're fasting.When one gets spiritual elevation from abstaining from the halal worldly routine and devoting time to the Quran achieves the benefit of Ramadan.we get spiritual training in this month by boosting our Iman and taqwa. 

3-Praying voluntary prayers-we know the that the prophet sallallahu alihi wasalm use to do a lot of qiyam in ramadan so in order to do those long qiyams we need to prepare and strengthen our bodies from now. 

4-Making dua- Seek help from Allah for every good action you intend to do this Ramadan and not waste time while getting the spirit of Ramadan and keep away all the hinderances that are caused when it comes to perfection (ahsan) in ibadah.

5-Sincere repentance- Start from now with repentence remember your sins and seek forgiveness. Welcome ramadan with tauba..only then we can on focus bringing the goodness in ourselves this month.

6-Give in charity- while we're fasting we should feel for our other poor muslim brothers and our loving and caring should increase by ramadan.The prophet(saw) use to be more generous in ramadan.

7-Controllin the tongue-we should control our tongues from useless talks.

 Abu Huraira related that the Prophet said: If a person does not avoid false talk and false conduct during Siyam, then Allah does not care if he abstains from food and drink (Bukhari, Muslim).

 we can also adopt taqwa by pondering on Allah's bounty and favours on us use our tongues to be grateful to Him by doing zikr and mentioning His bounty.

(132)  وَاتَّقُوا الَّذِي أَمَدَّكُم بِمَا تَعْلَمُون (133)  أَمَدَّكُم بِأَنْعَامٍ وَبَنِينَ                     (134)  وَجَنَّاتٍ وَعُيُونٍ  (135)  إِنِّي أَخَافُ عَلَيْكُمْ عَذَابَ يَوْمٍ عَظِيم          

132. " And be in awe of Him Who has succoured you with what you know."
133. " He has succoured you with cattle and Children,"
134. " And gardens and springs."
135. "Verily I fear for you the chastisement of a Great Day."

8-Improving your character and habbits- we should start by being good to our parents first, we should bring ahsan in worshipping Allah and then ahsan towards people by forgiving them for their flaws. we should read the seerah of the prophets and their companions and see how well wishing and loving they were.One of the social benefit of fasting is that it brings love for justice and equality.

9-Moderation in eating- we should focus more on ibadah while fasting, from the spirtual benefits of fasting is that it accustoms one to patience, it teaches self restraint and helps one practise it and it places the gift of piety in the soul and cultivates it. A human being is made of four things heart, soul/nafs..filled with desires, mind and body, we have to work on our heart and mind its provision is quran and hadith.

10-Implementing sunnah in daily life-we should change our lifestyles and implement on the sunnah of the prophet. He had the best character and He is the best example to follow, we should adopt the habbits of our Nabi and bring a change in our lives.