As salaam alaikum honeys, bunnies and lions.
There’s food for the body and food for the soul and this post is about food for the soul.
PATIENCE SELF OBSERVATION SELF REFLECTION REPENTANCE TRANSFORMATION.
TRANSFORMATION is a buzz word right now, self help , self development and some of us think we can do it on our own…hmmmmm… we are not looking for a quick fix but a long term investment in self. I wish I started this when I was much younger
We need to be little ninjas and be on the lookout for negative behaviour in ourselves.
We need to be able to spot the negativity in ourselves and weed it out in shaa Allah.
It’s an ongoing peace of work.
The lifestyle example of Prophet Muhammad, salah lahu alaihi wa salem, provides us with model of behaviour relevant to all aspects of life.
He showed us how to eat and what to eat. He showed us how to worship
He taught us about military strategy and also inner warfare with the lowers desires of the self and that is what I would love us to think about today and every day for the next few days at least.
There is a hadith, a report about the life of Prophet Muhammad that talks about the heart
Al-Nawawi’s Forty Hadith
HADITH NUMBER 6
Lawful and Unlawful are Clear
Numan ibn Bashir reported: I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, say:
الْحَلَالُ بَيِّنٌ وَالْحَرَامُ بَيِّنٌ وَبَيْنَهُمَا مُشَبَّهَاتٌ لَا يَعْلَمُهَا كَثِيرٌ مِنْ النَّاسِ فَمَنْ اتَّقَى الْمُشَبَّهَاتِ اسْتَبْرَأَ لِدِينِهِ وَعِرْضِهِ وَمَنْ وَقَعَ فِي الشُّبُهَاتِ كَرَاعٍ يَرْعَى حَوْلَ الْحِمَى يُوشِكُ أَنْ يُوَاقِعَهُ أَلَا وَإِنَّ لِكُلِّ مَلِكٍ حِمًى أَلَا إِنَّ حِمَى اللَّهِ فِي أَرْضِهِ مَحَارِمُهُ أَلَا وَإِنَّ فِي الْجَسَدِ مُضْغَةً إِذَا صَلَحَتْ صَلَحَ الْجَسَدُ كُلُّهُ وَإِذَا فَسَدَتْ فَسَدَ الْجَسَدُ كُلُّهُ أَلَا وَهِيَ الْقَلْبُ
That which is lawful is plain and that which is unlawful is plain and between the two of them are doubtful matters about which not many people know. Thus he who avoids doubtful matters clears himself in regard to his religion and his honor, but he who falls into doubtful matters falls into that which is unlawful, like the shepherd who pastures around a sanctuary, all but grazing therein. Truly every king has a sanctuary, and truly Allah’s sanctuary is His prohibitions. Truly in the body there is a morsel of flesh which, if it be whole, all the body is whole and which, if it be diseased, all of it is diseased. Truly it is the heart.
[Sahih Bukhari, Book 2, Number 50 ]
I read this hadith many years ago, alhmdulilah, and so began my journey to purify my heart.
You do not need to be in a Sufi group to work on purifying your heart. Sufi teachers may have some useful strategies for working on various DIS- EASES but some of them will take you with them to the hell fire for what they tell you to do.
So put your trust in Allah and start to take a look at yourself.
Become an observer of SELF.
A good way to start is to reflect at the end of the day as we lay in bed before we sleep and think about what has happened in the day. did we get into any arguments, should we have spoken up, should we have given the right change, should we have been more humble and less arrogant, why were we jealous of that bothers car or that sisters job offer. Were we wrongly competitive with our children, why did we show off our new handbag or new living room to a friend we know is not even married. Why did we eat so much we can’t even pray on time? Why didn’t we give that charity.. Are we really stingy?
There are an infinite about of sins that we commit every day even though some of us think and say that we have pure hearts.
IDENTIFYING THE DIS-EASE
It really helps to know what you are looking for. You get to a certain age, maybe late teens where you keep hearing the same criticism,” you’re lazy, you’re late, your angry, you need to try harder, you need to speak up, you’re too noisy, your in consistent, your unreliable, you’re mean etc” so we should have a bit of an idea of a few thing that we need to change.
Everybody else can’t be wrong all the time, there’s no smoke without fire and we are not perfect but we are worse than we think.
WE ARE MORE BAD THAN WE THINK
I am not denying the good; we need to thank Allah for everything that is good in ourselves, because it’s from Allah.
SURAH AN-NISAA NUMBER 4 THE WOMEN , VERSE 79
“What comes to you of good is from Allah, but what comes to you of evil, [O man], is from yourself. And We have sent you, [O Muhammad], to the people as a messenger, and sufficient is Allah as Witness.”
In our arrogance and ignorance we do more wrong that what we think.
LIST OF DISEASES OF THE HEART
These are just a few diseases in our heart; please forgive me for anything that’s wrong.
SHIRK- idol worshipping or placing self a God supreme
ENVY/JEALOUSY- craving that which is not yours
MISERLINESS- hoarding money, hates to spend on self or others
ARROGANCE- over estimation of self opinion, self importance, without humility or repentance.
IGNORANCE- genuinely not knowing or choosing to ignore the Truth
VANITY- deluded self love, unhealthy obsession with self
GLUTTONY- over consumption of food or anything
LUST-sexual desire in non halal context
HASTINESS- rushing into things without praying or thinking it through
ANGER – lost of self control, internalised anger is still toxic
IMPATIENCE- lack of peace in present moment, wanting to do things quickly
LAZINESS- unwilling to do even basic things like pray
MISPLACED LOVE- loving too much other than Allah, love of materials things too much
FANTASISING – negative script writing your predict future events, sexual fantasying
MELANCHOLY -feel sorry for yourself or others too much.
RESENTING ALLAH- this one is deep.
It’s good to know what the diseases are, so we can spot them in ourselves.
We ask Allah to forgive us and ask Allah to help is transform the negatives into positives.
It’s that simple, we need to acknowledge our negatively and be sorry and ask Allah to help us change… Transformation…alhmdulilah Rabeel alameen.
USEFUL LINK
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Al-Nawawi%27s_Forty_Hadith#Hadith_6
