Thrown into the depths of depression after losing my daughter through a stillbirth, life was a dark cloud filled with sadness, pain, endless crying and a host of other emotions that made the days seem almost unbearable most times. Time passed slowly, as if hours felt like days, the days felt like months and nothing filled the heart and mind except the remembrance of the events surrounding my loss, the what ifs, the emptiness and the pain. Through all the darkness and tears, there remained a small glimmer of hope that peaked out from behind the clouds, calling out to me, “the Help of Allah is Near..” The one thing that remained constant in my life was calling out to me, for my soul yearned and cried for the one thing that I had waited days on end to be able to do after the Nifas (Post Natal bleeding) – Salaah. To be able to stand in Salaah and feel the overwhelming sense of comfort which one can only feel from Allah, was the one thing that my life, in those agonizing moments needed the most. To be able to cry to Allah in hope and fear, to be able to prostrate and feel the relief from the burdens of life was what the soul cried and yearned for, because in those moments of extreme sadness, depression and anxiety, nothing but Allah brought comfort to the innermost depths of my being.
Just as the desires call towards us to follow it, the eyes, the ears, the hands, the feet and the tongue call us to disobey Allah, the soul calls out to us to prostrate to Allah to Worship Him, to fear Him, to have hope in Him, to make Tawbah to Him, to obey Him, to Love Him and depend on Him alone. It is up to us to respond to the needs of the soul, to quench its thirst for Allah, for Salaah, for only then will we realise, experience and truly understand what inner peace is.
Our lives are so plagued with filth that we sometimes forget the one thing that can and will cleanse us from these vices that weigh heavily upon our souls. The Salaah is the cure for every illness in our hearts that bring us down and burden our minds with worldly matters. It is the cure for the hatred in the heart that brings emotional turmoil from which there is no other relief. It is the cure for the depression in the lives of those who can find no way out from the suffering and suicidal thoughts which plagues their minds. Salaah is the Master Key to all the doors in our lives that we need opened in order to be whole once again.
I am sure many of us have felt at some point in our lives, that we are lost are we feel the need to be called back to something that will cause us to feel free from everything negative in our lives – be it in the past or we are experiencing it now. Have we ever thought that maybe the one thing that can help us, is the one thing we may be delaying in our everyday lives? The one thing that we are craving for may very well be the one thing that we think we have enough time when we get older to fulfill? It may be that Allah is calling on us to return in repentance and prayer to Him by placing on us trials and tribulations, worry and grief, stress and anxiety.
Often times we feel the need to go away on a vacation and leave all the stresses of work and life behind; so to our souls need, 5 times a day, to run away from the stresses of everyday life to stand in front of Allah and perform our five daily salaah, where we disconnect from the worldly life and connect with Allah, speak to Allah, pour out our heart’s needs and wants to Allah and find the solace we have been needing. Allah has blessed us as Muslim with the five daily Salaah where He gives us a ‘break’ from worldly matters and gifts us with a peaceful escape for the mind, body and soul. How grateful of a slave are we?
Just as I found peace in my greatest time of need, so too can you find that happiness, peace, solace, harmony, and gratification that the soul searches for in everything you do. Always remember that Allah is the One Who gave us life, and He is the One Who knows what we need the most. By giving us the opportunity to perform Salaah, He knows that we will find answers to all our unanswered questions. It is simply up to us to realise that the door to Jannah is open for us, we just have to want it, need it and earn it.