What comes to your head, when you contemplate deeply in the middle of the night and you read this powerful ayah? Do you firmly comply with it?
‘ اشْهَدُ انْ لّآ اِلهَ اِلَّا اللّهُ وَ اَشْهَدُ اَنَّ مُحَمَّدً اعَبْدُه وَرَسُولُه’
What is so special and essential in this single magnificent Ayah that this marks the very existence of you as a Muslim and qualifies you as a believer too?
No way! I’m in no mood of digging into the fiqhi dictionary now. Instead let’s figure out together where does it rest in the most crucial part of our body – ” Our Heart”
Shahadah! It is that intense beam of sparkling light that guides the soul amidst the darkness of gaflaah, it’s the returning pathway of a filthy soul drowned in sins towards Tazkiya, it’s the fulfillment of an empty heart hungry for the streams of true love in a world of hatred, abandonment and betrayal, it’s the pride of a believer that makes him the richest of the rich, even sustaining through the ‘bare minimum’ phase, it’s the sword of a slave with which it fights the ever so horrendous enemy who swore to misguide the humankind – the Shaytan.
That’s Shahaadah for a mu’min, that’s the power of kaleemah that me and you hear five times a day and even utter it often but sadly without contemplation or realization of its essentiality. Subhanallah!
Ever imagined where would we be without Iman? Without the belief that there is none worthy of worship except the Lord of the Aalameen? Imagine not witnessing the sakeenah in your sujood? Not being able to make your heartiest dua’s?
Imagine not having that most beautiful relationship with your maker that you cherish the most? Imagine not knowing that merciful creator who is closer to you than your own jugular vein? Imagine yourself worshiping idols, animals and drowning in kufr, Aaudhubillah
D.I.S.G.U.S.T.I.N.G Right?
It’s only when you ponder over the Ni’ma of Iman that your heart will accept how honored we are that out of the entire lot, Al – Haadi chose to guide us and sent us with a clear guide, A guide that that clearly mentions the Do’s and the Don’ts. Otherwise just like the rest, we would be lost in this chaotic crowd. Even we would run in the race for money, the greed for materialism. Like the rest, the chase of illusionary love would have gotten us nowhere.
Also, Shahaadah is the sword that kills ‘kufr’. If kufr is defined as an alluring darkness, then Shahaadah is the relieving illuminated torch which guides the heart to the path of salvation.
One of the divine facts is that your connection with Allah isn’t as meager as you think it is. It’s the innate bonding which is linked to your fitrah. Have you ever noticed how you change when things get worked up and you start missing your salah and you don’t get your private time with your maker?
You get agitated, frustrated and end up feeling empty from the inside. There is this giant world inside which has come crumbling down. The mind demons tend to become enormously huge with each passing days and you wonder why you are going down this spiral breakdown. Subhaanallah!
And here is the reason – WE need Allah in our lives, YOU need Allah in your life. It’s just not enough that we say our Shahaadahs and forget about it. Our armor, our shield against our demons is the light that shines within the territories of our heart – the light of guidance which kills every evil within. You rise again and this time mightier enough to win that internal battle. But for that, we have to revive the kalima within the heart over and over again.
When the sparkle of Iman is about to die, when the lamp of dhikr starts fluttering and you forget your Lord while over indulging in the chaos of this world – that’s when you need to water the seeds, to nourish the roots through dua’s and let it run deeper through your soul, because it’s incomplete without the remembrance of its Lord.
The more you take its food away, the more it will starve and ultimately will become weak. So the bottom line is – No one can replace the Creator – and the heart finds its joy only when you protect the place of its Lord.
The glitter of this Dunya is mesmerizingly breathtaking, but the deeper you go into the pits that promises the most wondrous treasures, the more you will burn – internally, because of the emptiness its gifted you.
It’s the Shahadah, that has protected our souls. It’s because the kalima – that ‘there is only ONE creator and none worthy of prostrating’ which is instilled deep in our hearts, that the inner siren turns ON whenever we are about to transgress. It’s the alarm clock set within our fitrah, which helps us recall over and over again that we are mu’mins, we can’t be deluded by the shaytanic trap and lose our purity. It helps us fight our desires, and stay away from the forbidden and aids us to do what is commanded.
Ever felt hesitant while taking that first cigarette in your hand just because your buddy forced you to? Did it ever happen that your heart didn’t agree to cheat although all your mates from the class did? Did you ever strongly decline to drink even after going to that pub?
Yeah, right?
Subhaanallah! Why?
It’s the heart that has absorbed that one magical ayah. It’s phenomenal how instilling a single belief system in the heart enriches it, empowers it and liberates it at the same time and so it sends you those immediate red flags, warning you over and over again.
”Oh A’bd! Do not make me dirty, this is a sacred sanctuary where the words of Al – Ahad resides, the love of Ar – Rahmaan flourishes, so let not the evil enter my territory and darken the Nur that has revived it. Oh tempting Soul! I warn you against what the evil of this nafs decorates for you, it seems beautiful and it’s enveloped with the most dazzling wrappers, but the moment you accept it, rejecting the Shahadah, forgetting your Master – it will betray you, it will destroy you completely”.
And why does it say all these things? Because it’s our Iman that tells us the difference between the right and the wrong. It’s our belief which protects us from hypocrisy, shamelessness and all the other evils that come along in the basket of ‘Nafs’. We are all vulnerable beings and that’s the fact shaytaan adores. He takes maximum advantage of this to make us slip from our path, but it’s because we are the people of Tawheed that after every disastrous sin, we run back to our Rabb seeking forgiveness as there is not an ounce of doubt that, Allah is Gafoor – Ar – Raheem.
And sadly, shaytan knows THIS too, so he will make you commit that guilty sin again and again till you reach a stage where you no longer feel guilty or even worse believe that your sin cannot be forgiven.
You know what’s his major agenda in life? It’s only to strip you off from your only armour which is going to guard you against the blazing fire of Jahannum.
and what’s that you are wondering?
‘Iman billah’
yup! You got that right!
He is excellent in his job and he knows your weaknesses and strengths as well. He knows how to lure the abds of Allah towards sins. After years of experience he cleverly attacks the most important organ of your body – what comes to the mind?
again right! – ‘Qalb’
You have no idea how well versed he is in employing various techniques and planning through which he aspires to defeat each one of us.
Yes! Shaytaan enjoys that smooth stirring of the filth in your heart, killing its purity and sanctity just the way we do when stirring our coffees, whilst immersed in the aroma.
Subhanallah! The worst thing is that he knows how to trap us but we don’t know how to defend our souls or rather we know but we still chose to give in. And a lot of us think this is a small issue – like REALLY?
A little porn, just a shot of vodka, just a puff of cigarette, just a little time with that cute guy, just a little ‘forbidden act’ won’t harm you?
Ya Abdullah – Ya Amatullah! It verily will be because of these so called ‘little things’ that you might loose and he might win gleefully. The multiple ponds of dirt could make up an ocean eventually. He isn’t going to stop till he drags you to the point of despair and disbelief. Shaytaan have trained his troops for this mission who are working night and days to bring me and you to his home – towards fire.
We all know that there would come a time where sticking to one’s Imaan, will be like holding on to hot coals. Yes! It’s going to be that hard, so watch your step!
We can’t forget that the Shaytan rejoices at the despair of the mu’min and RasulAllah صلى الله عليه و سلم guided us towards the path of sabr when faced with any calamity. What everyone needs to remember is that we are the Ummah of Muhammad صلى الله عليه و سلم, who not only proclaimed the Shahadah but lived by it, who enlightened the path of shukr for us both in the good times and the bad. We can’t let our beloved Prophet صلى الله عليه و سلم down folks!
To Be Continued…
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