بسم الله الرحمان الرحيم
إِنَّ الْحَمْدَ لِلَّهِ نَحْمَدُهُ وَنَسْتَعِينُهُ ونستغفره ونعوذ بالله من شرور أنفسنا ومن سيئات أعمالنا مَنْ يَهْدِهِ اللَّهُ فَلَا مُضِلَّ لَهُ وَمَنْ يُضْلِلْ فَلَا هَادِيَ لَهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَحْدَهُ لَا شَرِيكَ لَهُ وَأَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ
Assalaam ‘alaykum Warahmatullahi, Wa barakatuhu.
The struggle with the desire to do what is right and what makes one content is ever unending. Sometimes, it is like a raging fire burning from within, in total control of actions.
Looking into a battlefield where one’s only weapon (the mind) is the arch-enemy (the desires), one is indeed tempted to throw in the towel, for indeed, the battle would be lost before it would have even begun. It is true that if you do not know your enemy, then you are your own assailant. So somewhere between being consumed by desires and common sense is where I fit in. How about you?
The innermost mind is not a place easily deluded. Once it has its hypothesis, like a sage on a mission, it embarks on a voyage of discovery, a course that can easily be set ashore.
How often we get engrossed in the sight of what we want, that we lose sight of what should be? Like a mirrored glow, we are in a mirage of our own. The vanquisher, an enemy molded and strengthened to perfection by our choices.
For me, when I look into the mirror that reflects the battle within, my innermost mind reflects two conflicting positions; to wear the conventional style of hijab thinking about the laws and commandment of Allah, and the other sneering almost in disgust at how much my beauty has been concealed from the world!
A-ha! You can relate!
When I am tempted to let go of the rope of Allah, angry at how constrained I feel, thinking; “This is modern times. Do you not think about freedom?”
I am reminded of how pathetic this battle is. Perhaps I had lost before it had even begun but I am hopeful that my reproaching soul would not let me down. And that Allah promises ease only after every difficulty. And that if I hold firm to the rope of Allah, I would not lose face.
“Verily with every difficulty, there is ease
Surah Al-Inshirah Ayah 5
Unless I am reminded the believer is he who is given different choices of the good and the bad and he waddles through them successfully realizing that it is an examination which he must ace.
أَمْ حَسِبْتُمْ أَنْ تَدْخُلُوا الْجَنَّةَ وَلَمَّا يَأْتِكُمْ مَثَلُ الَّذِينَ خَلَوْا مِنْ قَبْلِكُمْ ۖ مَسَّتْهُمُ الْبَأْسَاءُ وَالضَّرَّاءُ وَزُلْزِلُوا حَتىَّٰ يَقُولَ الرَّسُولُ وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا مَعَهُ مَتَىٰ نَصْرُ اللَّهِ ۗ أَلَا إِنَّ نَصْرَ اللَّهِ قَرِيبٌ
“Or do you think that you will enter Paradise while such [trial] has not yet come to you as came to those who passed on before you? They were touched by poverty and hardship and were shaken until [even their] messenger and those who believed with him said, “When is the help of Allah?” Unquestionably, the help of Allah is near.”
Surah Al-Baqarah, Ayah 214
أَحَسِبَ النَّاسُ أَنْ يُتْرَكُوا أَنْ يَقُولُوا آمَنَّا وَهُمْ لَا يُفْتَنُن
Do the people think that they will be left to say, “We believe” and they will not be tested?
–Sura Ankaboot Ayah 1
Verily, He said;
وَلَقَدْ فَتَنَّا الَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِهِمْ ۖ فَلَيَعْلَمَنَّ اللَّهُ الَّذِينَ صَدَقُوا وَلَيَعْلَمَنَّ الْكَاذِبِينَ
But We have certainly tried those before them, and Allah will surely evident those who are truthful, and He will surely make evident the liars.
Or that:
We will test you with fear, and hunger loss of wealth and lives and fruits, but give glad tidings to those who are patient
Surah Baqarah, Ayah155
But the innermost mind is weak and frail from the desires that embellish it to the desires that outweigh it. Too weak to understand that for the battle within, there is but one option. VICTORY. Drowning in its inability to survive and forgetting that the Prophet (P.B.U.H) said:
There will come upon the people a time when the one holding on to his religion will be like the one holding on to hot coal.” (At-Tirmidhi)
If we ponder on the current situation Muslims are facing from within themselves and around the world, it would appear that they have entered those times so diligently spoken about by the Prophet (PBUH). Though the innermost mind might not be a physical deviant as much as our actions, it is indeed the whisperer, the hoarder of the unachievable desires, the arch host of the most inconceivable thoughts which brings us to the question:
What do we really desire?
That great void in our hearts that makes us feel as though we have achieved nothing when we have not achieved them? What is it exactly?
Is it to secure a great job? A new house? A quality education? Is it to marry the spouse of our dream? To travel around the world, to be famous, or is it to please Allah?
Truly there is nothing wrong with either of those desires. Allah is pleased with a servant who seeks from His Goodness. But what happens when the servant chases after the creation of Allah and forgets his Creator?
Verily, we are created, only to worship Allah and everything we do should be tended towards achieving this goal. This should be our utmost innermost desire.
Surah Adh-Dhariyat, Ayah 56:
وَمَا خَلَقْتُ الْجِنَّ وَالْإِنسَ إِلَّا لِيَعْبُدُونِ
And I have not created the jinn and the men except that they should serve Me.
We are reminded of the verse of Allah that said in Q64:15
Your wealth and children are but a trial, and Allah has with Him a great reward.
And know that we cannot get pleasure from doing things that displease Allah but, rather, from things that please Him. Irrespective of our innermost desires and the temptation to forget Allah, we will find contentment.
Know also that Shaytan comes to us in different forms, he threatens us with loss of wealth, power, children, and status. He makes us crave and indulge in immorality and in the recess of the night or a corner where no one sees us, he pushes us to lose hold in the rope of Allah and this is why Allah has said:
Ash-shaytan threatens you with poverty and orders you to immorality but Allah promises you forgiveness.
Surah Al-Baqarah, Ayah 268
Conclusively, know that irrespective of our innermost minds, a believer is he who must choose a side where he fits. He cannot, like the hypocrites mentioned by Allah in Surah Nisaa: 143, not have a side. Wavering from between the believers and the unbelievers.
He is a person who recognizes that Allah is at all times near and knows the most concealed of his thoughts.
Q 50:16
And We have already created man, and We know what his soul whispers to him, and we are closer to him than his jugular vein
He is he who asks Allah’s forgiveness when his desires derails from the path which is laid for a guided believer. So, when a believer battles different innermost friends and foes, he must ask and respond to the question: Where do I fit?
So Ummah of my Nabbiyy, in the battle of your innermost minds where do you fit?
وصلى االه وسلم على نبيينا محمد على اله واصحابه اجمعن سبحانك االهم وبحمدك اشهد ان لا ا لله الا انت استغفرك واتب
Author: Umm-kulthum Okidi Musa
Editor: Maryam Abdul-Wahhab
