Crying in submission to Allah
The imam began by speaking of the reference to crying from Sura Al-Isra, ayat 109 which is translated to say:
And they fall down upon their faces weeping, and it increases them in humility.”
Dear brothers, if you ponder over this, there is a benefit to crying from fear or from submission to Allah SWT. Alongside this ayat, it was also mentioned of a hadith in reference to this topic in which the Prophet SAWS is reported to have said:
“If you knew what I know, you would laugh little and weep much”.
Dear brothers, we can see that there is great benefit from displaying emotion when remembering Allah SWT. And the best time is during salah. However, for a lot of us, this is simply not possible. We find it difficult to connect to our prayers and we find it difficult to connect to Allah SWT like this.
And for many of us, this topic is a taboo topic that we don’t like to think about as it causes us anguish and stress to think that our hearts are so dead that we are unable to feel the word of Allah or the presence of Allah in our recitation and in our daily lives.
Dear brothers, this is an illness and the first step to this is to acknowledge that this illness exists. Insha’Allah this is where we are at now. So what do we do next?
The next step is to identify and acknowledge that there is a root cause behind this illness being in our hearts. What is that root cause?
Before that is explained, it makes sense to understand what the medicine for the heart is when it is like this. Just like Allah SWT can cause a barren land to bring out vegetation, He can also bring our hearts to life. And just like there is a solution to barren land, there is a solution to our hearts.
Dear brothers, we all know that rainfall nourishes the land to produce the fruit but what do our hearts need to nourish it and to bear the fruit of imaan and specifically to make us emotional during the recitation of Quran for example?
The nourishment comes in the form of remembrance of Allah SWT. It comes in the form of listening and understanding and pondering over the ayats of the Quran. It comes from taking time in recitation and thinking of what each and every word means in your salah and recitation.
Dear brothers, now that the solution is explained we go back to our root cause. What is it that causes this problem in the first place? And this reminder ends with that answer. The root cause is our distractions and our priorities. We need to understand that this life is designed exactly to distract us and to keep us occupied and that there is no man, woman or child that is too busy to remember Allah SWT.
Each and every one of us can take some time out to recite the words of Allah SWT, to take a translation of the Quran and ponder over the meaning, to listen to a lecture from scholars on what the ayats are telling us. There is no excuse. 30 minutes can be found by each and every one of us each day and we should aim to start there. Skip a Netflix show, shorten your newsfeed surf, prioritise your time and make this at the top of your to-do list.
And so, with the holy month of Muharram here and the start of a new year, what better time than today to start this habit and get your heart nourished and brought back to life.
