Healing Words For A Tired Heart From The Quran - Surah Ash-Sharh
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Life is tough. Sometimes, we are all going through some really hard times. Being unable to breathe even though you inhale air. Or feeling all alone in a crowd. Just taking a few bites, even feasts are spread in front of you. Sitting in a restaurant with friends but not really being there. Disconnected. Are you present in this world? Are you alive? You are not dead, but you are not alive either. So why are you in such a bad mood? And how will this pass? One day while escaping from enemy soldiers, Napoleon took shelter in a grocery shop. The grocer hid him and told the enemy soldiers that someone had just gone that way.
Later, when Napoleon's guards arrived at the grocery shop, Napoleon came out from his hiding place. Thinking he might never see Napoleon again, the grocer asked him a question. "Sir, please forgive my curiosity, but what is it like to be so close to death?" Napoleon suddenly became angry. "Who are you to talk to me in such a mocking way?" He shouted. He ordered his soldiers to shoot the grocer. The soldiers blindfolded the man and lined up in front of him. They loaded their guns. They were ready to fire, as the grocer thought to himself, "Oh, what have I done? Now I'm going to die!" His heart was beating so fast.
Suddenly a pair of hands reached out from his behind, removed his blindfold, and there stood Napoleon. He answered the man's question with a single sentence. "You asked me, 'What is it like to be so close to death?' That is what it feels like." That is why learning by doing is the most costly but most permanent method of learning. For example, someone tells you "Don't do that, you'll ruin your afterlife." It didn't even reach your ear. You didn't understand from this way of warning. Then you stuck your finger in a door. Your finger hurt. You were in pain for 2 or 3 hours, but you still didn't wake up from your slumber. You didn't get the message. You didn't understand this language either.
Then you had an accident and stayed in the hospital for a few months. When you left there, you started praying five times a day. But it only lasted for a week. You didn't wake up. You didn't get the warning again. Because your sleep and carelessness are so heavy, you needed a stronger wake up call. There have been times when life has weighed you down and disturbed your peace. Maybe there were times you even thought, "Ya Allah, why is this happening to me?" Surely the one who creates nothing in vain in the universe, the possessor of infinite wisdom, must have some wisdom in this as well, right? A strong wake up call.
Remember, learning by doing is the most costly but most permanent method of learning. This is the language that you understand. Can someone walking in a maze have the same knowledge as someone looking at from above? So don't rebel just because you don't understand the wisdom behind it. Because the wisdom of the universe is not limited to your knowledge. You're not a God. Your inability to understand does not mean that there is no wisdom in it. This is life. A test. You may have received news that makes you upset. There may be fires in your heart that never go out. These have great wisdom in the long term, or maybe even in the short term.
You'll understand some in a year, some in ten years, and some only after you have gone to the eternal world. And you will do sajdah in gratitude for some duas that were not accepted as you wish. In reality, your soul needs some surgeries. Of course, any surgery is painful. Those who undergo surgery know this and they prepare themselves psychologically. You must realize that you are being tested. Surah Ankabut, Verse number two, Allah says, "Do the people think that they will be left to say 'We believe' and they will not be tried?" Surah Anbiya, Verse number 16.
"And we did not create the heaven and earth, and that between them in play." Surah Mu'minun, Verse number 115, Allah says, "Then did you think that we created you uselessly, and that to us you would not be returned?" There are questions we must ask ourselves. What do you want my nafs, my soul, what do you want? Are you not satisfied with Allah's will? Are the storms in your soul rising and rebelling against everything that happens? What do you want? Isn't it better for a calamity to awaken you while you are running on a wrong path that leads to hell? Do you want the one who created you not to intervene to all throughout your life?
Even if you go on the wrong paths and leave without a scratch? Do you want death to take you, complete your trial, and wake up in the fires of hell? Can you say Ameen to that? Or do you prefer a wisdom that will turn you from the wrong path, in the language you can understand? Don't expect that Allah has promised us to live a perfect life in this world. There's no such promise. It's in the nature of this world to experience ups and downs. Those who enter the water will get wet. This is the rule. Those who stay out in the cold will feel cold. Heat makes you sweat. Just like this, in this world, sometimes one will feel happy while another time will be drowned in sorrow and grief.
Ups and downs, hills and valleys. Our Prophet Muhammad (saw) expressed this beautifully. "There is no comfort in this world." Questions like, why does this happen when I pray five times a day? Or can religious people suffer from depression? These kinds of questions may come to our minds. The answer is this. Can a Muslim break his arm? Yes! Can a Muslim fall when he is running? Yes, they can. Can they fall into depression? Yes, they can. Depression, like a broken arm, is a calamity that can befall anyone. Of course, consolations derived from religion can reduce the possibility of depression in many people. But if fate has decreed a calamity for you, you can't escape.
Even if you are so close to Allah, your heart has been sentenced to a period of imprisonment. No matter what you do, even if you travel around the world, your heart is imprisoned. By the way, the calamity that comes our way is not always to correct something wrong. It can also be to strengthen something good. Throughout history, thousands of prophets have come. As you know, prophets are sinless. In a hadith, one of the Companions asked the Messenger of Allah, "Which people are most severely tested?" Prophet (saw) answered, "The prophets, then the next best, then the next best. A person is tested according to his religious commitment.
If he is steadfast in his religious commitment, he will be tested more severely. And if he is frail in his religious commitment, his test will be according to his commitment. Trials will continue to afflict a person until they leave him walking on the Earth with no sin on him." This means that those who are closest to Allah have been tested most by Him. Since their limits of patience are very high, the hardness of their trials are accordingly high as well. For example, in a final year university math exam, you wouldn't ask an elementary question, right? It would be too easy and useless. It won't improve that student. So the difficulties that come to us can be for three reasons.
The first, a warning for past mistakes and shortcomings. Second, a development to bring our souls closer to Allah. And the third one, a preparation, discipline and training for the challenges we will face in the future. Allah has not promised a perfect life in this world. But if we endure the ups and downs of these temporary 50-60 years of life and live within His commandments, He has promised a perfect, eternal Paradise for us. A world where there is no bad news, where the chest does not feel constricted. A vast world. During a difficult period in my life, when I felt constricted in my chest, a verse came to my mind.
Allah says to His messenger, "And we already know that your chest is constrained by what they say." I was amazed when I read it. 1400 years ago, our Prophet (saw) felt the same way because of what was said and done to him. Even centuries before that, Prophet Moses must have felt the same constriction when he prayed during the confrontation with Pharaoh. Moses said, "My Lord, expand for me my chest and ease for me my task, and untie the knot from my tongue, that they may understand my speech." Subhanallah. So if you continue to look at the events around you in the way you're used to, without considering different perspectives, you will remain stuck. Unable to escape the swamp you're in.
The solution may be in a place that you didn't look for, didn't expect, or didn't even think it was possible. You know the term "Think outside of the box"? What was the secret of the prophets who faced with the world's greatest calamities? They were exposed to perhaps 100 times the news that devastated us. But they didn't fall into depression. As healthy individuals, they continued their mission of spreading the message, demonstrating an exemplary human model. The hurricanes of our world were no more than just a breeze to them. Even though we were exposed to the same pain as thousands of people, what makes a difference in how we feel the pain is our perspective and perception of events.
Point is how we position one sentence that enters our brain. Bad news enters our brain. How we position it. The secret perspective lies in a word that everyone may have heard countless times, but few have really understood. That word is submission. Yes, I identify myself as a Muslim, but have I really submitted to Allah? Submission? What does it mean? In short and clear terms, it is the servant's acceptance of all his Lord's doings with sincere approval. Accepting Allah's majestic and beautiful manifestations without objection. Wholeheartedly, spiritually and intellectually.
In Surah Baqarah, Verse number 156, Allah says, "Who, when disaster strikes them, say, 'Indeed we belong to Allah, and indeed to him we will return.'" So what is the secret? What happens when you submit so that insoluble difficulties are solved, impassable mountains are overcome, and the heavy burdens of the world cannot crush you? We can understand this better with a sentence by Bediuzzaman Said Nursi. He says, "An intelligent person is neither happy by what he gains from the affairs of the world, nor saddened by what he loses. For the world does not stand still. It moves on and man moves with it. You too are a traveler," he says. So we have a question.
Why shouldn't a person of intelligence be so happy about what he gains from worldly affairs? Answer. Because the world does not stand still, it moves on. The second question, why shouldn't a person of intelligence be too sad about what he loses in worldly affairs? The answer is, again, because the world does not stand still. It moves on. Like a person holding on to a piece of broken ship during a storm and surviving, problems and stress breaks a person's mind and heart. The waves are taller than you. You hold on to life with great fear. After a while, you open your eyes and find yourself on the shore. The storm is over. You're alive. The warm sun touches your skin.
You have found treasures on the island that will make your life easy forever. Similarly, in the midst of calamity, when your chest tightens during the storm, you wonder, what is happening? How will I escape? Will this trouble ever end as long as I live? You drive yourself crazy. Then the event passes. Years later, you look back. There is no trace of the stress. You can't understand this until years have passed over the uproar. Yes, it's hard to understand when you're in the storm. But when you look back years later, you see that enduring those hardships made you stronger. The trials you faced during those difficult times matured your spiritual character and made you a different person.
The waves that didn't break you made you stronger. Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, an Islamic scholar who was imprisoned for years. Once he said, "Whoever knows Allah and obeys Him is blissful even in prison. He who forgets Allah, even in palaces, he is in dungeon, miserable." In the very beginning, the key to all this is a strong faith. Iman. There are levels of Iman, from the atom to the Sun, and we are somewhere in between. The biggest difference between us and people who have established submission in this world? We are not on the same level of faith. Iman. So how can one become stronger in faith? Certainly there are many ways.
I'm going to talk about a method that I have experienced myself, and I also observed this in my environment. We can call this "Strong Current River Technique." Since the day you were born, you have been mentally changing and improving. The way you understand an event when you were ten years old and now is different. It will change again as you mature more. This change can be to the better or to the worse. So what changes you? The answer is things you are interacting with. If you change the three main factors that you interact with, you can make this change into better. There is no magic wand, but it is possible to change in a short time. First, friends.
You should choose the people with whom you interact. As a personal development observation, I have heard that a person is the average of the five people he spends the most time with. If the people you interact with are better than you in terms of taqwa, being a religious person, it makes your level of taqwa higher. In an environment where everyone gets up to go to Friday prayers, if you have even the slightest tendency to go, you're likely to overcome your laziness and join in. But contrary, if you are unwilling and no one else is going, you may not go.
In this approach, cleaning up your phone contacts, removing the unnecessary ones, getting closer to the religious friends and distancing yourself from those who lead you to the sin. You know those people. You know those friends. Friends that sent you haram links, drinks, alcohol, et cetera. This method will automatically transform you into a more righteous person. Second, the videos you watch. This could be a YouTube video or a movie. These videos can either strengthen your spiritual motivation and warm our hearts towards Islam, or they can leave us with a feeling of emptiness and make us forget why we are in this world.
Whenever you feel a weakness in your spiritual strength, immerse yourself in Islamic videos. Watch 20 or 30 of them in a row. Within 2 or 3 hours, you will notice that your motivation increases. Your eagerness to pray increases, and your prayers become emotional, not formal. Third, the books we read. We are colored and influenced by the books we read. And our color changes depending on their content. Be careful when you're choosing the books. Now imagine a river with a current so strong it's impossible for a person to swim from one side to the other side. Now imagine that this river flows to the Paradise and we put you in the middle of it. You can't swim both sides.
You can't swim to the right. You can't swim to the left. The current goes on. But at the end you end up in a beautiful place. Contrary, but in a river flowing to the hell. It would be equally difficult to swim to both sides, right? When we make these three choices correctly, I mean friends, books and videos, we put ourselves in the middle of the river, flowing in a beautiful place. However, in the first place you can decide which river you want to enter. Going through your phone contacts, distancing yourself from those who invite you to the evil is up to you. You can choose the river.
Filtering the channels you subscribe to, adding new and beautiful books to your library are all within your control. Throughout human history, many individuals have successfully passed the test of submission to Allah. However, one person among them faced two of the most difficult tests of submission. Prophet Ibrahim, also known as Abraham. Allah tested the Hero of Submission very heavily. Allah asked him to sacrifice his son. Without bargaining in his mind, Prophet Ibrahim took the knife. Obeying his Lord's commands, he put the knife on his son Ismail's neck. Prophet Ismail was also as submissive as his father, but the knife didn't cut.
Prophet Ibrahim firmly believed that "Allah would not command me anything that lacks wisdom. What He commands is truth." Of course, Allah wanted to test him with this command, and Prophet Ibrahim passed the test with complete submission. In another incident, Prophet Ibrahim was to be thrown into a fire by Nimrod. The fire was so intense that its flames reached to the skies. It was impossible to get near it. It was intended to throw with a mechanism like a catapult. Preparations were made. When Ibrahim was about to be thrown into the blazing flames, the angel Jibreel came to him and said, "O Ibrahim!
If you wish, I can destroy Nimrod and his army by making these mountains fall upon them." Prophet Ibrahim asked, "O Jibreel! Does Allah see me now?" "Yes." "Does Allah hear me now, O Jibreel?" "Does Allah know my condition now?" "Yes, Ibrahim, Allah knows you." Ibrahim (as) said, "Then I ask not for your help. I rely on Allah." And he prayed. What does it mean? "Allah is sufficient for me. and He is the best disposer of affairs." As a result of Ibrahim's submission, a miracle happened. Although he was thrown into a fire as huge as mountains, the fire became cool and safe for him. It did not harm him. Because Allah took him under His protection.
In both incidents we see the submission of Ibrahim (as). If Allah is pleased, it doesn't matter if the whole world is your enemy. It doesn't matter if no one loves you, if everyone hates you or rejects you. Pleasing people is difficult and it's exhausting. And even if you do please them, then what? They are mortal, they're powerless beings, just like you. What good can come to you from those who cannot save themselves from going under the ground? Umar ibn Khattab is quoted as saying, "Whether I like it or not, whatever state I find myself in the morning, it doesn't matter to me. Because I don't know if the good is in what I like or in what I don't like." There are mysteries you cannot see.
Events you cannot predict. Is there any other way but to trust in Allah, the one who knows both good and evil? In a tafseer, I read a sentence that is very simple but very meaningful to me. It says, "Allah cares for you more than you care for yourself." I have a Lord who cares for me more than I care for myself. Like a mother who interrupts her sleep to cover you at night. When a sharp object hurts your foot, tears come from her eyes. She worries the most when something happened to you. A mother would blindly face death for her child. Who created this compassion in your mother? Who gave such a beautiful gift of compassion to your life?
Remember who placed this great compassion in your heart, then think about this statement again. Allah cares for you more than you care for yourself. Now you understand why your mother is behaving like this. But the condition of human is strange. They give everything to those who do not appreciate them at all, but they do not find time to prostrate themselves before their Lord. Only Allah could give them infinity. Only He could value them eternally. You have time for everything, but no time for the one who creates time. People make friends who lead them to the haram paths. Friends that carry wood to their own hell. At the end of their lives, their hands remain empty.
They are no different from someone who sells a $100 million Picasso painting just for 50 bucks. Cheap sale, huh? In fact, their lives are full of such cheap sales. Which of us doesn't have such cheap shopping in our lives? We are all human beings. We fall, we rise, we laugh. After a while, we cry over what we laughed at. We do to Allah what we would never forgive if someone else did it to us. But no matter what you have done, your Lord has never left you. In Surah Duha, Allah says, "By the morning brightness, and the night when it covers darkness, your Lord has not taken leave of you, nor has He detested you." How can one not be moved by these words?
The same being who turns the universe with His power. He hears the whispers of the hearts, 8 billion people's hearts, in spite of all you have done, I have not left you. I am not displeased with you. I am with you. Surah Zumaar, Verse number 53. Allah says, "Say, 'O all my servants who have transgressed against themselves, do not despair of the mercy of Allah. Indeed, Allah forgives all sins. Indeed, it is He who is the forgiving, the merciful." This verse also touches me deeply. "And be not like those who forgot Allah, so He made them forget themselves." Wow. Forget myself. What does it mean? There is such a calamity as forgetting oneself. You have forgotten Allah and yourself.
You live but not as a servant of Allah. You live as a slave of your own desires. A slave who does whatever his nafs demands, Shaitan demands. Slave of Shaitan. Slave of nafs. In trying to amuse it, you're forgetting yourself. You're forgetting yourself and your consciousness. But Allah does not abandon you. Allah does not forget you, but you forget yourself. Forgetting yourself. Brothers, sisters. Last night many people closed their eyes to sleep and never opened them again. You could have been one of them, but you weren't. Allah has given you more time before it's too late for everything. Trust in Him and submit to Him sincerely.
Later, when Napoleon's guards arrived at the grocery shop, Napoleon came out from his hiding place. Thinking he might never see Napoleon again, the grocer asked him a question. "Sir, please forgive my curiosity, but what is it like to be so close to death?" Napoleon suddenly became angry. "Who are you to talk to me in such a mocking way?" He shouted. He ordered his soldiers to shoot the grocer. The soldiers blindfolded the man and lined up in front of him. They loaded their guns. They were ready to fire, as the grocer thought to himself, "Oh, what have I done? Now I'm going to die!" His heart was beating so fast.
Suddenly a pair of hands reached out from his behind, removed his blindfold, and there stood Napoleon. He answered the man's question with a single sentence. "You asked me, 'What is it like to be so close to death?' That is what it feels like." That is why learning by doing is the most costly but most permanent method of learning. For example, someone tells you "Don't do that, you'll ruin your afterlife." It didn't even reach your ear. You didn't understand from this way of warning. Then you stuck your finger in a door. Your finger hurt. You were in pain for 2 or 3 hours, but you still didn't wake up from your slumber. You didn't get the message. You didn't understand this language either.
Then you had an accident and stayed in the hospital for a few months. When you left there, you started praying five times a day. But it only lasted for a week. You didn't wake up. You didn't get the warning again. Because your sleep and carelessness are so heavy, you needed a stronger wake up call. There have been times when life has weighed you down and disturbed your peace. Maybe there were times you even thought, "Ya Allah, why is this happening to me?" Surely the one who creates nothing in vain in the universe, the possessor of infinite wisdom, must have some wisdom in this as well, right? A strong wake up call.
Remember, learning by doing is the most costly but most permanent method of learning. This is the language that you understand. Can someone walking in a maze have the same knowledge as someone looking at from above? So don't rebel just because you don't understand the wisdom behind it. Because the wisdom of the universe is not limited to your knowledge. You're not a God. Your inability to understand does not mean that there is no wisdom in it. This is life. A test. You may have received news that makes you upset. There may be fires in your heart that never go out. These have great wisdom in the long term, or maybe even in the short term.
You'll understand some in a year, some in ten years, and some only after you have gone to the eternal world. And you will do sajdah in gratitude for some duas that were not accepted as you wish. In reality, your soul needs some surgeries. Of course, any surgery is painful. Those who undergo surgery know this and they prepare themselves psychologically. You must realize that you are being tested. Surah Ankabut, Verse number two, Allah says, "Do the people think that they will be left to say 'We believe' and they will not be tried?" Surah Anbiya, Verse number 16.
"And we did not create the heaven and earth, and that between them in play." Surah Mu'minun, Verse number 115, Allah says, "Then did you think that we created you uselessly, and that to us you would not be returned?" There are questions we must ask ourselves. What do you want my nafs, my soul, what do you want? Are you not satisfied with Allah's will? Are the storms in your soul rising and rebelling against everything that happens? What do you want? Isn't it better for a calamity to awaken you while you are running on a wrong path that leads to hell? Do you want the one who created you not to intervene to all throughout your life?
Even if you go on the wrong paths and leave without a scratch? Do you want death to take you, complete your trial, and wake up in the fires of hell? Can you say Ameen to that? Or do you prefer a wisdom that will turn you from the wrong path, in the language you can understand? Don't expect that Allah has promised us to live a perfect life in this world. There's no such promise. It's in the nature of this world to experience ups and downs. Those who enter the water will get wet. This is the rule. Those who stay out in the cold will feel cold. Heat makes you sweat. Just like this, in this world, sometimes one will feel happy while another time will be drowned in sorrow and grief.
Ups and downs, hills and valleys. Our Prophet Muhammad (saw) expressed this beautifully. "There is no comfort in this world." Questions like, why does this happen when I pray five times a day? Or can religious people suffer from depression? These kinds of questions may come to our minds. The answer is this. Can a Muslim break his arm? Yes! Can a Muslim fall when he is running? Yes, they can. Can they fall into depression? Yes, they can. Depression, like a broken arm, is a calamity that can befall anyone. Of course, consolations derived from religion can reduce the possibility of depression in many people. But if fate has decreed a calamity for you, you can't escape.
Even if you are so close to Allah, your heart has been sentenced to a period of imprisonment. No matter what you do, even if you travel around the world, your heart is imprisoned. By the way, the calamity that comes our way is not always to correct something wrong. It can also be to strengthen something good. Throughout history, thousands of prophets have come. As you know, prophets are sinless. In a hadith, one of the Companions asked the Messenger of Allah, "Which people are most severely tested?" Prophet (saw) answered, "The prophets, then the next best, then the next best. A person is tested according to his religious commitment.
If he is steadfast in his religious commitment, he will be tested more severely. And if he is frail in his religious commitment, his test will be according to his commitment. Trials will continue to afflict a person until they leave him walking on the Earth with no sin on him." This means that those who are closest to Allah have been tested most by Him. Since their limits of patience are very high, the hardness of their trials are accordingly high as well. For example, in a final year university math exam, you wouldn't ask an elementary question, right? It would be too easy and useless. It won't improve that student. So the difficulties that come to us can be for three reasons.
The first, a warning for past mistakes and shortcomings. Second, a development to bring our souls closer to Allah. And the third one, a preparation, discipline and training for the challenges we will face in the future. Allah has not promised a perfect life in this world. But if we endure the ups and downs of these temporary 50-60 years of life and live within His commandments, He has promised a perfect, eternal Paradise for us. A world where there is no bad news, where the chest does not feel constricted. A vast world. During a difficult period in my life, when I felt constricted in my chest, a verse came to my mind.
Allah says to His messenger, "And we already know that your chest is constrained by what they say." I was amazed when I read it. 1400 years ago, our Prophet (saw) felt the same way because of what was said and done to him. Even centuries before that, Prophet Moses must have felt the same constriction when he prayed during the confrontation with Pharaoh. Moses said, "My Lord, expand for me my chest and ease for me my task, and untie the knot from my tongue, that they may understand my speech." Subhanallah. So if you continue to look at the events around you in the way you're used to, without considering different perspectives, you will remain stuck. Unable to escape the swamp you're in.
The solution may be in a place that you didn't look for, didn't expect, or didn't even think it was possible. You know the term "Think outside of the box"? What was the secret of the prophets who faced with the world's greatest calamities? They were exposed to perhaps 100 times the news that devastated us. But they didn't fall into depression. As healthy individuals, they continued their mission of spreading the message, demonstrating an exemplary human model. The hurricanes of our world were no more than just a breeze to them. Even though we were exposed to the same pain as thousands of people, what makes a difference in how we feel the pain is our perspective and perception of events.
Point is how we position one sentence that enters our brain. Bad news enters our brain. How we position it. The secret perspective lies in a word that everyone may have heard countless times, but few have really understood. That word is submission. Yes, I identify myself as a Muslim, but have I really submitted to Allah? Submission? What does it mean? In short and clear terms, it is the servant's acceptance of all his Lord's doings with sincere approval. Accepting Allah's majestic and beautiful manifestations without objection. Wholeheartedly, spiritually and intellectually.
In Surah Baqarah, Verse number 156, Allah says, "Who, when disaster strikes them, say, 'Indeed we belong to Allah, and indeed to him we will return.'" So what is the secret? What happens when you submit so that insoluble difficulties are solved, impassable mountains are overcome, and the heavy burdens of the world cannot crush you? We can understand this better with a sentence by Bediuzzaman Said Nursi. He says, "An intelligent person is neither happy by what he gains from the affairs of the world, nor saddened by what he loses. For the world does not stand still. It moves on and man moves with it. You too are a traveler," he says. So we have a question.
Why shouldn't a person of intelligence be so happy about what he gains from worldly affairs? Answer. Because the world does not stand still, it moves on. The second question, why shouldn't a person of intelligence be too sad about what he loses in worldly affairs? The answer is, again, because the world does not stand still. It moves on. Like a person holding on to a piece of broken ship during a storm and surviving, problems and stress breaks a person's mind and heart. The waves are taller than you. You hold on to life with great fear. After a while, you open your eyes and find yourself on the shore. The storm is over. You're alive. The warm sun touches your skin.
You have found treasures on the island that will make your life easy forever. Similarly, in the midst of calamity, when your chest tightens during the storm, you wonder, what is happening? How will I escape? Will this trouble ever end as long as I live? You drive yourself crazy. Then the event passes. Years later, you look back. There is no trace of the stress. You can't understand this until years have passed over the uproar. Yes, it's hard to understand when you're in the storm. But when you look back years later, you see that enduring those hardships made you stronger. The trials you faced during those difficult times matured your spiritual character and made you a different person.
The waves that didn't break you made you stronger. Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, an Islamic scholar who was imprisoned for years. Once he said, "Whoever knows Allah and obeys Him is blissful even in prison. He who forgets Allah, even in palaces, he is in dungeon, miserable." In the very beginning, the key to all this is a strong faith. Iman. There are levels of Iman, from the atom to the Sun, and we are somewhere in between. The biggest difference between us and people who have established submission in this world? We are not on the same level of faith. Iman. So how can one become stronger in faith? Certainly there are many ways.
I'm going to talk about a method that I have experienced myself, and I also observed this in my environment. We can call this "Strong Current River Technique." Since the day you were born, you have been mentally changing and improving. The way you understand an event when you were ten years old and now is different. It will change again as you mature more. This change can be to the better or to the worse. So what changes you? The answer is things you are interacting with. If you change the three main factors that you interact with, you can make this change into better. There is no magic wand, but it is possible to change in a short time. First, friends.
You should choose the people with whom you interact. As a personal development observation, I have heard that a person is the average of the five people he spends the most time with. If the people you interact with are better than you in terms of taqwa, being a religious person, it makes your level of taqwa higher. In an environment where everyone gets up to go to Friday prayers, if you have even the slightest tendency to go, you're likely to overcome your laziness and join in. But contrary, if you are unwilling and no one else is going, you may not go.
In this approach, cleaning up your phone contacts, removing the unnecessary ones, getting closer to the religious friends and distancing yourself from those who lead you to the sin. You know those people. You know those friends. Friends that sent you haram links, drinks, alcohol, et cetera. This method will automatically transform you into a more righteous person. Second, the videos you watch. This could be a YouTube video or a movie. These videos can either strengthen your spiritual motivation and warm our hearts towards Islam, or they can leave us with a feeling of emptiness and make us forget why we are in this world.
Whenever you feel a weakness in your spiritual strength, immerse yourself in Islamic videos. Watch 20 or 30 of them in a row. Within 2 or 3 hours, you will notice that your motivation increases. Your eagerness to pray increases, and your prayers become emotional, not formal. Third, the books we read. We are colored and influenced by the books we read. And our color changes depending on their content. Be careful when you're choosing the books. Now imagine a river with a current so strong it's impossible for a person to swim from one side to the other side. Now imagine that this river flows to the Paradise and we put you in the middle of it. You can't swim both sides.
You can't swim to the right. You can't swim to the left. The current goes on. But at the end you end up in a beautiful place. Contrary, but in a river flowing to the hell. It would be equally difficult to swim to both sides, right? When we make these three choices correctly, I mean friends, books and videos, we put ourselves in the middle of the river, flowing in a beautiful place. However, in the first place you can decide which river you want to enter. Going through your phone contacts, distancing yourself from those who invite you to the evil is up to you. You can choose the river.
Filtering the channels you subscribe to, adding new and beautiful books to your library are all within your control. Throughout human history, many individuals have successfully passed the test of submission to Allah. However, one person among them faced two of the most difficult tests of submission. Prophet Ibrahim, also known as Abraham. Allah tested the Hero of Submission very heavily. Allah asked him to sacrifice his son. Without bargaining in his mind, Prophet Ibrahim took the knife. Obeying his Lord's commands, he put the knife on his son Ismail's neck. Prophet Ismail was also as submissive as his father, but the knife didn't cut.
Prophet Ibrahim firmly believed that "Allah would not command me anything that lacks wisdom. What He commands is truth." Of course, Allah wanted to test him with this command, and Prophet Ibrahim passed the test with complete submission. In another incident, Prophet Ibrahim was to be thrown into a fire by Nimrod. The fire was so intense that its flames reached to the skies. It was impossible to get near it. It was intended to throw with a mechanism like a catapult. Preparations were made. When Ibrahim was about to be thrown into the blazing flames, the angel Jibreel came to him and said, "O Ibrahim!
If you wish, I can destroy Nimrod and his army by making these mountains fall upon them." Prophet Ibrahim asked, "O Jibreel! Does Allah see me now?" "Yes." "Does Allah hear me now, O Jibreel?" "Does Allah know my condition now?" "Yes, Ibrahim, Allah knows you." Ibrahim (as) said, "Then I ask not for your help. I rely on Allah." And he prayed. What does it mean? "Allah is sufficient for me. and He is the best disposer of affairs." As a result of Ibrahim's submission, a miracle happened. Although he was thrown into a fire as huge as mountains, the fire became cool and safe for him. It did not harm him. Because Allah took him under His protection.
In both incidents we see the submission of Ibrahim (as). If Allah is pleased, it doesn't matter if the whole world is your enemy. It doesn't matter if no one loves you, if everyone hates you or rejects you. Pleasing people is difficult and it's exhausting. And even if you do please them, then what? They are mortal, they're powerless beings, just like you. What good can come to you from those who cannot save themselves from going under the ground? Umar ibn Khattab is quoted as saying, "Whether I like it or not, whatever state I find myself in the morning, it doesn't matter to me. Because I don't know if the good is in what I like or in what I don't like." There are mysteries you cannot see.
Events you cannot predict. Is there any other way but to trust in Allah, the one who knows both good and evil? In a tafseer, I read a sentence that is very simple but very meaningful to me. It says, "Allah cares for you more than you care for yourself." I have a Lord who cares for me more than I care for myself. Like a mother who interrupts her sleep to cover you at night. When a sharp object hurts your foot, tears come from her eyes. She worries the most when something happened to you. A mother would blindly face death for her child. Who created this compassion in your mother? Who gave such a beautiful gift of compassion to your life?
Remember who placed this great compassion in your heart, then think about this statement again. Allah cares for you more than you care for yourself. Now you understand why your mother is behaving like this. But the condition of human is strange. They give everything to those who do not appreciate them at all, but they do not find time to prostrate themselves before their Lord. Only Allah could give them infinity. Only He could value them eternally. You have time for everything, but no time for the one who creates time. People make friends who lead them to the haram paths. Friends that carry wood to their own hell. At the end of their lives, their hands remain empty.
They are no different from someone who sells a $100 million Picasso painting just for 50 bucks. Cheap sale, huh? In fact, their lives are full of such cheap sales. Which of us doesn't have such cheap shopping in our lives? We are all human beings. We fall, we rise, we laugh. After a while, we cry over what we laughed at. We do to Allah what we would never forgive if someone else did it to us. But no matter what you have done, your Lord has never left you. In Surah Duha, Allah says, "By the morning brightness, and the night when it covers darkness, your Lord has not taken leave of you, nor has He detested you." How can one not be moved by these words?
The same being who turns the universe with His power. He hears the whispers of the hearts, 8 billion people's hearts, in spite of all you have done, I have not left you. I am not displeased with you. I am with you. Surah Zumaar, Verse number 53. Allah says, "Say, 'O all my servants who have transgressed against themselves, do not despair of the mercy of Allah. Indeed, Allah forgives all sins. Indeed, it is He who is the forgiving, the merciful." This verse also touches me deeply. "And be not like those who forgot Allah, so He made them forget themselves." Wow. Forget myself. What does it mean? There is such a calamity as forgetting oneself. You have forgotten Allah and yourself.
You live but not as a servant of Allah. You live as a slave of your own desires. A slave who does whatever his nafs demands, Shaitan demands. Slave of Shaitan. Slave of nafs. In trying to amuse it, you're forgetting yourself. You're forgetting yourself and your consciousness. But Allah does not abandon you. Allah does not forget you, but you forget yourself. Forgetting yourself. Brothers, sisters. Last night many people closed their eyes to sleep and never opened them again. You could have been one of them, but you weren't. Allah has given you more time before it's too late for everything. Trust in Him and submit to Him sincerely.