I
spent my life running after the creation. I have always been what you
might call ‘needy’. I needed friends, I needed people. All the time. And
I couldn’t handle letdowns.
But at the heart of what makes us run after the creation,
is simply love. The need to give and receive love. This need has been
put in us by the Creator. And every need created by God, has been
created for a purpose. The need to give and receive love was created as a
driver. A driver that pushes us back to God. You see, we began with
God, and God wants us to come back to Him in this life—even before we
come back to Him in the next. So He puts inside us, drivers intended to
bring us back. Intended to bring us back Home.
But our problem is we get lost along the way.
We can’t deny the drive; but we get lost because we seek to
fulfill it in the wrong way. We look to fulfill that need in the wrong
place. The driver was created by God to take us to Him. But instead,
that driver takes us towards the creation. And that’s where we get lost.
Why do we run after other people? Why do we run after
money? Why do we run after status, or power? We run after these things
because we want love and respect. And we believe that by attaining these
things, we will succeed at getting both love and respect.
But there is a fascinating formula that governs this world.
And it is very, very simple. Unfortunately, we almost always get this
formula wrong. Yes, we all have that same driver inside us, but the
human being is hasty. We prefer the immediate over the delayed, the seen
over the unseen, the physical over the spiritual. We run first to what
we can see and feel and touch. We run first to what we *think* is
closer. We do this because while the human being is needy and dependent,
the human being is also impatient and weak. We go for what seems
closest, easiest, quickest.
So we go towards the creation.
See, we think that the more we run after this world
(dunya)–the more we run after the love of people, and wealth and beauty
and status–the more we will have of it. We think that the more intensely
we want something, the more likely we are to get it. And when we don’t
get it, we become angry—so angry—at God Himself. As though the
*intensity* of my wanting, somehow makes me entitled to having.
But the more we drown in this false equation, the more we
fail at reaching our goal, and the more we miss the true–but
simple–equation of love and life. That equation is clear: The more
intensely we want the creation itself, the less likely we are to attain
it. If it is love you need, and you seek it from the creation, you will
never *truly* get it. Or get enough. Anything of the creation sought for
its own sake will evade you.
And will never fill you.
Even happiness itself: The more you run after it, the more
it evades you. But if you run to God instead, happiness will run after
you. If you run to God instead, the love of people will run after you.
If you run to God instead, success will run after you. True success in
this life, and the next. If you run to God instead, provision will run
after you. This, brothers and sisters, is the secret formula for which
tyrants have burned down cities, and kings have searched the world—but
never found.
This is the secret. The only formula you need to know.
In a profound hadith (Prophetic teaching), a man came to
the Prophet (pbuh) and said: “ O Messenger of God, direct me to an act,
which if I do, God will love me and people will love me.” He said:
“Detach yourself from the world, and God will love you. Detach yourself
from what is with the people, and the people will love you.” [Ibn
Majah]
Ironically, the less we chase after the approval and love
of the people, the more we gain it. The less needy we are of others, the
more people are drawn to us and seek our company. This hadith teaches
us a profound Truth. Only by breaking out of the orbit of the creation,
can we succeed with both God—and people.
To run to God is a movement of the heart. To run to God is
to strive with everything He has given you. Running to God is movement.
If you are passive, you are not moving. You are falling. Movement to
God, running to God, is to face your heart towards Him in every motion
of life. It is to face every goal, every intention, every End towards
Him. He becomes the object of your striving. The means of your striving.
The ultimate End of your striving. But you keep striving. You keep
working to be the best mother you can. The best father. The best
neighbor, the best student, daughter, son, employee.
This is the legacy of all our Prophets, peace be upon them
all. Their bodies were in dunya. Striving. The Prophet (pbuh) was the
best leader, the best father, the best husband, the best friend. His
body was working hard in dunya. For a while. But his heart was always
with Allah. His heart was already in Akhira (Hereafter), even while his
body was still here—for a time. His heart was already Home. His heart
saw through the illusions of this life. His limbs worked hard. So hard.
He bled, and cried, and strived. His body stood until his feet cracked.
His body was abused in Ta’if. His body lost sleep, and felt hunger, and
thirst, and fever, and pain. And loss.
But his heart faced only Allah.
And with Allah there is no hunger, thirst, pain, or loss.
His body had to strive in different directions; he was a father, a
leader, a friend, a husband. But while his body had to strive in all
those places, his heart faced only One. Only one direction.
His heart faced only God.
As Ibrahim (AS) said so beautifully:
His heart faced only God.
As Ibrahim (AS) said so beautifully:
“Indeed, I have turned my face toward He who created the
heavens and the earth, inclining toward truth, and I am not of those who
associate others with Allah.” (6:79)
Ibrahim (AS) focused the face of his heart only on Allah.
Completely. Haneefan. Completely. You will find that to only partially
face your heart to God is to suffer. And that suffering is in proportion
to the degree of partial submission.
Allah tells us in the Quran:
“O you who have believed, enter into submission completely
[whole-heartedly] and do not follow the footsteps of Satan. Indeed, he
is to you a clear enemy.” (2:208)
There is pain in just partial submission. There is a pain
in not entering into peace and security—the *only* peace and
security—completely. With one’s *whole* heart. There is pain in half a
sajdah (prostration). There is a pain in putting your heart (even
partially) in anyone else’s hands. And that pain continues until you
turn your entire heart *only* in one direction. Until you turn your
entire heart *only* towards Him. He becomes the only true aim of your
striving.
As we say at least 17 times every single day: “You alone do
we worship and You alone do we seek for help.” (1:5). Allah is the only
true End, and the only true means to that End. No one gets to Allah
without Allah. La hawla wa la quwat illa billah: “There is no change and
no strength, except by God.”
The one who turns his heart completely to God in this way,
reaches true freedom. And that person can no longer be harmed by the
creation. The fire couldn’t burn Prophet Ibrahim (AS). The ‘fires’ of
the creation cannot harm the one who’s heart faces only God. The
financial, physical, emotional, social, and psychological fires cannot
harm the one who’s heart is *only* with God. Externally, the person
might look harmed, but in Reality, such a person is never harmed. The
haqiqah of the situation is not harm, but good, as we know from the
words of our beloved Prophet (pbuh):
“Strange is the case of a believer, there is good for him
in everything—and this is only for the believer. If a blessing reaches
him, he is grateful to God, which is good for him, and if an adversity
reaches him, he is patient which is good for him.” [Muslim]
And this is *only* for the believer. This is only for the
one who’s heart is turned completely and *only* in one direction.
Remember, Allah says:
“O you who have believed, enter into Islam [submission and
peacefulness] completely [whole-heartedly] and do not follow the
footsteps of Satan. Indeed, he is to you a clear enemy.” (2:208)
Enter into peace and security completely. Complete security
is only for those who enter *completely*. But remember the heart is not
a still entity. The heart is by definition that which turns (hence the
Arabic word for heart ‘qalb’ comes from the root which means ‘to turn’).
The heart by definition is that which turns. So our object in life is
to keep bringing the heart back to focus, back to center, back to God.
And we consistently seek God’s help, as the Prophet (pbuh) used to
supplicate most of all: “Oh turner of hearts, set our hearts firm on
Your deen (way).”
This constant reorientation is tawbah. Return. Again and
again and again. Until we meet Him. Only the one who gives up this
fight, fails. Only the one who—due to complacency or despair—gives up
the fight of constantly bringing the heart back to focus, fails in this
life and the next.
We all want love. From God, and from the creation. We are
all running towards something. Ironically, the more we run after the
creation, the more the creation runs away from us! As soon as we stop
running after the creation, and reorient, as soon as we start running
towards God, the creation runs after us. It’s a simple, simple formula:
Run towards the creation, you lose God and the creation. Run towards God, you gain God *and* the creation.
Allah is Al Wadud (The Source of Love). Therefore, love
comes from God—not people. As one author, Charles F. Haanel, put it: “To
acquire love… fill yourself up with it until you become a magnet.”
When you fill yourself with the Source of love (Al Wadud),
you become a magnet for love. Allah teaches us this in the beautiful
hadith Qudsi:
“If Allah has loved a servant [of His], He calls Gabriel
(on whom be peace) and says: ‘I love So-and-so, therefore love
him.’” He (the Prophet pbuh) said: “So Gabriel loves him. Then he
(Gabriel) calls out in heaven, saying: ‘Allah loves So-and-so, therefore
love him.’ And the inhabitants of heaven love him.” He (the Prophet
pbuh) said: “Then acceptance is established for him on earth. (Muslim
Bukhari, Malik, ; Tirmidhi)
We’re all running. But so few of us are running in the
right direction. We have the same goal. But to get there, we need to
stop. And examine if we are running towards the Source–or just a
reflection.
( http://www.yasminmogahed.com)
