Nafsiya Reflections: Just a Hallway

Welcome to another episode of Nafsiya Reflections - Just a Hallway

Today everywhere we look it seems the world is in competition. Competition in possessing the most luxurious home, the faster-newer car, the highest paying job, the most well-behaved kids, the fittest body, the better looking masjid, it’s gotten to the point where we judge others and ourselves, on our “likes”, views or “hearts”. We’ve grown up in a world where the very definition of success is measured by how much one can attain of worldly possessions. A shallow Dunya... a world of appearances. Or as Allah SWT calls it, a world of delusion. Living in this kind of environment, it becomes easy to get sucked into an aimless, empty way of life. One can become envious.

Social Media becomes the perfect platform or portal for envy. See, we are looking at picture-perfect lives. A Photoshop-ed, filtered life. We see pictures of the “Ideal” couple or of that “perfect home”. And then let the games begin! The game of comparison starts. (dum dum dum sound effect?) Some of us don’t even know we are feeling this way, for it’s happening subconsciously. “My house never looks that good”, “my spouse would never do that”, “I can’t even get my kids to eat snacks in the kitchen, to let alone pose without making faces in a professional photo” or we may think something along the lines of “I bet you, she doesn’t even eat” or “He’s probably on steroids” or “I bet you they aren’t even really happy”, as if that is going to make our lives feel better in some way. Pointing out flaws, reassuring ourselves that they must not be living such great lives, and that it’s just a show. The prophet peace be upon him said,

" أَلاَ وَإِنَّ فِي الْجَسَدِ مُضْغَةً إِذَا صَلَحَتْ صَلَحَ الْجَسَدُ كُلُّهُ، وَإِذَا فَسَدَتْ فَسَدَ الْجَسَدُ كُلُّهُ‏.‏ أَلاَ وَهِيَ الْقَلْبُ "

...There is a piece of flesh in the body if it becomes good (reformed) the whole body becomes good but if it gets spoilt the whole body gets spoilt and that is the heart. [Bukhari]

Envy... see, the doors of self-destruction become wide open now. We become angry or depressed thinking they have everything we want. As if they ate our piece of the pie. AstaghfirAllah. It happens. It can happen to all of us.

You see, as soon as we let this Dunya into our hearts, our whole world begins to fall apart. We become ungrateful, selfish, unhappy with what Allah SWT has given us. And don’t you see that today? Feeling low and negative in disapproval in what one possesses. A life of dissatisfaction, always looking over the other fence or the other account. We can all fall into that with low Emaan. For Allah says,

(وَإِن تَعُدُّوا نِعْمَتَ اللَّـهِ لَا تُحْصُوهَا ۗ إِنَّ الْإِنسَانَ لَظَلُومٌ كَفَّارٌ)

And if you should count the favor of Allah, you could not enumerate them. Indeed, mankind is [generally] most unjust and ungrateful. [14:34]

This is the time, we must wake ourselves up! We must realize that this dunya is getting the better of us! Is destroying us! It’s tearing us apart from the inside out! See our lives become what we focus on. If we focus on what we don’t have, that’s all we are going to see. And I get it, sometimes it’s really hard not to, for we may not be living the life we want or I hate saying this word... but expect. We don’t get in life what we expect, not most of the time at least, we get what we deserve. And that’s a blessing! Allah gives us what we need! To focus, to re-evaluate our priorities or to build us into becoming someone He will be proud of on the day of judgment, in the Akhirah. That moment we stand in front of Allah SWT. He is moving us forward towards what is better for us.

Creating within us the person He wants to see, in sha’ Allah. The person He SWT will be pleased with. But once this Dunya takes hold of our hearts, we are no longer walking on the “sirat al mustaqeem”, the straight path. Allah wants to protect us from this. Telling us time and time again that this Dunya is not worth it.

(وَمَا الْحَيَاةُ الدُّنْيَا إِلَّا مَتَاعُ الْغُرُورِ)

And what is the life of this world except the enjoyment of delusion. [Ali Imraan: 185]

If our hearts are not guarded, Dunya and the whispers of shaytan are going to seep their way through. Breaking down weak barriers. And in the end breaking us. Sadly, in this Dunya and the next. The ideas we have are amplified due to the capitalist societies we live in. Some of us do not have what others have due to inherent weaknesses of the system that leads to ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’. The same system also pushes the incorrect basis for satisfying one's instincts and telling us we always need the ‘next best thing’.

So how do we fix this? How can one fix a corrupt heart, if we start to see we may be falling into the trap?

We need a mind shift. We are looking at this dunya the wrong way. We are giving it too much of our attention. For our goal is Akhirah, the hereafter. The ridaa, pleasure of Allah SWT. See, when our perspective on dunya changes our heart, body and mind are protected. We must re-evaluate who we have become. What are our aims in this dunya? And it doesn’t mean that we should forget about everything we want, for Allah didn’t create this beautiful earth for us to just watch others live it. For we as believers are the ones that know what true contentment is. Allah gave us clear understandings and clear solutions for the problems we will face and for every desire and instinct we may feel.

We have forgotten this.

The capitalist system’s ideology takes us away from Allah and Islam. It brings us closer and closer to acting without thinking, to turn off our minds, to live our lives through desires and instincts. The Islamic System alone regulates our relationships correctly...It will only be under the rule of Islam, when we have the Khilafah upon the methodology of the Prophethood that we will be taught to think about our life's aim, our relationship with Allah and with others correctly.

We will not see stark differences of what people have and do not have, but ultimately we will view the life of this world as limited and temporary as we should.

(للَّـهُ يَبْسُطُ الرِّزْقَ لِمَن يَشَاءُ وَيَقْدِرُ ۚ وَفَرِحُوا بِالْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا وَمَا الْحَيَاةُ الدُّنْيَا فِي الْآخِرَةِ إِلَّا مَتَاعٌ)

Allah extends provision for whom He wills and restricts [it]. And they rejoice in the worldly life, while the worldly life is not, compared to the Hereafter, except [brief] enjoyment. [Al-Ankabut: 26]

See we are walking through a hallway. This dunya is a hallway... it’s just a hallway.

Jazak Allahu Khayran

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