Finding A Permanent Hand-Hold

Have you ever wondered, why sometimes people just makes you so upset? When they don't meet your expectations. Or when they fail you when you need them the most?

I have had countless of experiences like this. And in retrospect, it wasn't their fault. It was mine. But the fault never lied in my personality or the inability to mix around with people. It lied in the fact that I didn't put Allah in my heart. I allowed His creations instead to take place in my heart and let, sometimes even force, my soul to depend on them. And this is entirely wrong.

I'm currently reading this book and on the final section. 

Reclaim Your Heart by Yasmin Mogahed

And the book is as good, if not better, as they reviewed. Yasmin Mogahed is an incredible motivational speaker regarding Islam. And she mentions throughout the book to always put Allah in our hearts instead of something lesser. I have yet to fully grasp this in my daily life.

Last night, I got upset over something I shouldn't. I expect too much from the people around me and I let them control my emotions, when I should have known the source of any happiness is a strong relationship with God.

As Yasmin Mogahed puts it so beautifully:

We experience this emotional roller coaster because we can never find stability and lasting peace until our attachment and dependency is on what is stable and lasting. How can we hope to find constancy if what we hold on to is inconstant and perishing? 

As the Quran states:

".....whoever rejects evil and believes in God hath grasped the most trustworthy hand-hold that never breaks. And God hears and knows all things" - Quran {2:256}

I need this hand-hold. I need to always believe that everything happens for a reason, and that how people treat me is merely a test to bring me closer to Allah.

Of course, some days I fail at this. Some days I feel like I'm never getting anywhere. I see everyone around me making progress, or being happy and I wonder "When will that be me?" But as it has been explained in the book, everyone has ups and downs, lows and highs in their deen. And we must never allow Shaytan to trap us when we're in either of this states.

When you're high in deen, Shaytan makes you arrogant of your good deeds, and make you believe that you no longer need to do any more because Jannah has been promised for you. When the opposite happens, Shaytan makes you believe that you're not good enough for Jannah and will forever be condemned to Hell. He discourages you from getting closer to Allah and makes you even more depressed.

Now that I know of this 'tricks' I realise that no matter what state of deen I am, I shouldn't stop getting closer to my Creator, nor should I stop seeking His Mercy. 

And I still am working on this whenever I get upset with how people treat me. 

Looking back, with a sound and peaceful mind unlike last night's, I know that no one intentionally hurts you. No one that I know whom I consider a friend, wants to hurt me. So why should I assume that everyone's out to get me? 

I know now that everything is what it seems, only based on how we perceive it. 

As narrated by Muslim, the Prophet Muhammad SAW once said:

"Those who show no mercy to others will have no mercy shown to them by Allah"

 And to end this post, I'd like to share with you what Yasmin mentions in her book that hit me hard. It hit me right in the chest and put me in my place: a humble servant of Allah, nothing more.

The ability to readily forgive should be driven by an awareness of our own flaws and mistakes towards others. But most of all, our humility should be driven by the fact that we wrong Allah every single day of our lives, when we sin. Who are we compared to Allah? And yet, Allah, Master of the universe, forgives by day and by night. Who are we to withhold forgiveness? If we hope to be forgiven by Allah, how can we not forgive others?