Opening Our Hearts to Islam

[Acacia]

 

The following is a summarized transcription of Shaykh Husain Abdul Sattar's November 11, 2001 talk on Opening Our Hearts to Islam.

GOAL: that we develop a maddening love for the deen. 

 

Transliteration: 
Waqaloo quloobuna ghulfun ballaAAanahumu Allahu bikufrihim faqaleelan mayu/minoon 

Translation (Pickthall): 
And they say: Our hearts are hardened. Nay, but Allah hath cursed them for their unbelief. Little is that which they believe. 
(2:88) 

A few words that contain very deep meanings. 
In this verse, Allah Ta’aala is narrating 3 words that the Bani Israel used to say at the time of the Prophet : 

1. Waqaloo – and they used to say 
2. quloobuna – our hearts 
3. ghulfun – are veiled 

 

Background of the verse: 
The reason they used to say this was because they were proud that the “curse” of Islam had not entered upon their hearts – this is what the Bani Israel of Medina used to say. 

When the Prophet  came to Medina, the way people used to change their lives in his presence and the way they used to submit themselves to him and to his teachings and to, ultimately, Allah Ta’aala, was almost disease like or maddening for outside observers. 

Peoples lives changed radically and very quickly after interacting with Rasulullah . They would literally go from someone who had no purpose in life and no direction, to someone who was now focused on Allah Ta’aala and had a mad love for Rasulullah . Rather than sleeping all night, they would be awake all night in prayer. 

If you look at some of the statements of the unbelievers about the Prophet , they would say “this is a magician.” They used to call the Prophet  a magician because it was as if he was doing magic on people. He  would take these people that had no purpose in life and he would make them so devoted to his cause that they would not look at anything else in the world. They would leave everything that was “important” to them before Islam and completely submit to this new way of life. 

Such was the aura of Medina: that people would come in the presence of the Prophet , they would take the shahadah and their lives would literally flip overnight. They would begin praying, they would go to the masjid 5 time a day, they would begin to live their lives according to the shariah, they would begin to walk like the Prophet , they would begin to eat like the Prophet , they would begin to learn to use the washroom like the Prophet  was teaching them to use the washroom. Their whole lives would completely change as if some magical thing had entranced them and so this is why the kuffar used to call the Prophet  a magician and this is exactly what the Bani Israel are referring to in this particular ayah. 

What they said: “Our hearts are veiled.” 
What they meant: "look how strong our faith is in Judaism that our hearts are so veiled that this madness that has taken over Medina is not afflicting us at all, in the least bit, it has not affected us.” 

Allah Ta’aala replies to them: 

ballaAAanahumu Allahu bikufrihim

• Its not that their hearts are veiled. Instead, the fact is that Allah Ta’aala has cursed them because of their disbelief (kufr). 

 

faqaleelan mayu/minoon

• And how little is it that they truly believe. 
• Meaning, it isn’t the belief that saved their hearts, its actually the kufr that was in their hearts that has kept them from the beauty of Islam, from submitting themselves completely and from being entranced by this magic and it was a true magic because it was Allah Ta’aala changing people’s hearts. 

 

Reflecting on the verse: 
This ayah shows us what the true essence of this deen was at the time of the Prophet  - it used to change people’s lives. Even thereafter for centuries and centuries - when people used to come into this deen, they used to come into it completely. They used to be magically entranced and their lives would completely change. 
 

 

Goal: that we develop a maddening love for the deen, that’s something that’s lacking. 

• The excitement with which we pursue other things in our lives unfortunately is much greater than the excitement with which we pursue this deen. 
• The energy, effort, time, money, thinking, imagining, dreaming and planning that we put into our lives in this world is unfortunately often much, much greater than what we do for our deen. 
• How many hours do we think about what degree we’re going to attain? How many hours do we prepare for the exams that we have to take? How many hours do we spend discussing with one another what degrees they have and what jobs they hope to get in the future and what jobs we hope to get. How many hours do we lie in bed imagining 20 years from now I’ll be in this position and I’ll be earning this much and I’ll be able to purchase this? How much time is spent with our families discussing when we’ll be able to purchase the different things of this world? 
• Compare that, add all that up and put it on a scale, and compare it to the amount of time that we put into our deen. 
• This deen should have a magical effect on us. 

When people truly submit themselves, they fall in love with the Qur’an – they can’t put it down. 

When people truly submit, they fall in love with the masjid – they can’t leave it; and, when they leave it they are like a fish out of water (it cannot stand to live without the water, it needs to be put back in the water – the mumin is the same way). The mumin should be so attached to the masjid that when you take them out of the masjid they just feel very uncomfortable and they are rushing and wondering when will they get back into the masjid. 

These are all the characteristics, when you look into the lives of the sahaba, that entered into their lives: 

• A deep love for Allah Ta’aala; 
• A deep love for His messenger ; and 
• A deep love to sacrifice for both of these things.

 

That is what the magic of this deen was! 

Subsequent generations after that experienced it and that’s why you have countries converting, you have thousands of people converting at times. You have 1400 years of us sitting here today and being able to reflect on the greatness of this deen. 

How many other movements are there in the world that have lasted 1400 years (to their asl)? Meaning, communism came and went, and different ideas and ideologies have come and gone, even the different religions have come but they have been so altered – yet this deen for 1400 years Allah Ta’aala has kept it preserved and it was because of t of the words of Allah Ta’aala and the sunnah of the Messenger . 

Du’aa (taken from the talk): 
May Allah Ta’aala give us the tawfeeq that our hearts don’t become sealed to this deen – we don’t want to be in the category of people who are not affected by it because the people who are not affected by it seriously have a disease in their heart. May Allah Ta’aala give us the tawfeeq that we develop our heart, we soften it, and we are able to experience this deen the way it is supposed to be experienced – that magic, that tingle that goes down your spine is the tingle you should have for this deen. May Allah Ta’aala give us the tawfeeq that our hearts become soft so that we can begin to taste it. Ameen.