Poverty of the Soul

Transcript of the Khatira delivered by Dr. Munawar Haque on Sept 10, 2016

Brothers and sisters! The function of the soul or the spiritual heart is to know its Creator, to love Him and to seek closeness to Him. If the heart fails in this function then we must know that it is sick. When the heart gets sick, it loses its desire and ability to do right and good deeds. This affects one’s morals, manners and general behavior.

The human heart is like a boat in the ocean of the world. The boat keeps sailing and drowns only if it allows the ocean’s water to enter into it. Similarly the heart that allows this world to enter into it gets drowned in the ocean of the world. It gets owned by this life, and the heart that is owned by this life is a prisoner of the worst kind. The heart that is owned by any other master, than the Master of masters, is the weakest of all slaves.

As human beings we enslave ourselves to different things and love them as we should love Allah. If asked, who do you love most; most of us will say we love Allah most. We say this with our tongues. We say this in our minds. But our hearts and our actions say otherwise. How do we know? Let us ask ourselves. When we are sad, depressed, and in low spirits, where do we seek refuge? When we need something, who do we ask? Who do we think about most? If the answer to each of these questions is Allah, then you are to be congratulated. If the answer is anything other than Allah, then some serious soul-searching is required.  

What type of poverty are we most afraid of? The truth is we are most afraid of the loss of things we love most. When we love money most, that’s what we are afraid to lose. We are afraid to lose the person whom we love most. We leave the orbit of the Creator and enter the orbit of the creation. In the orbit of the creation, we rise and fall with the wave of the creation—the wave of praise and criticism. Our standards for success and failure come from the creation, from the society. The standard for richness, the standard for poverty comes from the society. But the standard given to us by Allah’s messenger (SAW) is different. A hadith tells us, “Richness is not the quantity of possessions that one has; rather true richness is the richness of one’s self (or contentment).” And we know that contentment is something directly related to the heart or soul.

But how do we avoid true poverty of the soul? No one likes to fall. And no one likes to drown. But in struggling through the ocean of this life, it’s very difficult not to let the world get inside us. Sometimes the ocean does get inside us. The dunya does seep into our hearts. And like the water that breaks the boat, when dunya enters, it shatters our heart. It shatters the boat and we sink down to the depth of the sea, and are surrounded by darkness.

The good news is that this dark place is not the end. We should remember that the darkness of night is followed by the light of dawn. Sometimes, the ocean floor is only a stop in the journey. And it is when we are at this lowest point, that we are faced with a choice. We can stay there at the bottom, until we drown. Or we can gather pearls and swim up to the surface, stronger and richer.

Brothers and sisters! If we seek Allah, He will raise us up, and replace the darkness of the ocean, with the light of His Guidance. He can transform what was once our greatest weakness into our greatest strength, and a means of growth, purification and salvation. It should be known that transformation sometimes begins with a fall. We have to rise up and begin to see our nothingness and His greatness; we have to become more humble and more aware of our need for Him. Fortunate are those who see this reality, and the one who is truly deceived is the one who sees his own self—but not Him.

Deprived is the one who has never witnessed his own desperate need for Allah. Relying heavily on his own means, he forgets that his means, his very soul, and everything else in existence are Allah’s creation. We have to seek Allah to lift us up from our fall, for when He does that, He will rebuild our ship. The heart that we thought was forever damaged will be mended. What was shattered will be whole again. Since it is only Allah who can do this, let us seek Him. And when He saves us, we should beg forgiveness for the fall, feel guilty and shameful over it—but not lose hope. Allah reminds us in the Quran never to lose hope.

قُلْ يَا عِبَادِيَ الَّذِينَ أَسْرَفُوا عَلَى أَنْفُسِهِمْ لا تَقْنَطُوا مِنْ رَحْمَةِ اللَّهِ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَغْفِرُ الذُّنُوبَ جَمِيعًا إِنَّهُ هُوَ الْغَفُورُ الرَّحِيمُ

“Say: ‘O my Servants who have transgressed against their souls! Despair not of the Mercy of Allah. For Allah forgives all sins: for He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.’” (39:53).

Brothers and sisters! There is a powerful and amazing thing about repentance (tawbah). We are told that it is a polish for the heart. If we come back to Allah, seek His forgiveness, and are mindful of Him, our hearts in sha Allah will begin to shine. Sometimes falling and rising again gives us wisdom and humility that we may never have had otherwise.

How do we fill our hearts with the true richness? How do we escape the poverty of our hearts? To do so, we must be overflowing in our love for Allah.

وَالَّذِينَ آَمَنُوا أَشَدُّ حُبًّا لِلَّهِ

“Those who believe love Allah most” (al-Baqarah, 2:165).

Our strongest love should be for Allah. But we can’t love someone we don’t know. We need to know Him. We don’t know someone we never speak to. We have to speak to Him. We have to ask of Him.

وَقَالَ رَبُّكُمُ ادْعُونِي أَسْتَجِبْ لَكُمْ

“Your Lord says, ´Call on Me and I will answer you” (Ghafir, 40:60).

We can’t love someone we don’t remember. We have to remember Him; remember Him often. Allah says,

فَاذْكُرُونِي أَذْكُرْكُمْ

“So remember Me; I will remember you.” (al-Baqarah, 2:152).

We don’t love someone if we are ungrateful to him. Allah says,

وَاشْكُرُوا لِي وَلَا تَكْفُرُونِ

“Be thankful to Me and do not be ungrateful” (al-Baqarah, 2:152).

Brothers and sisters, no one has to confess his or her sins to anyone except Allah. Any one of us who has entered the ocean of dunya, who has sunk into its depths, has to rise up to the real world; to our freedom, and back to life. The polish of tawbah remakes the heart even more beautiful than it was before it got soiled.

Some of us may foolishly think that we can live our lives the way we like, and then at the time of death, we will just say la ilaha illallah. But at the time of death, the tongue cannot speak—except what the heart commands. Whatever is in the heart will come out. The bankrupt heart will have nothing but love of dunya to speak of on that day. If our heart is empty of Allah during our life, how can it be full of Allah during our death? If our heart is full of love of this life, love of status, love of wealth, love of the creation over the Creator, it is that which will come on our tongue when we die.

Let me conclude by saying that if one’s heart truly throbs with la ilaha illallah and one lives with the firm belief that in reality, there is no refuge, no shelter, no deity worthy of worship but Allah, then and only then will the tongue be given permission at the time of our departure to say, la ilaha illallah, Muhammadur rasulullah. May Allah make us among those good souls.

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