Wednesday, March 09, 2005

The Pleasure of Imaan

I begin in the name of Allah, The Most Gracious, The Most Merciful.

Have we ever questioned ourselves as to why we have to constantly force ourselves to carry out good deeds, transforming it into a daunting task. Why do we make it sound like an uphill struggle and feel as though the only reason we are doing the deed is because it is compulsory?

Dearest readers, the answer to this lies in the very fact that we have ceased to experience joy in serving our Merciful Lord, we no longer feel delight and our hearts no longer ache to carry out good deeds. (For example: praying salaats, reciting the Quran, doing dhikr etc)

Therefore, I intend to present to you two specific ways through which we can attain this yearning and satisfaction in our Imaan. Through this, not only will our hearts desire and turn towards doing good doings, but we will also experience true pleasure in carrying out these deeds.

The first way is through dhikrullah which is the rememberance of the Almighty. This may be considered as a very easy task, wherein we are merely busying our tounges with the remembrance of our Lord, yet the results are immense.

The second way is through constant remembrance of Death. Such an act will immediately wipe out any love for this world.

(Inshallah I shall talk about these two aspects in greater depth later on)

However, we must remember that as we adopt these two practices into our lives, simultaneously, we must prevent ourselves from sinning. And when we do sin, we should immediately resort to repentance. Inshallah, this simple procedure will create a close bond between the Almighty and ourselves, resulting in utter satisfaction in this world, and the hereafter Inshallah.

I end with a supplication: Oh Allah (swt) we beg you to shower your infinite mercy upon us and instill in us great satisfaction upon doing good deeds. Oh Allah, wipe out the love for this world from our hearts and forgive our past transgressions. Ameen.