Attending Yasmin Mogahed's talk in UM, Malaysia

On Sunday night I went to University Malaya, The Islamic Centre to listen to a talk by sis Yasmin Mogahed.

I've came across some of her talks on youtube around a year ago and was so intrigued by the things she said. The things she said are not new but it is the way she delivers the message that is so friendly, so easy for people to accept because she explains things in a way that make us think and also understand our nature as human beings.

So, when I found out that sis Yasmin was in Malaysia I couldn't miss this opportunity.

The talk was about the ocean of life...how not to drown in it. She gave the analogy of the heart as the boat. How the dunya is the ocean and that we should not allow the ocean to enter the boat as it will cause the boat to sink. Similarly, the dunya should not enter our hearts as it will only destroy us and we will sink in it. We can have the dunya but only hold it in our hand.

The sister reminded us that we live in this life as a traveler as the Prophet SAW says "Live in this world as if you are a traveller or a stranger". She gave a simple example, when we travel and we stay at a hotel for a few days, do we start to buy furniture, hang pictures on the wall, decorate the room? No one does that and the reason for it is because we know we will be leaving soon. Hence, to live in this world as a traveller is to have a mindset that this is not our permanent home. We will be leaving soon and we will not become too attached to this place.

She talks about how our hearts should only be filled with the love of Allah SWT and our attachment should only be for Allah SWT. This life is a journey and we are the travellers in this journey. The journey of this life is actually a journey to towards Allah SWT. He created us and he has put us in this world and the journey is actually our route back to Him. However, sis Yasmin made an important point, something for us to ponder. What part of us should travel along this journey. So many of us emphasize on our physical journey, which is the actions that we undertake with our physical self meaning for e.g. when we start to cover our awrah or pray 5 times a day. That in itself is part of the journey, to change our actions for the better. We pray, we fast, we go to talks, we may even do da'wah but as we focus on doing these actions (which are very important things to do) but what about our heart? Do our hearts follow our bodies within this journey?

As we engage in the physical activities which Allah SWT commanded us to do but do our hearts grow with it? Have we changed the inside of ourselves? Have we developed the qualities that Allah SWT loves? The journey of the heart is to remove the bad, ill feelings and to fill it with good feelings or characteristics e.g. forgiveness, patience, mercy, generosity and all other good things

Our physical aspect maybe doing the things we ought to do but in our hearts, do we forgive those who harm us? Do we judge others and think we are better than them? Do we get easily angry or offended? It is so important in this journey and in our quest to perform our obligations towards Allah SWT that we remember is it our hearts that is returning to Allah SWT (or you can call it our souls). The two things have to come together because the heart in itself without doing the actions is inadequate but to do the actions without purifying the heart is also futile.

In our attempt to cleanse our heart through mercy, forgiveness, patience and so on it is important to remember that this is purely for the sake of Allah SWT. Do not attempt to do anything good for the sake of the people. What I mean is we should not do anything just to please the people. The only One we should please is Allah SWT. If we please the people, we may become disappointed or feel rejected if our hard work becomes unappreciated. We will then start to feel resentful. On the other hand, if people appreciate our work, we will start to become dependent on their approval and our desire to please people will only lead us to become a door-mat which is not what Islam encourages us to be.

We should do good things and avoid bad things for the sake of Allah SWT alone and we should fill our hearts with good characteristics and throw away the bad characteristics only to be closer to Allah SWT.

Here I just want to bring up this issue of approval and I will give you my example of wearing himaar (tudung) and jilbab (jubah). I used to dress exactly the same way in the UK as I do now in Malaysia. I have not changed much (except there are prettier jilbabs sold here in Malaysia) but the difference is only in the perception of society.

In the UK, anyone seen or dressed as a Muslim woman is considered 'backwards'. I would walk into a room and immediately, the perception is 'she is oppressed' or 'she has no brains underneath that piece of cloth' or 'she can't speak English' or after Sept 11th incident, 'she must be a terrorist, she's hiding some kind of explosive device underneath all that material'. But you know what? I really didn't care what people thought of me. I knew I was different but I knew I was right. I was doing something that my Creator wanted me to do even if the whole world thinks I'm crazy. Once this stranger lady walking down the street even called me 'mad' for wearing hijaab during the summer. I guess she doesn't know how hot Malaysia is compared to summer in the UK and I still wear the hijaab. I did not need the approval of anyone and I did not need them to validate who I was.

Now, in Malaysia I'm still the same in my appearance and behavior. However, the perception is that someone who wears himaar (tudung) and jilbab (jubah) must be a pious person, have to talk a certain way, walk a certain way, act a certain way which exhibit some kind of piety. Well, that's not me at all. It seems harder when you are expected to be this kind of person like in a very cultural Malay sense but you are not, even though you do look the part.

So, what I'm saying is that it doesn't matter what the people think or their perception or expectations, you just have to focus on pleasing Allah SWT. The negative attitude of others is irrelevant when you are doing something that Islam expects from you. Your criteria for judgment is not what other people say or think but it is the Qur'an and Sunnah.

As for the heart, regardless of how things are and how people are...we have to continuously fill our hearts with good characteristics; purely for the sake of getting closer to Allah SWT and like sis Yasmin said, our heart should follow our actions on this journey. We shouldn't be doing the obligatory actions but the heart is missing....the heart is stagnant or that the heart is filled with evil and ill intentions. May Allah SWT protect our hearts from illness.