My thoughts and heart stimulated by Yasmin Mogahed's "Reclaim your heart"

As soon as I read the first page of Yasmin Mogahed's book "Reclaim your heart", I felt the light switch turned on inside my head. They say, a good book is one that creates thought in your mind that leads to other stimulating thoughts.


Sis Yasmin, your words touched not only my thoughts but my heart. If I wasn't in a busy café sipping on my bubbly tea (teh tarik) whilst reading your book, I would have simply burst into buckets of tears as I totally felt your words playing every single feeling that I had contained within me.


The first chapter on "Why do people have to leave each other?". A question that has been playing in my mind for a while. It is true what the book says...."the pain is a pointer to our attachments. That which makes us cry, that which causes us the most pain is where our FALSE ATTACHMENTS lie. and it is those things which we are attached to as we should only be attached to Allah which become barriers on our path to God."


I think about the real life stories of people I know whom have lost their loved ones through betrayal, separation or death. A young mom losing her beloved husband from cancer, a devoted loving wife betrayed by her cheating husband, a trusting person abandoned by a friend. The question in our minds is always "How could you do this to me?", "How could you leave me?", "How could you betray me?".


Yet, the answer is simple and putting accountability and responsibility placed upon each soul aside, the answer is our meeting and separation is in the hands of Allah SWT. When you left me...it was not your decision, it was not in your hands and you couldn't have stayed if you wanted to...neither could you have left if you wanted to. Allah decided our brief meeting and He took us away from one another. I have known it for a while but only now am I ready to understand.


He also takes those whom we love away for a reason...and the reason is always a good one as Yasmin says in her book "If we live in this world with our hearts, it breaks us. That's why this dunya hurts, it is because the definition of dunya (this life)  as something temporary and imperfect, goes against everything we are made to yearn for. Allah put a yearning in us that can only be fulfilled by what is eternal and perfect."


Only Allah SWT is eternal and perfect.


Everything else is weak, fragile, temporary and totally filled with imperfections like the book says, we are leaning against a twig which will definitely snap. When we start to depend on the things or people or places in this world...we are leaning against a twig that can never support our weight. Hence, when Allah SWT takes away the thing that we love so much; it is a blessing because He is reminding us NOT to become attach to this world. He is reminding us that it is in Him that we should be leaning against. He is reminding us NEVER to put anything above our LOVE for Him and that includes everything....even our parents, children, spouses, wealth, properties, positions etc...etc...


Most of us know this but when it comes to our hearts, our inclinations are often the hardest to tow the line.


Sometimes I believe, to experience false attachments and to be broken hearted is necessary in order for us to find the true source of attachment. If we never became lost...we would never appreciate finding the right way. Losing something we love from this world...teaches us to detach from it and to seek something greater and everlasting. It teaches us humility and to realize that we are weak; and strength comes only when we depend on Allah SWT.


Never regret any meeting even if it is a brief one because from each encounter, we learn something and from every hurt and pain, we emerge stronger and a better person insyaAllah.