Dunya

I was reading one of my favourite books the other day by Yasmin Mogahed when I stumbled across a very interesting metaphor. What is the purpose of a ship on a body of water? The actual purpose is to get from said point A to said point B- no matter what kind of boat is in question. Be it a yacht or a poor man's boat, the purpose of it is to sail. She then went on to say what happens if water enters that ship? Not just a little bit of water but what if the ship is overwhelmed with water? The ship will drown- be it a yacht or a poor man's boat- overwhelming amounts of water will cause it to sink and subsequently the people inside will drown. If you think about this concept in parallel to the human heart (the ship) and the water (the dunya) you'll realise it's the same principal. The purpose of this world is for us to get to our final destination - our hereafter, that doesn't mean we can't get there on a yacht nor does that mean that a poor man's boat won't get there. However, if we allow the world and worldly things to get deeply inside our hearts then we have surely created our own downfall. It seems everyone has a void in their hearts innately because before we were born- we had infinite love from our Creator and we were residing with him, when we were born and got placed in the dunya that infinite and perfect love was ripped away from us leaving a cavity in our hearts. In the dunya we will try and fill that cavity with all sorts of things, wealth, careers, beauty and even other people. Nothing will ever satisfy the void, no amounts of money, beauty, wealth, success or even relationships will fill that space because it was never meant to be filled with something that imperfect- that void can only be filled by Allah SWT. I always thought the love of dunya never really applied to me as I don't hold material things dear to my heart but the love of dunya does apply to me as I think I put too much gravity on relationships and on other people. However, if you place all your weight on an imperfect creation what else do you expect except imperfection?

You'll know what you've placed in your heart if you just picture the thing you dread losing the most- the thing that if you lost you would feel like your life would fall apart and you could not go on. That is the thing that rules you. That is the water in your ship. We need to replace that with the love of Allah- granted it is more easily said than done but if we manage to achieve this know that we will never be let down because then the love of Allah is what rules us and surely that will not be our downfall. That's not to say do not enjoy your lives, enjoy your material things, enjoy your wealth, enjoy your success and your relationships but do not give them the power to control you.

“Amazing is the affair of the believer, verily all of his affair is good and this is not for no one except the believer. If something of good/happiness befalls him he is grateful and that is good for him. If something of harm befalls him he is patient and that is good for him” (Saheeh Muslim #2999)