“Don’t worship Allah so He may give you. Rather, worship Him so He may be pleased. For when He is pleased, He will astonish you with His Gifts.”
By the dawn
And the ten nights
And the even and the odd
O you tranquil soul!
Return to your Lord, well-pleased and pleasing
[al-Fajr: 1-3; 27-28]
Loftiness is attained in accordance to one’s struggles,
And whoever seeks nobility, remains vigilant by night.
Whoever wishes to achieve without due effort,
Will waste their life seeking what’s impossible.
You search for glory and yet you sleep at night,
It’s only the seeker of pearls who dives deep into the sea.
– Imam al-Shafi’i, al-Diwan
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Sujood of the Heart
It was said to one of the Salaf:
‘Does the heart prostrate?’
And he said: ‘Yes, by Allah. It prostrates such that it doesn’t lift its head until it meets Allah, `azza wa jall.’
Ibn al-Qayyim: ‘This points to the humbleness of the heart, its humility, repentance and closeness to Allah wherever it may be and it points to its constant regard (for Allah) in solitude and when with others.’
– ‘Asrar al-Salat’ by Ibn al-Qayyim
– This is one interesting statement. Let’s dig deep…
The first sajdah of the heart is when it submits to its Lord and recognises His Lordship, subsequently entering into a state of complete Islam and Istislam (submission and surrender). Thereafter the heart continues to prostrate and this causes the limbs to follow suit – bringing one to physically perform sujood day and night in prayers.
What is the case then of the one who has been commanded to bow, but their heart refuses to bow? They’ve been ordered with sujood, but their forehead never touches the ground in ‘Ibadah? Such is the case of those who abandon the prayer (tarik al-salah), how can their limbs perform such a bold act of submission when their heart has yet to reach its comanded state, how can they bow in sujood when their heart has yet to fulfil its own sujood?
What then is left of their Islam and Istislam?
