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Acts of Worship

Episode 3: Don't Let Our Hearts Swerve | Conversing with God

September 16, 2020Dr. Omar Husain

Once we find the Straight Path, staying upon it becomes a priority. And so we ask, “Oh Allah, do not let our hearts swerve [off the Straight Path] after you have guided us.” If we are continuously in a state of mercy towards others and vigilance towards ourselves, we may stay firmly upon the path and find God’s mercy everywhere. 

رَبَّنَا لَا تُزِغْ قُلُوبَنَا بَعْدَ إِذْ هَدَيْتَنَا وَهَبْ لَنَا مِن لَّدُنكَ رَحْمَةً إِنَّكَ أَنتَ الْوَهَّاب

rabbanā lā tuzigh qulūbanā baʿda idh hadaytanā wahab lanā min ladunka raḥmatan innaka anta l-wahāb

“Oh Allah, do not let our hearts swerve [off the Straight Path] after you have guided us. And gift us Your mercy; verily, You are the One who gives the most gifts.” [3:8]

Transcript

This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings.
How do we prevent spiritual heart attacks? Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la says in this next du'a, Rabbana la tuzi-ul-qulubana ba'da idh hadaytana wahab lana min ladunka rahma innaka anta alwahab We're saying, Oh Allah, do not let our hearts swerve off the straight path. After you have guided us and gift us your mercy, verily you are the one who gives the most gifts. So let's break this du'a down. We're asking Allah not to let our hearts swerve. You know, the heart, these root letters, and this is not to get into complicated discussions on language, but the language is powerful in the Qur'an. These root letters used in qalb refer to something which can be unstable. So when we are asking Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la to not let our heart swerve, it's because it's something which naturally becomes unstable. If you put the most righteous person in a bad environment, it's gonna affect their heart. However, if you put someone maybe not living the best of lives in an environment of goodness, then that will also affect their hearts. And that's why it's so crucial for us to never give up on anyone and say, oh, they are a lost cause. In fact, one of the reasons we're making this du'a is so that it does not make us become arrogant. One of the scholars beautifully said one time that never look down on someone because Allah may forgive them of their ignorance, but he may not forgive you of your arrogance. So why else would we ask Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la to keep our heart firm after he has guided us to avoid that arrogance? The Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam taught Umm Salama the du'a, Ya muqalliba al-qulub, thabbit qalbi ala deenik.
Oh changer of hearts, keep my heart firm on the religion. Keep it from going astray. Now we can go astray in many ways. One way is to completely lose our iman. May Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la protect us. But we can also go astray by having that iman, having that conviction, that belief, but then we kind of get off the path. So we start doing things not in accordance with the sunnah of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. We start introducing things which are not part of the religion. And so that all is part of our heart becoming deviated. So we're asking Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la do not let our hearts become deviated. Ibn Mas'ud used to have what we'll call Ibn Mas'ud's heart check. How do we keep the heart fresh and keep it from becoming deviated? He said the one thing we can do, one of three things. One is to listen to the Quran. Yes, of course, reading is important, studying it is important, but just take the time to listen. Just soak it in. It is more sweet than any tunes you're gonna hear anywhere else. Just take the time to listen for a few minutes. Just the power of listening to it, change the hearts for those around the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. The second thing he said was to be in gatherings of knowledge. Why? Because Allah says, Fa'alam annahu la ilaha illallah Know that there is no God but Allah. How are we gonna know there's no God but Allah if we don't learn about him? Or we're not constantly learning about his characteristics or about his religion or about his messenger SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. So we wanna spend time in whatever medium we can to learn because then this helps to boost our heart and our iman and gives us a more solid baseline so when difficulties come, we don't swerve all over the place. And the third thing he mentioned
was for us to take advantage of our free or our time alone. So when we are in this isolation, because we reflect in ways we don't when we're busy, we reflect in ways we don't when we constantly have things to do or are bombarded by this or that, taking advantage of time in isolation. As this dua continues, we're asking Allah to Wahab lana min ladhunka rahma Now, when we're asking Allah, we're not just asking Allah to give us a gift, we're asking him to give us a gift without any conditions. You know, a lot of times when we get gifts, there's conditions attached. Or even subconsciously like, well, oh, this person gave me this for my graduation or wedding, so when I give them their gift, when it comes their graduation or wedding, I have to give them at least that much or it won't look good, right? There's some conditions attached. With Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, no conditions attached. We're asking Allah, grant us your mercy with no conditions attached. And that mercy is manifest in many ways. It is manifest in living a life with serenity and peace and calmness. It is also manifest by Allah showering his mercy upon us in our ultimate departure from this world, when it's time for questioning in the grave. Because if I ask you, what are the questions that are gonna be asked in the grave right now? We can all answer, a third grader could answer. Who is your Lord? What is your religion? And what do you think about this Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam? Will we be able to answer those questions in the grave? Only, only will we be able to answer those questions if we lived a life pleasing to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. And so that's why we're asking his mercy to allow us to live that life and answer these questions. Innaka antal wahab, verily Allah, you are the one who continues to provide gifts
with nothing expected in return.
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