By Khawlah bint Yahya
You start your life crying and others cry for you when your life ends.
Children cry when they hurt themselves, don’t get what they want, are scared, or even out of compassion. But does a child ever cry out of happiness? Only as adults do we cry from happiness or love.
There are even people who get paid to cry!
Why do we so easily cry when we are in fights with our spouses, when we fail at work, or when we are ill, but when we stand in prayer or listen to the Quran we have trouble squeezing out a tear? For some reason the Quran does not make us emotional.
Rediscover Your Emotions
Only something that’s important to you will make you emotional. That’s why some people are emotional each day about the situation of oppressed Muslims worldwide, while others aren’t because they don’t feel connected to the ummah.
This is also why the verses of the Quran do not make us as emotional as we should be, because our connection with Allah and His words is overshadowed by our connection to this world, its people, and its belongings.
For what reasons would the prophet weep?
“…Out of mercy for the dead, out of fear and compassion for his ummah, out of deep fear of Allah, upon listening to the Quran. And it was a weeping of longing, love and exaltation, accompanied by fear.” (Ibn al Qayyim, Zaad al Ma’aad)
It’s time to wake up our hearts to what gives us life!
Special Tears
If you would know what can save you from the blazing fire of Hell and bring you shade from the throne of Allah, wouldn’t you go for it?
The Prophet beautifully said:
If, through fear of Allah, tears–even to the extent of a fly’s head–fall from any believer’s eyes and drop on some part of his cheek, he will be kept away from Hell. And: by Allah and One who weeps out of fear of Allah, will not enter hell till milk returns back in the udder; and the dust raised on account of fighting in the path of Allah and the smoke of hell will never combine together. (At-Tirmidhi)
And he said about the seven types of people whom Allah will shade on the day of resurrection, when there is no shade but His:
… and a man remembered Allah while he is alone and his eyes overflowed with tears out of His fear (Al-Bukhari, Muslim)
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1. Listen to the Quran being recited beautifully
The Prophet said to ibn Mas’ud:
Recite the Quran to me.
I said: “O Messenger of Allah! Shall I recite the Quran to you, when it has been revealed to you?”
He replied: I love to hear it recited by others.
You must have heard this before. But this time, make wudu (you don’t have to but it’s a virtuous act), sit down and turn the recitation on so the sound fills your whole living room.
Close your eyes, try to clear your thoughts, say ‘a’oodhu billaahi minash-shaytaanir-rajeem – because Satan loves to discourage you listening to the Quran, let alone have you concentrate – and say bismillaahir-rahmaanir-raheem, as you do at the start of best deeds, and just let the sound enter your heart!
Imagine the hard layer around your heart slowly crumbling and falling off… Visualize a flow of life and strength going through your blood.
“Has the time not come for those who have believed that their hearts should become humbly submissive at the remembrance of Allah and what has come down of the truth?” (Quran, 57:16)
2. One-minute exercise each day:
Really think about your relationship with Allah.
Did you ever think about Allah’s care for you, how He keeps giving you what you want, again and again and again? You can’t be bothered to pray, but He lets you breathe.
And you find it too hard to wear hijab, but He gives you beautiful clothes to wear. You’re too tired to read His book, but He gives you time to check Facebook and Twitter.
Did you ever reflect on His strength and your weakness, your death and His eternal life?
Sit alone tonight and imagine for one minute the moment that you will stand before Him; what will you hear, what will you see, and what will you feel?
Look up and imagine Him watching you at that very moment and realize how much you miss being close to Him.
Salman al-Farisi said:
“Three things make me cry: parting from our beloved Muhammad and his Companions; the terror of the onset of the pangs of death and the standing in front of the Lord of the Worlds while not knowing whether I will be turned towards the Fire or Paradise.”
3. Turn daily life habits into moments of reflection
A container of water was brought to Al-Hassan to break his fast with, but when he brought it close to his mouth he began to weep and said:
“I remembered the wish of the inhabitants of the Fire in their saying: “Pour on us some water…”… and then I remembered the reply to them “Surely Allah has forbidden both (water and provision to the disbelievers)” (Quran, 7:50)”
4. Ask Allah
The Prophet said:
O people weep, for if you cannot weep then make yourself weep. Indeed the inhabitants of the hellfire will weep until their tears pour down their cheeks, as if they were streams until the tears are used up and then blood will pour down, and the eyes will be covered with ulcers. (Hasan in Sahih at-Targheeb wat-Tarheeb)
Ask Allah to help you be able to cry the blessed tears out of love and fear for Allah and take action by doing good deeds.
“And those who strive for Us— We will surely guide them to Our ways. And indeed, Allah is with the doers of good. “ (Quran, 29:69)
So if you strive to make your soul weep, Allah will give you success in achieving it!
5. Every time you cry for this world, remember Allah
Next time you cry when you have an argument with your spouse, think of the One who will make your spouse perfect in Paradise and teach yourself to start connecting your daily life emotions to Him. When you feel emotional watching a movie, think of the One who gave you eyes to watch it in the first place. Connect emotional situations back to Allah and His favors and your bond with Him will grow.
6. Cry when you make dua
Next time you ask Allah for something, do so with emotion. How would you cry for help if you were drowning? Would it be a monotone emotionless call? When you make dua, focus your whole body and mind on that request and strive to cry.
Umar said:
“If someone announces from the heavens that everybody will enter Paradise except for one person, I would fear that I would be that person”.
This strong man wept thinking about His Lord. Abu Bakr was known for his weeping. What about us?
Cry for Allah; it is never too late. May Allah ‘azza wajal make us able to cry out of love and fear for Him from the bottom of our hearts.
Ameen.
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Courtesy : Aboutislam.net
