Exercises For A Happy Heart : Anse Tamara Gray
What is it that steals one’s faith? Faith is a matter of the heart and a matter of the mind. Where it exists, there is confidence, and yet with arrogance it disappears. Trials of this dunya can try one’s faith and too much ease in this dunya can do the same. We are influenced deeply by the people that we meet, spend time with, look up to and open up to. Sometimes it becomes necessary to close the door to those closest to us because their influence will drag us away.
The loss of faith begins with the secret that is harboured in the chest, a secret that opens the door to syaitan and lends an ear to all that will leave us destroyed. It is the secret that whispers “I’m not happy. I want to live the life that I want. My trials are unfairly given to me, why do I have to work so hard when others have it so easy, why is my marriage is unhappy when other people’s marriages are happy, why are my children’s sick other people’s children are healthy, why couldn’t I get married when everybody else did, why did I have to marry a creep when everyone else married someone nice, why did I have to have children to give me a hard time and everyone’s children are fine or perhaps I’m tired of feeling like an outsider and I just want to be normal”
The Prophet’s lifetime was not immune to the trials of loss of faith that was less prevalent and more dangerous since those who entered Islam had the privilege of actually knowing the prophet himself but there are such examples.
Habiba and her husband went Abyssinia to escape the abuse and harm of Quraish, to find relief from prosecution. Ubaidullah was Christian before the beginning Islam.” After a short while, Umm Habiba saw in her dream that her husband’s face had become black. After that, she spoke as follows:
“I said to myself, ‘I swear by Allah that he will change.’ In the morning, my husband said to me, ‘O Umm Habiba! I had studied the religions and found Christianity as the best religion before. However, I became a Muslim somehow. Now, I have become a Christian again.’ she said to him, ‘By Allah, there is no good in you.’ Then, she told him about the dream she had. He took no no heed and he turned to the drinking of wine and not long after that, died. She left her husband without any hesitation. She was alone with her daughter in a place so many kilometers away from her hometown now. She had very difficult days.
Habiba later on was married to the Prophet SAW.
So what was it that changed Habiba’s husbands faith? Was it the threat of persecution? Was it being a minority? Was it a challenge to ones pride? Otherwise sound of mind? We don’t know.
When you are faced with a person or with yourself who has lost or is losing her faith, take stock. Recognise that of all the trials available to humanity the one who is losing faith is suffering the most and the suffering is not over. Don’t react with arrogance but with humility.
People in oppressed countries such as Syria, Yemen or anywhere else, the people suffer from oppression, they don’t have food to eat, no place to live, their families get shot at. As much as I probably should have fought the fight against injustice, as much as all that is true of oppression when you’re oppressed, it all ends at the end of this life. But losing Faith means that you’re you have an internal deep misery that’s continuous from now until the hereafter. It never ends.
One of the exercises for a broken heart is tahajjud. The prayer for one who wants happiness. For more exercises for a happy heart, watch the video below: