You Are Not Alone!!

Do you sometimes feel your Imaan (faith) is getting weaker? Do you feel when you pray you cannot concentrate, you cannot have koushou? You don’t feel like praying or read Qur’an? You read Qur’an without concentration? Does this feeling really bother you and you are not sure what to do about it or how to snap out of it? And sometimes you find your imaan stronger, you pray with koushou and you enjoy reading the Qur’an with focus and understanding, you do dhikr and you are so motivated and happy when you do any form of worship.You are not alone!!! We all go through these ups and downs phases. There are many reasons to that and once we know them we can help ourselves stay in the higher phase of Imaan most of the time.When you feel your imaan is getting weaker make sure you do the following:

1. Go back with your memory and recall what have you been doing in the past few days, weeks? May be gossiped or watched too much T.V. and delayed your prayers or did not wake up to pray fajr or you are not giving sadaqa…etc.Every time you do something which Allah doesn’t approve of, your heart gets covered with a layer which thickens with time until it weakens your Iman.Allah SWT said in the Qura’: (Nay! But on their hearts is the Ran (covering of sins and evil deeds) which they used to earn).Find those reasons and start working on them.

2. Sit down peacefully and recall Allah’s blessings on you…..your health, your children, your education, your rizq, you being a Muslim, you being better than millions, you being in a safe home instead of the street, you being warm instead of cold, you being able to pay sadaqa, you not needing to beg others for rizq and many many blessings which Allah granted you and is granting you every single day. Imagine life without your loved ones, imagine life without your sight, imagine life with a serious disease, and imagine life without guidance and without Islam. This should help you appreciate and say Alhamdulilah and see the nea’mah of Allah on you which will help you focus more and worship with appreciation.

3. Sit down and picture your death, lay down on the floor and close your eyes and imagine them undressing you, moving you from one side to the other washing you and there is nothing you can do, you can’t even cover yourself and your awrah, they have to do that instead…. Completely helpless, the body you strived to cover all your life is being exposed.The dress you are wearing which was once yours is not yours anymore and those shoes used to be yours but not anymore and the beautiful handbag which you used to love carrying is no longer yours……nothing is yours any more…they say it was hers or his……you left all your belongings at home, your family are still with you but as soon as they put you in the grave you are alone… alone with just your deeds, just your sadaqa, just your prayer, just your thikr. You moved from the phase of Amal (work) and no hissab (Judgment) to the phase of hissab and no Amal.

4. Wake up at night just 40 min. to one hour before fajr, it is the time when Allah SWT comes to Sama’a dunia (the first heavens) and calls: anyone is looking for maghfirah and I forgive them, anyone needs anything and I grant them….wake up and pray and talk to him, tell him how you feel…tell him ya Allah my heart is becoming so hard…..my iman is going down. Do istighfaar at that time so Allah can lift those layers which are weakening, your iman and you will be registered in shaa Allah from those who do Qeyyamu Layl…. Just few minutes earlier than the time you always wake up and you get tons of ajr and maghfirah, how can you waste that time in sleeping?

5. Search the net (YouTube is full of beautiful lectures from different Sheikhs) or find a book and read about Islam or Imaan or anything that will help you scrap those hard layers from your heart. Don’t just sit and feel bad about it, strive to better yourself and Allah will always open a door for you. Imaan is like a mizan (scale) it increases and decreases based on our daily deeds. It’s a constant battle but if you follow these techniques you will always be the winner In-sha'-Allah. Don’t listen to the shaitan when he comes to you and tells you: you have been bad, how can you dare ask Allah for anything, you have no right to do so….!!! That is his way to keep you away from dua and from Allah. He plays with you the game of guilt so you stop talking to Allah SWT and you stay away under the reason of guilt. Don’t give him a chance. Go back to Allah and ask him for tawfiq (success). May Allah guide us and keep us on the path of Imaan until we die Ameen.