MY LIFE PROJECT – MY WORTH 3 29 May 2014
MY LIFE PROJECT - MY WORTH The “MY LIFE PROJECT” encompasses five things we need to reach Allah!!
1. My mirror
2. Paradise in my heart
3. Thorns on my path
4. 20/20 vision
5. My worth
In our Life Project journey we have talked about the self, paradise in the heart, the fitna, the
vision etc. but there is something important in this journey beyond all these and this is our
value. I know myself, I have the paradise, peace within my heart, I know the thorns in my
way and I have a clear vision but I need to know...
What is my value, my worth?
Ma keemati? keemati fi kalbihi!!!
The value of the human being lies with the heart. With our hearts we can Know Allah, we can be
closer to Allah; the heart is the one which will be acceptable or not, that is our deeds will be
accepted or not accepted based on what we have in the heart. It is the place of obedience!!!
True Value
The important questions are: How will I be standing in front of Allah? What is my value in front of
Allah? People struggle to have worth in front of people but this actually has no worth; we need to
strive and struggle to have worth in front of Allah. This is the true worth; Allah will look at our
hearts!!! It all depends on the heart.
MY LIFE PROJECT – MY WORTH 3 29 May 2014
The amount of light in your heart will be reflected on the outside as the beauty or the ugliness. Thus
The Heart is the core.
The bigger picture
Now we look at the bigger picture, The whole world...
Salah hi alami wa fasadi - The reforming and corruption (mischief) of the whole world is based on
what?
It is Bihasadi harakati al insaan fii hayati -According to the actions and movements of this human
being in this life. If the actions(outside) and movements of the majority of insaan-people are
towards good then the world will be good and peaceful; but if the majority of insaan are corrupt,
doing bad and are mischievous, then it will affect the whole world and it will be corrupt. The whole
world is based on the movement of insaan in this life. The movement will affect the peace of the
world.
I'd hua kalb al alam - the movement of this human being is actually kalb al aalamin - the heart of the
world.
Why?
This is because the movement of the people will affect the goodness, harmony and peace of this
world. This is why the movement is the heart al Amin. Recall that for one person, the king is the
heart. Your actions outside in this world are according to your heart. The heart is the core because it
is responsible for the reforming outside. Where is the heart of the whole world?
The action of the human being is the heart of the whole world. The heart of the world will be the
actions and movements of the humans in the world. There are so many human beings and what are
their actions? Moments whether they are praying, helping the poor or having a war, disturbing the
peace etc.
MY LIFE PROJECT – MY WORTH 3 29 May 2014
Salah biidni al Insaan wa fasadi - The movement/actions (outside) of one person, that is, their
heart will reflect on the world. The reforming and goodness will be
Kalam aali swalah al kalb wa fasad -Based on the goodness or the badness of the heart.
The good and bad things in the heart...
Then we look at: Kaimun aali swalah al kalb wa fasad - the good things or the bad things in the
heart. There are so many people in the whole world. If the actions are good, the world will be
good and vice versa.
What will make the actions of the people good?
It is based on the heart. So if we want to make the world good, harmonious etc, we need to
focus on the hearts of people. This is the core. The heart is the main thing. If the hearts are
good, it will be good for the whole world.
What makes the heart so important?
Al Insaan ida arafa kalbahu - if the Insaan
knows his heart (the creation, challenges,
all the things going with the heart
etc).What are the effects then? Knowing the heart...
Fakad uruf nafsihi - he will know himself.
Remember our mirror? We cannot know
/understand ourselves without knowing
the heart. The heart is the core.
If we understand all the things about
ourselves, such as I am a jealous person, a
good person, bad person etc. then He will know his Rabb...
Wa Ida arafa nafsihi aarafi rabihi - then he
will know his Rabb!!!
If we don't know our characteristics we
cannot know Allah. When we know ourselves, we will see ourselves full of faults and
imperfections, then we will not be full of ourselves, we will not think we are something, we will
MY LIFE PROJECT – MY WORTH 3 29 May 2014
not follow ourselves. There will be a space in our heart; we will want to follow someone perfect
. We will need someone who is perfect, someone who we need to be full off. We will be full of
Allah.
When you know your heart you will know yourself, and when you know yourself you will know
Allah. Allah is everywhere. Even if we close our eyes, we can see the signs of the Allah, but what
still makes people blind to Allah? If you don't know your heart, then you will be blind of the
signs of Allah. The Quran is full of the signs of Allah; but people become blind because they are
full of themselves. If you know your heart, you will know yourself and janati fi sadri - you will
live in paradise and you will know and recognize Allah.
The more we know ourselves from our hearts the more we will know Allah.
And the opposite...
Al Insaan Ida jahala kalbi - if the human
being is ignorant and unaware of the heart,
Jahala nafsihi - he will not know himself
Wa Ida jahal nafsihi jahal rabbi - and if he
does not know himself, does not know his
reality; he will not know Allah subhana
watallah.
The goodness of the whole world is the
hearts of all the people. Thus if we know our
hearts, we will know ourselves and will keep
ourselves within the boundary because we
know Allah subhana watallah.
Not knowing our heart...
Wa maan jaala kalbahu wa nafsahu -If a person does not know his heart and he does not know
himself, he will not know how to deal with people, how to deal with his parents, his siblings,
friends, children etc. He will not know how to live with people; he will be the most ignorant
MY LIFE PROJECT – MY WORTH 3 29 May 2014
even if he is the most educated person because he does not know the most important thing - his
heart. When he does not know himself, how can he know and understand the other side, other
people?
Fa hua ajhal bigairihige - he will be the most ignorant about something else.
Allah subhana watallah says in the Quran in Surah Anam 122
“Is he who was dead (without Faith by ignorance and disbelief) and We gave him life (by
knowledge and Faith) and set for him a light (of Belief) whereby he can walk amongst men, like
him who is in the darkness (of disbelief, polytheism and hypocrisy) from which he can never
come out? Thus it is made fair-seeming to the disbelievers that which they used to do.”
Someone who is ignorant about Allah will live in darkness. The moment you know your heart,
know yourself, you will know Allah and will be able to deal with people. That is why our value
and worth is in our heart.
Most of the people...
Wa aktharul naas jaahalun bikilubihim wa anfasahum wa rabihim- most of the people are
ignorant/unaware about their hearts, about themselves and about their Lord.
The reason for corruption, destruction, problems etc. that we see are because people don't
know Allah, they have not considered the importance of knowing their hearts and knowing
Allah, of attaching to Allah subhana watallah. We really need only Allah and to attach to Him
subhana watallah only.
Wa kad hiila bainahum wa bainal anfasahum -Between them and between themselves there is
a gap. They will not be able to control themselves, they can't stop themselves – It is as if they
are being controlled. That is why we see people stealing, killing, talking bad etc. There is a
detachment between the person’s self and his heart.
Allah subhana watallah says in Surah Anfal Ayat 24:
MY LIFE PROJECT – MY WORTH 3 29 May 2014
A very important value of our heart is:
Our heart can control our actions and when we can control our actions this reforms the whole
world!!! In Surah Anfal ayat 24, Allah subhana watallah talks about the people who don’t have a
power over themselves, as if there is a driver driving them. Why is Shaitaan able to drive
people? It is because they have a gap between their hearts.
Why is there a gap?
A person has a barrier between himself and his heart. What creates this barrier? We can find the
reason for this gap in this strong ayat: Allah subhana watallah is addressing the believers
Ya Ayuhal ladina aminu – Oh you who believe! Allah wants them to have the faith.
MY LIFE PROJECT – MY WORTH 3 29 May 2014
Katab lil mu’minin – Speech to the faithful; this is an encouragement from Allah. What is the
command from Allah subhana watallah here?
Istajibu – Answer, respond, and obey. Actually the command here is that, if you are a believer you
have to respond to the call of
Lil lAllahi - Allah
Wa lil Rasool – and the Prophet sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam We have to believe the kala
Allah – the ayats are the call of Allah subhana watallah and that the kala Rasool - hadiths
are the call of Nabi sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, and we need to respond and obey by our
actions. It means we don’t ignore these.
How will we respond?
Al mubadara al musaara ilaa twatihim – We need to be hasty in obedience and hasty in abstaining
from anything they have forbidden. And then as an encouragement: This call from Allah & the
Prophet sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam to us is:
Giving us life
Ida daakum lima yuhyikum – giving us life. We are getting the life of the heart when we respond to
Allah and the Nabi sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam . The life of the heart is with the obedience to Allah
and the Prophet sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam . A person is dead, i.e., the heart is dead by
disobedience to Allah and the Prophet sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam .
Hayat ul kalb
Hayati kalb hiya taati Allah wa Rasool – The life of the heart is by showing obedience to Allah and
the Prophet sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam . This is a warning for us that the life of the heart is with
obedience to Allah and the Prophet sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam .
MY LIFE PROJECT – MY WORTH 3 29 May 2014
Wa aelmu anallah yahulul bayinal mari wa kalbihi –Allah comes in between a person and his heart.
The person cannot control his heart because he is not thinking of the life of the heart; his heart is
dead. This is why we cannot ignore the call of Allah & the Prophet sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam but
we need to hasten towards the call. We cannot delay because today our hearts are thinking, our
heart is responding to the call of Allah & the Prophet sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam ; but we don’t
know what will be the state of our hearts tomorrow.
Allah comes between
It means the person will not have control, which is why Allah is telling us ‘JUST RESPOND’. How does
this happen. This comes between’ means the persons heart changes Initially we have thoughts and
plans to pray, do good etc. but we don’t react, we don’t respond and this becomes a barrier in our
hearts. We should be scared that if we don’t respond we will not have control of our hearts.
Wa aalamu anallahu yahul baina mari wa kalbi – Do not reject the commands of Allah when they
first come to you. This is a very strong ayat warning us not to reject the commands of Allah the first
time because we don’t know what will happen tomorrow. When we reject the commands, there will
be a barrier and the heart will change.
Allah taala yakalbi kulub – Allah is the changer of hearts. Allah changes the heart and drives it to
somewhere else. He comes between the person and his heart, and there is a barrier. May Allah
subhana watallah protect us from this ameen. It is not that Allah subhana watallah is being unjust or
doing this randomly. It is because the person himself is not responding in the beginning.
Thus when we know this ayat we will know the importance of the heart and responding to Allah.
When our hearts respond, the whole world will be reformed.
MY LIFE PROJECT – MY WORTH 3 29 May 2014
Reflect:
The heart is so important. When I know my heart, it will reform me and the whole society. It
will reform the whole world. If I don’t know my heart, I will not be able to control my heart.
Allah will change the heart and drive it to somewhere else. This is because the person is not
responding to, and not answering the call of Allah and the Prophet sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa
sallam . By responding, our hearts get life. This is why we need to always pray this dua to
Allah, The Changer of the hearts.
كَ ن َي َدَ َىَ ل َعَ َيَ ب َل َق ََتَ ب َث ََبَ وَ لَ القَ َبَ ل َقَ مَ َايَ
“Yaa Muqallib Al-Quloob Thabbit Qalbee Alaa Deenik
‘Um Salamah, may Allah be pleased with her, said, ‘The Prophet sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam used to
repeatedly say this supplication, “O Controller of the hearts! Make my heart steadfast upon Your
religion” so I asked him, ‘O Prophet of Allah! Do hearts fluctuate?’ He said, “Yes, all mankind’s
hearts are between two of the fingers of Allah. If Allah wills He maintains a man’s steadfastness,
and if He wills He deviates him” (Ahmad & Tirmidhi).
The goodness of the world is based on the hearts of the people in the world. Any good
deeds are a blessing from Allah because they are a response to Him subhana watallah.