“I love y..” Picture by ~Alephunky of flickr.com

When two hearts are in love, being apart is hell for them. They just want to be together forever and never be apart from each other. Every moment is valuable. If it is possible, they want to live in a place where there’s no timeline whatsoever. They just want to freeze time and be together. If they have wings, they want to fly together to the skies.

This is the same with us and our sins. We surely LOVE doing our SINS. We are in love with our sins. At first, we will feel some guilt in our hearts but as time flies, when it is at its peak, we will feel nothing at all, no guilt at all. We are drowned in the sea of sins until we are able to ‘breathe’ in it. We are able to bear with it until we feel uncomfortable, unease a day without it.

Before I go on, I want you to imagine you doing your sins this very moment. Imagine, remember back, and feel that temptation of you doing your sins, how does it feel? Good right? And now when you are enjoying your sins, someone pours oil onto your body and lit up the fire. Your body is on FIRE! Your body is burning like hell! You are witnessing your hand burning with fire. The pains of fire eating up your skin slowly until your hands are left with only bones. It hurts right?

This is only the heat that exists on earth, what about the wrath of Al-Mighty Allah in Hell then?

So now, at this very moment your reading this, I dare you, let us leave our LOVE behind!

Leaving our LOVE behind: Patience is the key

Everyone wants to enter Jannah. But not everyone understands that entering Jannah is under terms and conditions. Many people want the easy way to enter Jannah without going through the hard way.  The easy way is a free ticket to Paradise and the hard way is binding under terms and conditions. But I assure you, even though the hard way is named “hard” as synonymous to “difficult”, don’t get influenced by the word “hard” because, as difficult it may appear, as long it may be, as devastating  it might feel,  this “difficult” way is actually the shortest route to Jannah.

We have to understand that the truth, to enter Jannah, only the chosen ones is qualified to enter. The ones who are not awarded a place in Jannah is definitely in Hell! The chosen ones are only those who are favored by Allah and own an incredible stock of good deeds.

So for you to enter Jannah, first, you have to leave your “love” behind, because it will become a Hijab (barrier) from light entering your heart like what ash-Shafie said:

I complained to Waki’ of my bad memory * So, he advised me to abandon sins;

And said: “Know that knowledge is a blessing *and the blessing of Allah is not accessible to the sinner.”[1]

…..and the key for you leaving your love behind is only through PATIENCE.

Allah has guaranteed in Surah Zumar (39) verse 10:

“Say: [Thus speaks God] You servants of Mine who believe! Fear your Lord! Those who do good in this world will have a good reward. Wide is God’s earth. Those who are patient in adversity will be given their reward in full, beyond reckoning.”

Let’s extract this verse:

[(1) Do good = Good rewards. (2) Patience: Reward in full beyond your dreams]

To be favored by Allah and have a great stock of good deeds, the formula is:

Good + Patience = Jannah ^_^

Well, saying “Be patient my friend” is too easy, but actually being patient is indisputably difficult. We can remain patient but when it is at a certain point, many people claim “Patience has its limit”; gives the meaning that when our patience is beyond our limit then we will burst into anger. Then there’s nothing left of our ‘patience’, only ‘anger’ is found.

If “Patience has its limit” is our philosophy, then how can we enter Jannah then? If that is our attitude in our life, Paradise is just a living myth then? If we still hold onto “Patience has its limit”, then we will never enter Paradise. Allah has never revealed to us about “Patience has its limit”, there’s only “Those who are patient in adversity will be given their reward in full, beyond reckoning”, so do you want HELL to be your final abode?

Patience?! Why Patience?

Patience, Why patience? You might ask me.

Let’s answer “why” with “what”.

What is patience? Sabr is an Arabic word which comes from the meaning to detain, refrain and stop. In the spiritual sense, patience means to stop ourselves from despairing and panicking, to stop our tongues from complaining and to stop our hands from striking our faces and tearing our clothes at times of grief and distress.[2]

“To stop our tongues from complaining” is one part of Sabr. Yes, many people do not like being ordered around just like that. They will feel like there are ‘slaves’ then. This is life then.

The reality of life is pretty much contradicted to the definition of Sabr itself. We Muslims are so easily broken down into anger even because of the slightest ‘friction’ among us. Not only that, wealth and health that we perceive as something ‘positive’ can make us leave our shell of Patience. The proof is we easily feel ‘arrogant’ and ‘proud’ with these possessions. This is all because of we forget that everything; from the heavens to the earth, everything comes from Allah to TEST our Patience. We always FAIL our TEST!

From the definition that is given by Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, generally speaking, we have to apply patience in three situations:

1. When a situation occurs, we must refrain ourselves from lamenting and mourning to other entities other than Allah.
2. We must detain ourselves in obeying Allah’s decree.
3. We must stop ourselves from going beyond entering the ‘Restricted Area’ of Allah.

It is normal for a person when one is in difficulty, the heart will start pointing fingers to other people, and the heart will feel unease and fragile towards bursting into anger. When people come to help the scene, even these ‘helpers’ who came will be the subject of anger.

Why is it so HARD to be patient? This is because being patient has never been their ‘way of life’. They are not used to being patient. Instead of letting anger and proud gain control of their body, they could just easily cool down and turn to Allah for them to complain and share to attain calmness of the heart:

“Verily in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find rest!” (Ar-Ra’du: 28)

It is GUARANTEED; for those who manage to submit themselves to Allah in times of suffering, Allah will help them. Allah has said in Surah an-Nahl: 110:

“But verily thy Lord― to those who leave their homes after trials and persecutions― and who thereafter strive and fight for the Faith and patiently persevere― thy Lord after all this is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.”

Turning to Allah has never been in vain.

Sabr in obeying Allah

Patience in abiding Allah? Some of you might think that I’m joking. Why should we be patient in following Allah’s order? Does any ‘tension’ exist that needs us to be patient?

As a joke you might feel, this is the truth that many of us have forgotten. If His law that is for the benefit of us humans breached without feeling any guilt, do you think there’s any guarantee for His restrictions not to be violated with a clean heart? Not at all, this may be a myth. For the Muslims who reject Allah’s rulings, the TRUTH is, these Humans have no PATIENCE in obeying Allah.

Yes, how many people in this world that does not perform the five prayers in a day? How many Muslims who do not preserve their aurah?  Isn’t these two what is enjoined by Allah? Why they do not want to abide? It is crystal clear that they lost their battle with the temptation of Nafs and the whisper from Devil because they are not PATIENT.

Can you imagine; how many people have lost their battle in obeying Allah? And how many more will fall? Let us ask ourselves, are we going to survive this test? This is because all the things forbidden by Allah are all attractive and fun, tempting and appealing, persuasive and alluring. All these SINS make us FEEL GOOD.

We know, they know by doing these SINS, we are throwing ourselves into HELL. We know, they also know that Allah’s wrath is waiting for us in HELL, and even by disobeying Allah; we will be hated by other people. But because these SINS make us FEEL GOOD, we do not care of Allah’s wrath or hated by people, that’s why we keep on becoming a SINNER.

Only a small number of people in this world who manage to stay firm in SABR and swim from drowning in the sea of SINS, and that small number, does that counts us in?

“O you who have believed, seek help through patience and prayer. Indeed, Allah is with the patient.”

Sabr in preventing yourself from HARAM

The biggest challenge for us to go over is avoiding ourselves in doing what is forbidden right in front of our eyes. To prevent this from happening, we need to have a firm shield protecting us. Many can stand hardships happened but many cannot stand the anger towards the people responsible for that hardship.

Only those who really believe in Allah have the strength to detain themselves from going out of the boundaries in whatever situation he is in. This is because he understands that all of this occurring is from Allah and Allah has a reason for planning this on him. A fate is a fate and never avoidable. Someone who holds a firm belief will never feel reluctant to follow Allah’s decree; enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong even when adversity abound.

Conclusion: Leaving our Love behind through Sabr

We can identify our level of Sabr from the types of Sabr given above. Verily, how strong our level of Sabr is actually reflects our level of Iman. Only Iman, that helps us defend from the sweetness of temptation.

Allah has said in the Quran Surah al-Ankabut verse 45:

“Recite what is sent of the Book by inspiration to thee, and establish regular Prayer: for Prayer restrains from shameful and unjust deeds; and remembrance of Allah is the greatest (thing in life) without doubt. And Allah knows the (deeds) that ye do.”

Allah says here the function of performing prayer is to restrain ourselves from doing shameful and unjust deeds. The implied meaning here is that, if we still have not leave our LOVE behind, then that means, we our Solah for all these years haven’t reached the level of “restrains from shameful and unjust deeds”. Our prayers are still not functioning as defenders of our soul yet.

Now let us take off our dirty clothes covered with SINS, go into the changing room and buy brand new clothes of Iman and Sabr.

See you guys in JANNAH! (Praying & Hoping ^_~)

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[1] ‘al-Jawab al-Kafi (p. 54)

[2] “Patience and Gratitude” by Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah pg. 7