Pinata...
Button, button, who has the button?
And of course the tea party with the Barbie cake.
I have started listening to and taking notes on The Purification of the Heart 17-cd set of lectures by sidi Sheikh Hamza Yusuf. In this series Sheikh Hamza is translating into English and teaching from the text written by a Mauritanian Sheikh who wrote it originally in Arabic.
The suffering of the world is spoken of in term of wars, starvation, hatred, competition, and the struggle of the survival of the fittest. Yet all the suffering of the world originates in the human heart. Every crime committed, every act of oppression, every callous cruelty, and every injustice to the self or others emanates from the hearts of men.The soundest of hearts was the heart of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) who, through his purity and singularity of intention, transformed the world. His teaching remains and the challenge is for each of us to take it and to transform our hearts with it, thereby, transforming the very world in which we live.
Islam has clearly defined that there are several diseases of the heart, which make the human being shrink further and further away from God (ie in a state of sinfulness, whereas being without sin makes the human being closer to God). Things like envy, fear of poverty, using religion as a means for increasing your worldly position, seeking praise from anyone or anything other than God, and miserlyness ...to name just a few.
I have been told by many muslims that depression is not an endogenous physiological "disease" over which the person afflicted by it has no control and the only hope for them would be to take medication; Rather, many folks have stated that depression is a spiritual disease, and that the cure is to get closer to God, delve deeper into Spirituality, and therein one will find the remedy.
I thought all of that was hogwash until I came across this series of Sheikh Hamza's, mashallah!
What is really really helping me, and Sheikh Hamza said it's medicine, and now I believe him, is reciting the
surah Ikhlas ("Purity"- which is said to be equal to one-third of the Quran!) from the Quran three times, three times a day;
Bismillah irahman iraheem;
Qul hol wal aho ahad
Allah hu samad
Lam yaleed wa lam yoolad
Wa lam yakool ahu kufu wan ahad.
Translation
In the name of God, Most Gracious, Ever Merciful.
Say, He is God, the One; God, the Independent and Besought of all.
He begets not, nor is He begotten.
And there is none like unto Him.
as well as the dua' Istikar (please forgive me if I have pronounced any of this Arabic wrong, my intentions are good! As far as I can tell this is the name Hamza Yusuf gave to this dua', however I can't find it online-) three times, three times a day.
Allahumma inni ma'udu bikka
wa 'ana ba'lamu
wa astafiruka min kulli ma la 'alamu. Ameen.
Translation; Oh God I seek refuge in you that I should make shirk (partners)
with you and I am aware of it, and I ask forgiveness for any (shirk that I make)
that I'm not aware of. Amen.
Jezakallah kharian, Sheikh Hamza, and may Allah the Most Gracious the Most Merciful bless you.
