Where is Your Heart

Where is Your Heart?

Opening and Greeting

الحمد لله رب العالمين وصلى الله على سيدنا محمد وعلى آله وصحبه وسلم تسليمًا كثيرًا

Ramadan Mubarak. May Allah give us the blessing of this beautiful Ramadan. The Prophet ﷺ was somebody who reminded us constantly of the importance of Ramadan and this was a time when the Prophet ﷺ, they said that he would tighten his loin cloth. In other words, it was a time of hard work and endeavor even though all of his life was hard work and endeavor.

The Prophetic Tradition of Fasting

Islam is in a long line of prophetic tradition. The Prophet ﷺ also said:

"You can tell the stories and quote the people of the previous dispensation, the Jews, without any blame." (Sahih Bukhari 3461)

I want to quote a passage from Isaiah because the Qur'an says:

"O you who believe, fasting has been prescribed for you just as it was prescribed for those who preceded you, so that you may attain taqwa."

The Jews, the Christians and all the other dispensations that came before had fasting as a spiritual practice. So I want to quote from Isaiah about fasting in 58 verses 6 and 7. Isaiah says, "Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house? When you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourselves from your own kin."

The Purpose of Fasting: Solidarity with the Hungry

This passage which is reiterated in our own tradition, when the Prophet ﷺ said that on the Day of Judgment, God would say to people, "I was hungry and you didn't feed me." And the people would say, "How could we feed you? You're the Lord of the world." And Allah says, "Didn't you know that My servant, so and so, was hungry? And had you gone and fed him, you would have found Me with him." (Sahih Muslim 2569)

This is one of the central aspects of fasting, is to show a solidarity with the less fortunate, with people that are hungry. There are people all over the world that literally do not have food to fill their bellies. And fasting is a time when we are reminded of the pangs of hunger. That these are real things that, unlike us who are fasting, this is a voluntary hunger. In other words, we are personally choosing to fast, to give up food and to experience that. But there are many millions of people around the world and even in the United States of America, that this is not something that's voluntary. It's something they experience every day because they don't have enough food. And so it's an important time to remember to bring the homeless into your house. That doesn't mean that you have to literally bring them in, but at least go out and take care of the people that are out there that are in need.

A Time of Transformation and Reassessment

One of the things that we're witnessing right now is a collapse of Western capitalism. We're seeing a collapse of the economic system. This economic system is based on greed. It's based on the idea that every man for himself and it's falling apart. This is a time of immense transformation and Ramadan is a time of transformation. It's a time when we can actually reassess our lives, re-prioritize, looking at the important things in our life.

And one of the most important things is what are we doing here? The Qur'an asks all of us a question, where then are you going? And this is a question that we all have to ask ourselves. Where are we going as individuals? Where are we going as families? Where are we going as a society? Our society in the United States of America, and this is where I reside, this is where we have a large Muslim community, our society right now is in a crisis. But a lot of the crisis is a direct result of misguided priorities, of people that put everything in to themselves and forgot about the others.

The Consequences of Forgetting God

When you begin to give up self-interest and think of the common weal, God will take care of your self-interest. But when you focus on your self-interest and forget the common weal, God will cause you to even forget your own self-interest.

"They forgot God, so God caused them to forget themselves."

In other words, their priorities were all wrong. When God is at the center of your priority in life, you are at the center of Allah's providential care. But when you displace God and put substitutes for God in place of God, then you fall out of the centrality of His providential care.

And this is why Allah promises:

إن تَنصُرُوا اللَّهَ يَنصُرْكُمْ

"If you help God, God will help you." (Quran 47:7)

Being Helpers of God

إِذْ قَالَ عِيسَى ابْنُ مَرْيَمَ لِلْحَوَارِيِّينَ مَنْ أَنصَارِي إِلَى اللَّهِ ۖ قَالَ الْحَوَارِيُّونَ نَحْنُ أَنصَارُ اللَّهِ

"When Jesus, son of Mary, said to the disciples: Who are my helpers for God? And the disciples said, We are the helpers of God." (Quran 61:14)

فَآمَنَت طَّائِفَةٌ مِّن بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ

"So a group of the Bani Israel believed in what Jesus was saying." (Quran 61:14)

But the word that they used مَنْ أَنصَارِي "Who are my helpers?" To God, to doing the work of God. People ask, skeptical people, atheists, people that have forgotten about God, they ask the question, where is God? How can God allow all of this suffering in the world? But the real question is not where is God, it's where are the helpers of God? Where are the people of God? Where are the people that have the resources, that have the willpower, that have the experience and the ability to transform the world? And to be literally ansar, to be helpers for God. That's the question.

It's not where is God? God is there, God has always been there, God has never been absent. But the question is, where are we? Because just as people can say, where is God? God has every right to ask, where are you? And that's really what this month is about. It's about asking, where is your heart?

The Central Question: Where is Your Heart?

Where is your heart? Is your heart with God? Is your heart with your own ego? Is your heart with your lust? With your passion? With your greed? With your pride? With your envy? Is it with your resentment? Is it with your desire for revenge? Where is your heart? That's the question this month is asking us.

Where is your heart? And this time that we've been given, a few days of reflection, this is a time when you can actually go into yourself and dig into yourself and ask that question, where is your heart? Because, like Sayyidina Ali said, a man lies hidden under his tongue. A man lies hidden under his tongue because the tongue expresses what's in the heart.

مَنْ أَحَبَّ شَيْئًا أَكْثَرَ مِن ذِكْرِهِ

"Whoever loves a thing does much remembrance of it."

If you love Allah, God is on your tongue. If you love the world, the world is on your tongue. That's the question, where is your heart? This is a time to return to God, to give the heart back to the one who possesses the heart.

Returning the Heart to Allah

God is the possessor of the heart. The hearts are between the hands of the Rahman. Allah has placed the hearts in His providential care. So we need to give our hearts to Allah and to restore the centrality of God in our lives. That's the blessing of Ramadan. These are few days that pass quickly.

Take advantage of it. My advice to myself and to all of you, take advantage of these days. They're beautiful days, they're incredible days. They're days of longing, they're days of yearning, they're days of night vigil, they're days of Quranic recitation. This is the time to get close to God. God is nearer to us than our jugular vein. Allah is nearer to us than our jugular vein, than our own consciousness. And this is a time when we can actually become more and more aware of that, of the nearness of God. God is near. Allah is qareeb. God is near. And this is a blessed month.

Practical Advice for Ramadan

So my advice to myself and all of you, take advantage of this month. Look at your life. What are you doing in your life? What are the priorities of your life? Ask yourselves that question. Where is my heart? Ask that question. Where is my heart? Because the heart belongs to Allah. The heart is God's.

And that's what Allah says:

"Don't they reflect on this book? Or are their hearts sealed? Are there locks upon their hearts?"

Where is your heart? The key to opening your heart is turning to Allah. The key to opening your heart is turning to Allah. Allah will open your heart. That's the fatah from Allah. Allah is al-Fattah, the opener. He is the one that opens the heart. He is the one that allows that light of revelation to come into your heart, to flood your heart and to give the gifts and blessings that come with iman in Allah.

Conclusion: Belief in the Day of Judgment

Let the cynics scoff. Let all the skeptics have their doubts. On the day of judgment, everything becomes clear. Everything becomes clear. That's what we believe in. We believe in the day of judgment. We believe in the yawm al-qiyamah. This is preparation for that day. That's what we're doing.

Closing Supplication

May Allah give you a blessed Ramadan. May He give you a Ramadan of lights, of openings. May Allah give you the sweetness of the book of Allah on your tongues. May Allah open up the meanings of the Qur'an for you. May Allah insha'Allah open up the floodgates of your generosity. May you remember the poor. May you remember the needy. May you remember those people that are less fortunate. And may Allah insha'Allah give you all a seal with the last words that we say in this life:

أشهد أن لا إله إلا الله وأشهد أن محمدًا عبده ورسوله صلى الله عليه وسلم

"I bear witness that there is no god but Allah and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and messenger, peace and blessings be upon him."

وجزاكم الله خيرا

May Allah reward all of you and give you the blessing of this month.

والسلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته