Reclaim Your Heart

parties of them, the splendor of the life of this world,
through which We test them: but the provision of thy Lord
is better and more enduring.
” 
(Qur’an, 
20:131
)
The enduring life is the one that begins once we awaken
from this world. And it is in that awakening that we
realize…
It was only a dream.

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C
LOSED
 D
OORS AND THE
 I
LLUSIONS THAT
B
LIND
 U
S
Yesterday my 22 month old sought to exercise his
independence. After climbing out of his car seat, he
wanted to shut the car door like a big boy, so I stood there
watching over him. Realizing that if I left him to shut the
door, his little head would have gotten slammed in the
process, I lifted him away, and shut the door myself. This
devastated him, and he broke down in tears. How could I
prevent him from doing what he so badly wanted to do?
Watching the incident, a strange thought crossed my mind.
I was reminded of all the times this had happened to us in
life—when we want something so badly, but Allah does
not allow us to have it. I was reminded of all the times we,
as adults felt this same frustration when things just
wouldn’t work out the way we so desperately wanted
them to. And then suddenly, it was so clear. I had only
taken my son away from the door to protect him. But he
had no idea. In the midst of his mourning, he had no idea
that I had actually saved him. And just as my son wept in
his naivety and innocence, so often we too bemoan events
that have actually saved us.
When we miss a plane, lose a job, or find ourselves
unable to marry the person we want, have we ever
stopped to consider the possibility that it may have been

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for our own good? Allah tells us in the Qur’an: “…But
perhaps you hate a thing and it is good for you; and
perhaps you love a thing and it is bad for you. And Allah
Knows, while you know not.” (Qur’an, 
2:216
)
Yet it is so difficult to look beyond the surface of things. It
takes great strength to see beyond the illusions, to a deeper
truth—which we may or may not understand. Just as my
son could not understand how my depriving him of what
he most wanted at that moment was in fact my looking out
for him, we are often just as blind.
As a result, we end up staring indefinitely at the closed
doors of our lives, and forget to notice the ones that have
opened. When we can’t marry the person we had in mind,
our inability to look beyond may even blind sight us from
someone who is in fact better for us. When we don’t get
hired, or we lose something dear to us, it’s hard to take a
step back and notice the bigger picture. Often Allah takes
things away from us, only to replace them with something
greater.
Even tragedy may happen in this way. One can imagine
few calamities more painful than the loss of a child. And
yet, even this loss could happen to save us and give us
something greater. The Prophet 
said:
If the child of a servant (of Allah) dies, Allah says to His
Angels: ‘Have you taken the child of My servant?’

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The Angels reply: ‘Yes.’
Allah says to them: ‘Have you taken the fruit of his heart?’
They reply: ‘Yes.’
Then Allah says to them: ‘What did my servant say?’
The Angels reply: ‘He praised Allah and said: ‘To Allah
do we return.’
Allah tells them: ‘Build a home for my servant in Paradise
and call it Baytul Hamd (the House of Praise).’ [Tirmidhi]
When Allah takes something as beloved from us as a
child, it may be that He has taken it in order to give us
something greater. It may be because of that loss, that we
are admitted into paradise—an eternal life with our child.
And unlike our life here, it is an everlasting life where our
child will have no pain, fear, or sickness.
But in this life, even our own sicknesses may not be what
they seem. Through them Allah may be in fact purifying us
of our sins. When the Prophet 
was suffering from a
high fever, he said: “No Muslim is afflicted with any
harm, even if it were the prick of a thorn, but that Allah
expiates his sins because of that, as a tree sheds its
leaves.” [Bukhari]
In another hadith the Prophet 
explains that this
applies even to sadness and worry. He says: “Whenever a
Muslim is afflicted with a hardship, sickness, sadness,

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worry, harm, or depression—even a thorn’s prick, Allah
expiates his sins because of it.” [Bukhari]
Or consider the example of poverty. Most people without
wealth would never consider that a possible blessing. But
for the people around Qarun, it was. Qarun was a man
who lived at the time of Prophet Musa (as) who Allah had
endowed with such great wealth, which even the keys to
his wealth was itself wealth. The Qur’an says: “So he
came out before his people in his adornment. Those who
desired the worldly life said, ‘Oh, would that we had like
what was given to Qarun. Indeed, he is one of great
fortune.’” (Qur’an 
28:79
)
But Qarun’s wealth had made him arrogant, ungrateful, and
rebellious against Allah. Allah says: “And We caused the
earth to swallow him and his home. And there was for him
no company to aid him other than Allah, nor was he of
those who [could] defend themselves. And those who had
wished for his position the previous day began to say,
‘Oh, how Allah extends provision to whom He wills of
His servants and restricts it! If not that Allah had
conferred favor on us, He would have caused it to
swallow us. Oh, how the disbelievers do not succeed!’”
(Qur ’an, 
28:81-82
) After seeing the fate of Qarun, the
same people became grateful that they had been saved
from his wealth.
But perhaps there is no better example of this lesson, than

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in the story of Musa and Al-Khidr that we are told about in
Surat Al-Kahf
. When Prophet Musa (as) was traveling
with Al-Khidr (who commentators say was an angel in the
form of a man), he learned that things are often not what
they seem, and that the wisdom of Allah cannot always be
understood from the surface. Al-Khidr and Prophet Musa
(as) came upon a town whereupon Al-Khidr began to
damage the boats of the people.
On the surface, this action would seem to have been
harmful to the poor owners of the boats. However, Al-
Khidr later explains that he was in fact protecting the
people, and saving the boats for them. Allah tells us in the
Qur’an: “[Al-Khidhr] said, ‘This is parting between me
and you. I will inform you of the interpretation of that
about which you could not have patience. As for the ship,
it belonged to poor people working at sea. So I intended to
cause defect in it as there was after them a king who
seized every [good] ship by force.’” (Qur’an 
18:78-79
)
In damaging the boats, Al-Khidr was actually protecting
the people by making the boats undesirable to the king
who had been seizing them by force. And sometimes in
life, that’s exactly what happens. In order to save us,
something is taken away from us, or given to us in a way
we don’t want. And yet to us—as it did to a 22 month old
boy—it looks only like a closed door.

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