Life #13 The older I become, the weaker my Emaan

The older I get, the weaker my iman.

How come?

Do

Do you find yourself

sometimes

as you age in life,

you would assume that your faith will become

stronger?

You would gain more experience, more knowledge, you

would learn more about life and understand your

priority is I need to get closer to

my creator.

And aging is a sign that gradually but

surely we are getting close to our death.

So all of these things are signs

that your iman should be at least getting

stronger and closer to Allah.

But that's not the case

for a lot of Muslims.

Instead, the complete opposite happens.

As they get older,

thinking that our iman would also grow with

us but instead it becomes weaker.

And some have even lost

their faith as they got older.

How does this happen? Here is one point

that I want you to think about from

Surat Al Kaif.

This is an ayah in reference to the

young men that were in that cave and

they stayed there for 100 of years.

Allah

describes one important

quality they all shared.

Allah

says

This group, Allah says

we wrapped their hearts.

We enveloped their hearts

that when they stood they prayed and made

dua

to our

Master.

He is the Master of the heavens and

earth.

We're not going to associate

or call upon

any other deity

except

the one true deity of Allah subhanahu wa

ta'ala.

If you pause here, what is the real

message in this ayah?

Allah preserved

and protected

their belief system

between them and Allah.

Think about that.

When was the last time

that you put yourself through a spiritual

exercise whether it mean

studying or learning or

understanding

and spending some alone time reflecting,

praying tahajjud,

really isolating yourself from all of your responsibilities

and the things you're involved with in this

world, and just spending some

alone time with you and Allah.

And you did this

with the intention,

I just want to reaffirm

my faith.

That's the message of this ayim.

These brothers, these young men

reaffirm

their belief in Allah as they continue to

age and grow older. Remember,

300 plus years they're in this cave,

So they definitely age from the time they

went in, from the time they came out

until their death.

But in the midst of all of that,

this dua

came towards

closer to the end of their life.

And that's really interesting

that Allah would highlight they wrapped their hearts

with this belief system,

they continued

to reaffirm that there was only one deity

worthy of worship.

How does this translate today?

This day and age, what does this area

look like?

This is the time brothers and sisters.

If you find yourself

your iman is getting weaker,

it should be much easier for you to

point at and figure out where the source

of that weakness is coming from.

Because with age is wisdom.

You understand

yourself.

You know yourself more now than ever before.

Nobody is going to advise you or help

you through this more than you.

Because you've gone through the experience. You've gone

through the years. You understand

the things that affect you and the things

that don't. It's just a matter of you

don't take it for granted but just pause

and just think what is it that's causing

me to lose my faith or to cause

my faith to become weaker and weaker?

For a lot of us it's just distractions.

As we get older we might just,

as we get older these distractions just have

a bigger effect on us. So you point

out what are those things that distract your

life and you try to sift them out

as much as possible. This could literally

be anything,

but in the midst of all of that

you try your very best just to keep

reaffirming your faith. Oh Allah,

you are the one true deity worthy of

worship. You start to build your life with

repetition,

the qar and the tasbih of Allah. Things

like

You're constantly

reaffirming and repeating these phrases.

As we get older

our memory starts to go.

Certain things you take for granted you can

suddenly forget, or you'll have to sit there

and think for a few seconds. All of

that is okay as long as you're paying

attention.

So my brothers and sisters,

reaffirming

your tawhid,

your belief system with Allah can surely,

by Allah's promise, cure this weakness

and put you back on track on a

track of progression

and a track in which your iman becomes

stronger. And of course the ultimate goal just

being closer to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. May

make it easy for you and for me.

make it easy for you and for me.