Yasmin Mogahed – Reclaim Your Heart – 01

			Recently I've been thinking about poverty, but not the typical kind, the internal kind, poverty of
the soul. True impoverishment, is internal impoverishment, the soul that's been created, but hasn't
yet realized why the heart that still beats, but has already died. Few people would ever want to
fall, and no one likes to drown. Yet in struggling through this life, sometimes it's so hard not to
let the world in. Sometimes, the ocean of dunya enters our hearts. And just like the ocean that
enters the boat, it shatters our hearts, it breaks our hearts, it owns our hearts. And sometimes we
end up at our lowest point, just like at the bottom of the ocean. And when we're there, we feel like
		

			it's the end.
		

			And that's the thing about the bottom of the ocean, no light enters it. But when you reach that
point, you're faced with a choice. You can either stay there until you drown. Or you can gather
pearls and rise again, becoming stronger from your swim and richer from your jewels. If you seek
God, he can rebuild your heart, rebuild that ship. He can transform what was once your greatest
weaknesses into your greatest strengths and can become a means of redemption. Because see, that's
the amazing thing about Toba and turning back to Allah, we're told that it's a polish. So not only
does it clean, it actually can make the heart even more beautiful than it was before it got dirty.
		

			If you seek God, he can replace the darkness of the ocean with the light of his son. Yet How can we
get there when we're faced and we live in a world that is constantly bombarding us and commanding us
to worship other things? To love other things as we should only love God? How can we escape true
impoverishment of the soul? Allah subhanaw taala tells us that there are a people who love others as
they should only love God. And yet when he describes the believers, he says, and he describes them
as a shadow, hope and in that in order to escape true impoverishment. We have to be a shed,
urbanists are overflowing in our love for Allah. But you can't love something that you don't know.
		

			And you can't know something that you never speak to. And you'll never remember, we have to speak to
him, we have to remember him and remember him often. See, and many of us believe that all we have to
do is live our lives however we want. And then before we die, just say that.
		

			But see, the thing is, that however we lived is how we will die. And Allah subhanaw taala does not
allow our tongues to stay La ilaha illa Allah at death, unless there is La ilaha illAllah inside the
heart, unless we put a love first in our lives, we won't be able to put a love first in our death.
And so in order for us to live a life that is full of the love of God, we need to put God at the
center. And we need to not lose hope when we do reach that lowest point. And we ask God throughout
our lives that every time we slip, to allow us to come back and to stand back up and to rise. If we
do that, then and only then will God allow our tongues at the time of death. To say that ILA and
		

			Mullah we bear witness that there is absolutely nothing worthy of our ultimate love, and worship and
devotion except for God.
		

			Reclaim Your heart was made available in part through social media by Islamic Relief USA.
		

			Sometimes, the world begins to look dark. But there's one thing that brings light is when you help
relieve a person's suffering and make their world brighter. In their darkest days. You send food,
water and health care, warm clothes, and fuel to stay warm. You send shelter mattresses and
blankets. You sit relief, hope and love. Thank you for working together for a better world.