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Currently we are pondering over Qalbun Saleem (a sound heart) in one of my Tadabbur classes. The ayah is found in suratul AsSaffat (37:84)

“When he came to His Lord with a sound heart.”

Today I had the realization that we won't obtain this sound heart until we have the correct thoughts about Allah ﷻ This is so important because all of us are bound to go through difficult trials in life and it's really important as believers that we face these trials with the correct thoughts of Allah. When we do, it’s a game changer! "Cela fait toute la difference" as we say in French! (It makes a whole difference) when facing a trial. I remember a student of mine who was going through marital issues years ago. I think it was even before she started learning about the names of Allah and Tadabbur etc... So I don't think she would have the same answer today. I think she grew in her faith, but I remember her telling me then, really casually, “why does Allah make it so difficult for us”! 

As soon as she said it, I said, oh my God, you need to reframe this! 

If this is your thought of Allah, your life is going to be so hard because Allah says “I am as my slave thinks I am” and so if the slave is thinking Allah is making life so hard for me then this is how his life or her life is going to be! May Allah save us from thoughts that do not benefit us. Aameen! 

When we interact with the Qur’an regularly we get an opportunity to recalibrate our thoughts and reframe to the correct view. Let me share with you what happened to me last Saturday in just a couple of hours.

 I woke up and started my morning routine. Part of my morning routine is to do my hifdh then proceed to my regular recitation. I was studying ayah 19 of surah An Nisaa and after listening to the Tafsir and the word breakdown and repeating the ayah several times, I felt overwhelmed by Allah’s Love and Care for us believing women. 

Ayah 19 says:

“Oh you have believed it is not lawful for you to inherit women by compulsion and do not make difficulties for them in order to take back part of what you gave them unless they commit a clear immorality and live with them in kindness for if you dislike them perhaps you dislike a thing and Allah makes there in much good."

If someone had said this, we would think they are going out of their way to make sure people do not mistreat women but this is the Lord of the Heavens and the Earth, The Almighty, The Majestic who is saying all of this for women to be treated well, kindly!!! He is telling the men and the society that women are not properties. You cannot just inherit them and take them against their will! 

Unfortunately, to this day, I know, in my community and even in some other African communities, that this treatment of women being forced or heavily pressured/threatened into marriage still exists and they are Muslims! I have students who went through this, where one lost her husband and then was pressured to marry her brother in law and now is married to him. At the time she told me: 

“Sister Binta this is how I came to be! My mother lost her husband and remarried my father who was her brother in law.” This is a practice that is going on in their family for generations. This is not Islamic if it is against her will. She should not be pressured into this. It is absolutely her choice to be with who she wishes to be with after coming out of her four months and ten days iddah!

In the same ayah 19, Allah tells the men to live with their wives with kindness, live with them in good, “bil  Ma’ruf”, in an honorable way. He tells the men that if they dislike something about their wives, it could be that He Allah has put in what they dislike much good! Allahu Akbar!!! 

Allah Azza Wajal is teaching the men to be patient and kind with their wives and to seek for the good in their marriage.

Allah ﷻ does not need to say this. We are all His slaves and He can do whatever He wants with us. Yet He cares for us! 

The next ayah, ayah 20, teaches us that men should not take back any of the dowry they have given their wives if they no longer want them. They should not take a bit from it! Again our Rabb is looking out for us dear women of Qur’an 🥹💚.

• Sahih International:

But if you want to replace one wife with another and you have given one of them a great amount [in gifts], do not take [back] from it anything. Would you take it in injustice and manifest sin?

Can you feel the love and the care that are coming out of these ayaat for us women, for us Muslim women TabarakAllah! Actually, that is not even for believing women only because AnNisaa means women in general. Really amazing!

I was still pondering over this when I close the mushaf I use for Hifdh, and moved to Tilawah with the word by word Qur’an. In tilawah/recitation, I was in Suratul Maryam. I started reading the passage where Allah Azza Wajal is telling Maryam not to be sad. In ayah 23, Maryam is in labor and going through so much pain that she says “I wish I had died before this":

“The pains of childbirth drove her to the trunk of a palm tree. She said, oh, I wish I had died before this and was in oblivion forgotten.“

Right after this ayah, in ayah 24, Allah is telling her “do not grieve!” Your Lord has provided beneath you a stream. 

She is going through this distress and the Lord of the Heavens and the Earth shows her (and us reciting) that HE is aware of her pain. He comforts her with kind words, a stream and some dates. SubhannAllah!

After all these readings my heart was full, I was even telling my husband, you know people who do not know the Deen, the Qur’an and do not know Allah, they are sitting there in their trials resentful and distant from Allah Azza Wajal. 

They may even be wrongly accusing Allah Azza Wajal not realizing that Allah is aware of their pain and is loving and caring.This is why Ibn Jawzy Rahimahullah said in his book Talbis Iblis that the biggest weapon of Shaytan against us is our ignorance! 

It is a must for us to have the correct thoughts about Allah Azza Wajal. 

Just by adding some Qur’an time to my morning routine. I have had in one morning, overwhelming evidence of how caring Allah is towards His creation and especially towards women, towards us!!! 

How do you think this time spent on these ayaat affected my thoughts of Allah, my salah, my love for Him? If we don't engage regularly with the Book of Allah, how can we expect to grow in love for Him? How can we think good of Allah ﷻ with little to no knowledge of Him? If you want your relationship with Allah to improve, you have got to make the first step towards Him by seeking knowledge of Him. Enroll in a Tadabbur Class, a Qur'an class, or The Names of Allah class. Build up your knowledge of the One Who made you, engage with the Qur'an in a meaningful way by going beyond the recitation NOW! 

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Remember! Allah does not want you to suffer! This is why He brought down this Book, Al Qur'an, which is truly a healing for the soul!

May He bless us with beneficial knowledge and the ability to do deeds that are pleasing to Him.

And He knows Best!

Binta Umm Yahya ~ A woman of Qur'an bi idhnillah