Eeman Boosters to Nourish your Soul

Source: blog.islamiconlineuniversity.com

By: Nasmira Firdous

Distress, anxiety, joys, fear, worries and happiness: different facets that make up this mesmerizing sojourn called “life”. It might fascinate you with its unknown twists and turns. There are moments where you relish the joys and happiness with every breath you take. And then, there are moments when the human soul, weak in its creation but as mighty as it thinks of itself, tries to shred realities and instead, buries itself into worldly deceptions.

With the pressures of dunya that strangle us both physically and emotionally, our minds tend to lose focus and our hearts cringe with disappointments and pain. Beyond all of this, our souls end up forgetting their very purpose of existence: To worship our Creator .

In this article, let us undertake a journey that would help us free our hearts from worries, let us perform tiny little acts of acts that could weigh heavy on our scale of good deeds, helping us have an eeman high, in sha Allah.

Cleanse Your Heart

The sins we commit, no matter how big or small they might seem, darken our hearts gradually, making it rotten on the inside. In order to place ourselves completely under Allah servitude and refresh our eeman, we need to cleanse our hearts, making it pure from the stenches of sins that have been committed. Here are small little steps, which you could implement to commence the process of cleansing, in sha Allah:

1. Begin with Repentance

A heartfelt, sincere repentance begging for forgiveness and mercy never goes unnoticed. Allah  is the most Merciful of all, therefore, acknowledge the fact that you have committed sins and ask Him to bless you with His mercy and forgiveness. Do it now!

2. Salah: The Elixir of Life

Nothing in life can be achieved without having a one-on-one conversation with our Lord. You might want to get rid of worldly pressures; maybe you want a righteous spouse; perhaps you want to be blessed with a child or acquire the dream job; or your mind just yearns for contentment and peace. Allah is the Maker, the Sustainer, the One who loves to Forgive and the One who loves to provide for His slaves. All you have to do ask Him ! Whatever be your demand, focus whilst praying, focus when you make dua instead of putting your dua list on auto pilot mode; talk to Him when you’re given five official chances to do so everyday. What better time than salah!

3. Build a Relationship with the Quran

While repentance purifies your heart, reading the glorious Quran strengthens your soul, filling it with an eeman high. Make a little more effort when you recite the glorious book. Push yourself to understand the tafseer or the Arabic language in order to grasp the eloquence, beauty and miracle of the Quran. It’s Allah  ‘s way of talking to you. Open it everyday to listen to what He  has to say!

Perform Deeds that Pull you to Jannah

The acts you perform with intentions to seek your Lord’s pleasure can add a lot of weight to your scale of good deeds on the Day of Judgment, giving you a mighty ticket to enter the eternal paradise, with your Lord’s permission and mercy.

So why not start with charity. In a well known hadeeth, we learn that charity extinguishes sins like water extinguishes fire.^[1] You don’t have to be a millionaire to do something massive. The next time you go to the masjid, remember to donate an unknown amount of money for charitable causes that would help your local masjid function better.

Help the needy with whatever means possible.

• Buy a single meal for them every week;
• Donate your clothes to an orphanage;
• Donate some money to a nearby school;
• Give money to build a well

There are umpteen types of small investments that provide exponential benefits on the Day of Judgement.

So get into the “art of giving” now! Perhaps, these tiny acts of yours could give you a ticket to paradise or save you from the ferociousness of Hellfire.

Let Go of Your Past

Often times, we drown in foams of disasters by making the wrong decisions or speaking the wrong kind of words. One of the most important ways to move forward and renew our eeman is to let go of our past. It’s done and over with. Learn from your mistakes and move on. You benefit nothing by brooding over it. If Umar  were to brood over his past, he would have never become one of the outstanding caliphs that he went on to become.

If you are still breathing, Allah  has given you another chance to prove your worth, so let go of your past, your sins and mistakes, no matter how disastrous they may seem. Sit down, repent now, cry in sujood, raise your hands up to the heavens and beg for forgiveness, then move on.

With every breath you take, you are one step closer to meeting your Lord. Make sure it is filled with meaningful, productive, humble acts rather than grieving over what “could have been” or what “should have been”.

The Blessed Tahajjud

Wake up for ten minutes everyday when everyone else is asleep to offer the blessed tahajjud prayer, the sweetness and beauty of which can only be experienced, not explained. It is a de-stressor, a magical eraser that would remove traces of worries, guilt, fear and anxiety from your mind; and instead, perfume your existence with hope and peace. Pull the blanket off at the last third of the night and have a blessed conversation with your Lord when half of the world sleeps and the other half is busy indulging itself in worldly affairs. It just needs a little extra effort, helping your ordinary day become extraordinary!

Be a Leader

After you’ve fixed yourself up with these little acts that will help boost your emaan bi’ithnillah, try to please your Lord by stepping up the initiative and helping His creation. Do not be pleased with being ordinary. Go out of your way and do the extraordinary. Rise up because you have been blessed with the gift called “Islam”. Carry forward the beautiful legacy, so people belonging to other religions can look up to Islam.

• Next time you are in gathering or meeting, initiate a genuine smile that would become hallmarks of a happy and content Muslim/Muslimah.
• Take the initiative. Volunteer for useful organizations and put your skills into use in whichever field you excel at. It could be something creative like painting and writing or something technical like graphic or website designing. Maybe you have excellent oratory skills. Your talent is a gift from Allah . Don’t waste it by not using it.
• Take a pen and paper to list down three (or more) things you are really good at. Once you’ve narrowed in on these, start nurturing your talents and put them into use to benefit the Ummah and invest in your akhira.

Maintain the Euphoria

Remember, emaan increases and decreases according to situations life throws at us because our hearts and souls are fragile. Always have a bunch of eeman buddies who would help you in times of need. You don’t have to battle in the dungeons of dunya all alone. Your friends have a direct impact on the type of person you are, so choose your surroundings wisely. Race forward to do good deeds.

A hundred years from now, it won’t matter whether you wore an expensive dress or if you bought the latest gadget/car/mobile phone. What WILL matter is the number of good deeds you managed to pack into your luggage for your final and eternal abode in the Hereafter.Wake up from your deep slumber and spend your time wisely!

With each moment of life flying away, you are in a trance. A magic wand will not clear up the emotional and physical debris of disasters and disappointments that have piled up in your life. However, eeman boosters that would remind you of your purpose in life, will!

Repent, rise up and initiate changes in your life to please your Lord. Be the Ummah that can bring about changes in the society rather than being an Ummah that constantly whines about every tiny problem. Push yourself a little more than what you normally do, to become a little more special than what you already are. Do not be another of speck of sand on planet earth. Instead, be a star that winks from the sky!

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