MUNAAJAT AL-SHAAKIIN

1. MUNAAJAT AL-SHAAKIIN THE WHISPERED PRAYERS OF THE COMPLAINERS from Imam ZaynulAbedina.s. PART 2 DR.MOHAMMAD Ali SHOMALI 19TH JUNE 2012

2. FromMunajaat Al-Shaakiin PASSAGE 3 (The situation of one’s heart) • The heart is the most important part of our reality. It is only through the heart, one would be able to perceive a person’s personality. • One of the things that we should know about our heart is that heart is very changeable unlike Intellect which is fixed. • Imam Kadhima.s. “ We have 2 hujjah, internal (‘Aql) and the external is Prophets.” • Heart is called QALB which means (to alter, change)….therefore the state of the heart is always in motion. • The friends of God, pious people also go through these changes of the heart i.e. high and low. • According to a poet, even Prophet Yaquba.s. could feel the fragrance of his son Yusuf from his shirt being brough by his brothers from Egypt, while he couldn’t feel it when Yusuf was inside the well near their town or village. This shows that even Awliyaa Allah go through these internal changes and therefore their sensitivity and receptivity can vary. • In ordinary people, these changes can be sometimes very radical like going through changes like for instance from Imaan to Kufr, or from Pride to humility, from ignorance to knowledge. • As believers we need to reflect on this aspect..

3. “The Heart is the Sanctuary of Allah . Do not let anyone else occupy His Sancuary.” Heart is the most sacred entity • Problems with the heart – Sometime the heart becomes very hard (Qasawatul-qalb) hard hearted. No light can easily enter into the heart. It is a very worrying condition of the heart. • 2nd problem - Effects of temptations can make our heart move from one state to another. Through Satan, our own fantasies, illusions. These temptations are very destructive. • Most of our problems start with these imaginations, temptations that compel us to commit sins. • Worldly beauty isnot as attractive as it looks like. For instance we go into an imaginary world like falling in love and imagine one’s mate to be perfect, etc… but after sometime one realises that it’s a fallacy. • Reality is that nobody is perfect or imperfect but we have flaws. • A mo’men looks for good qualities that overweigh bad qualities.

4. Problems of the heart • The heart gets covered, sealed – The chance of NOOR, light getting into the heart is unlikely as mentioned in the munajaat. • Something related to the heart are our EYES – If your heart is hard, sealed, one of the impacts would be that you would not be able to cry, shed tears, weep to Allah s.w.t. (showing indifference to Allah s.w.t.). This is a severe condition. • Many people cry for worldly reasons. That is not enough. One needs to cry over one’s self, fear of the day of judgement, fear of damage caused to one’s self. • SIGNIFICANCE OF SHEDDING TEARSWe see in Dua Abu HamzaThumali – O Allah please help me with crying over myself….. • To overcome the Nafs-al-Ammarra,(the evil soul) one’s heart becomes pure and clean. • Mystics quote, about two types of water • Water of eye – To wash your heart through shedding tears and to purify the heart. • Water of spring – to clean your body, clothes. • It is also said that listening to Qu’ranicverses, one would be able to shed tears even if they were not believers.

5. “O Allah, I seek refuge from the heart that does not become humble, an eye that does not cry, and the prayer that is not accepted..” dua • If our prayer is not accepted then nothing would be accepted. • Hadith: “ Some of the signs of being in a bad state, is the dry eyes and hard heart and greediness and avarice, and insisting on committing sins. • This was practised in the pagan culture when men never cried, or never cared, showed affection, mercy towards one’s own children. • Management of our emotions is fundamental. But one needs to see why would one cry. Sadness is a healthy condition, provided it is for good reasons. • ONE NEEDS TO FIND OUT why is one happy or sad? • Are we sad because our 12th Imam a.s. has not reappeared? Are we sad because of our state of our heart? The higher one goes, there is more reason for sadness but needs to be balanced and active way of putting this emotions must be learnt.

6. Take examples from the holy prophet and Imams • Our Imams even showed sadness but were active and proactive for the sake of Allah s.w.t. • Members of ahlulbayta.s. showed their emotions in public as well. • The event of Ashura and the tragedy of Karbala is significant to share the sadness in congregation and commemorate together. It is a social enterprise. • KEEP A BALANCE • When one is alone in the middle of the night and sheds tears for Allah s.w.t. • Going for ziyarat and showing our humility and emotions at the presence of holy personalities. • One needs to find out why one cannot cry and this is one of the concerns that the holy prophet showed. One of them being the hard heartedness of the heart and multitudes of sins. Also dreams and desires due to excessive love for this world. It is the root of all evils.

7. “Love of this world is the root of all evil” Holy Prophet (s.a.w.w) • So from the above hadith we will analyse that through the love of this world would lead to committing sins and through excessive sins one would become hard hearted and thus would make one oblivious of the reality of this world and our existence. • CONCLUSION • Therefore to diagnose the problem of the heart; from this munajaat and other du’as and get familiar with all the prayers and see how one can solve one’s internal ailments by tackling the ailments and solve the problems of the heart. One cannot attain all the answers to one particular dua or munajat. Through cross-referencing all these treasures of gems from the ma’sumeena.s. we will be able to solve our anxieties and spiritual ailments.