A Letter To The Heart

Dear Heart,

I write this to you as a reminder. Eighteen years and still together, you are surely one of my closest companions. I’ve heard your voice from the beginning: happiness, sadness, and so much more that thumped against your rib cage. And you witnessed all that I have: friends, places, and a lot more through my senses. If you stop pumping the blood circulating through the intricate passes of my veins, I will die within a few minutes. And if I stop my vitals of worship and acts of good, you will turn diseased and hardened. By the One who created us, we are surely inseparable; without the other, neither can survive.

I know it’s hard. The trials of this life are difficult. We find happy moments, but no matter how strongly we wish, they’ll never come back; they simply pass away and remain only as memories. Even those memories fade away, eventually. We find sad moments clinging to us despite our disdain. No matter how much we brush the pain away, the scars remain hard to cover. Depression, loneliness, and despair are easy to find. Darkness is too scary for us to face.

But just as our Lord promised hardship in our way, has He not promised relief as well? For surely, after a storm is a clear sky. After a forest fire is fertile soil. After the darkest hour is the break of dawn. Light is there for us to enter. We can pull ourselves from drowning by taking a moment to remember, repent, and resume our glorification of the Lord of the Worlds, the King of all Kings, the Owner of the Heavens and the Earth. If we can submit together to Allah (glorified and exalted be He) alone – Our Creator, Our Caretaker, Our Master – then the light may illuminate us and eradicate the bruises we carry from the burden of our mistakes. He is the Most Merciful and Oft-Forgiving, so we have hope to turn a new leaf in our life.

Are you unsure? Scared? Too broken? We can dispel our doubts. We can muster our courage. We are still here. We are alive. We can still make a change. Surely that is enough reason for us to take a step forward.

My companion, we can either be noble or nobody. We can smile or stay broken. We can hope or despair. This is our choice. Allah has placed the door of change in front of us; are we not the ones who refuse to open the door? Now I know it’s true our story can stay untold in this world, no matter how much we try, but that’s okay, for Allah will always know. You, me, and Him: that’s all that matters.

So my heart, let us take that step into the light. Let us bathe in it and hope for betterment. Let us join together with truth and conviction as we pray for guidance, mercy, and success in fulfilling our purpose in this life.

Bismillah, let us move forward.

“Verily, in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find rest.” (Surah Ar-Ra`d: 28)