Managing The Heart

Managing The Heart

Feeling is like a wild horse. If we can conquer it, we will be put into difficulties. There are various feelings connected with the passion that we have to control, In order to et some benefits from them. Of course, this feeling comes from us, not from others. Uncontrolled feelings will become a sickness of the heart (amradul qulub).These are the feelings that require our self-control.

a. Anger
Allah gives us feelings of anger to express the feeling of our heart. Then, anger could be an effective media for the devil to make us angry. Though, if there is no anger, of course, the devil can do nothing. That is why the devil hates the people who can control their angry.
Actually, we are lucky when someone hits us, because the hit indirectly gives us rewards. When the person hits us for the second time and we hit him back for the truth that we believe in, we still get rewards for protecting ourselves. However, if we hit him until he topples over, and we throw stones at him to boot, that is the most dangerous time for us because we have done something wrong.
That is why fighting is not about winning or losing, but to control our anger. The devil will be glad if we can’t control anger, if this happens, we have to be ready to face our self-annihilation.
A government employer can lose his wisdom due to smacking his employee. A politician stands on the podium and tries to beat his political opponent , this is actually, the point where he harm his credibility as the person of the people trust.
Anger can be controlled if we are convinced that is useless. If we have then multiplied our hatred to the devils, we don’t want him to control us with anger. The most important thing is having patience.
Anger is the most difficult feeling to be controlled. Allah The Great and His Messenger have wanted us about the negative feeling that comes from anger. The Prophet gave us practical ways to control our anger.
The one of negative effects of anger is to create bad words and bad attitudes that can hurt others. Of course, the bad words and attitude can break any good relationship. That is why anger should be controlled by patience, silence, and self-cooling as the Prophet said. Even so, sometimes we can’t our anger .If it happens, choose the simple words that don’t hurt others and limit your anger. The most important thing is to never forget to apologize after we get angry.
Anger could be done totally to defend the absolute truth that comes from Allah. The Prophet said that anger because of Allah is the best clothes from his people(from hadith related by Ath-Thabrani).Because of that, if you are angered to hurt others, you have to control your emotion as fast as you can. If not, our anger will make other people suffer and we will be farther from Allah. Our great distance to Allah Will darken our heart and will become the people who destroy ourselves.


b. Words
“Your mouth is a tiger that will jump at your head”. This is an old sating which means how dangerous our words are. There are so many dangerous this to say, such as lying, slandering, blaming someone, and having useless conversation.
The nice or clean words must be accompanied by cleansing the heart. Without this, there won’t be any qualified or valuable words coming out from our mouths. Seikh Ibn Atha’illah said that every word coming out from our mouth reflects the situation of our heart.
Saying bad words, humiliating, lying, cursing or the things that hurt our heart, must come out from the dirty heart. In the dirty heart, there is always a wish to hurt someone, to say useless thing, or even just to comments on something that is unnecessary to be commented upon. He doesn’t care that his words are useless. The unqualified words and lack of meaning comes out from the dishonest heart. When someone advise others to do something that he doesn’t do himself, then they won’t hear his advises. The advise could hurt the people who hear it. Then the worst thing the people who are advised hold a grudge.
Because of that, we must be very careful in managing the words. We have to manage our words well by considering what effect they will have. Though words won’t hurt physically, it will hurt the feelings that will lead to physical argument, the breaking of friendliness, and the breaking of a system.



c. Sight
Our eyes or sight is just like a camera that can record every object that we have seen and the memory in kept in our brain. That is why sight can bring a virus, which can result in a dishonest heart.
Allah forbids the one who cannot keep his eyes on the forbidden things to have a chance of having clean heart. Umar bin Khattab said, “ I prefer to walk behind the lion than behind the women.” This reflects how dangerous sight is, especially for a man who has already stared a women.
However, sight is not only about opposite gender but also to the things that always entice us. We can enchant when we see glamour clothes, a luxury car, a great house, or even the large amount of money that one has. Our heart is busied with thinking about the things we don’t have rather than being thankful and enjoying what we have.
Because of that, one of the powers needed by the people who keep standing on Allah’s path is to guard the heart or guard our sight well. Let’s keep our sight away from the glamorous things that will invite passion and useless dreams.
We shouldn’t focus on the things that we can’t reach .As a result, we will be exhausted because Allah has already decreed our wealth. We still can’t achieve the things that we really want to have if Allah doesn’t permit it. It is much better if we look to those below us. Look at the people below us who live under worse conditions. Look at the people who live simpler than us. Subhanallah, the more we look at the people below us, the more we thank God than people who always look to the people above them.
We are only allowed to look at anything higher than we have, if it is just for Allah. The Owner of Power and Most Rich. He will never have His riches reduced even if we ask until the end of our life. Allah is The Great! This sight of The Highest will make our hearts calm down, which means that we agree that all of things of this world belong to Allah and will return to Allah.
The late Buya Hamka said, “ Why does man behave ridiculous? Don’t you see the blue sky with the white clouds? Or do you go down to the dale so that you will get clean and fresh water. Or you wake up at night, then you’ll see the shinning stars twinkling in the blue sky and the moon that you have never tried of staring at. Or you hear the sound of the grasshoppers or frogs answering each other. If someone is eager to see beauty, is keen of hearing beauty, undoubtedly, his will be free of cruel behavior. Honestly, cruelty is bad, and something bad will never be in line with beauty.
In the case, be happy people who love to see other people’s good action. However, if he sees someone with a bad attitude, he directly understands that this person is not an angel. Behind all the mean’s weakness, he still has good sides So, focus our attention on his good sides, and loveliness will be built in our heart.
Again, eyes or sight is very effective to record all the good and the bad memories. Therefore, avoid our sight from any bad things, so that it won’t become a memory to make our heart dirty all the time. Pray to Allah Azza wa jalla, so that He turns our hearts away from anything which can stain our hearts.





d. Hearing
Hearing has function and cause in cleansing or tarnishing the heart, almost a same as sight. If we hear something not worthy to be listened to, our heart will be terrified and we won’t be able to stop ourselves from giving any comments. If we hear something uncomfortable or hurtful, it will cause revenge and anger that tarnishes our heart.
On the other hand, if we hear something nice, it will, of course, make our heart comfortable. For example, if we listen to the recitation of the Qur’an, we feel our heart is calm and comfortable. That’s why some experts advise us to let a baby in the womb listen to soft and cultured classical music. This is the firs tip to impart spiritual sounds a baby. In islam, the sound of the verses of the Qur’an is more meaningful than classical music. A baby who listens to the verses of the Qur’an, of course, will have a calm and comfortable spiritual experience. However, on the other side, if he listen to any disputes or dirty words, and whispered bad intentions, these are recorded in his heart and from his attitude.
Subhanallah, Allah has given us the best guidance. Hearing can be our media to clean our heart. Close your ears when hear something unworthy. Open your ears when you the verses of the Qur’an or the advise of religious person, or when you are in the intellectual meeting.


e. Appetite
Eating is a one way for person to be close to Allah Azza wa jalla, or it could also be a media to follow his passions. In the view of Allah servant, the nature of eating is to keep his body healthy, and food for him is a good livelihood that Allah gives, so he can enjoy it with much gratitude.
Despite this, food sometimes becomes a tool he becomes proud of, shows off, is miserly, be a medium for his passion, and for being cruel to others. Here, food becomes a means for developing a dirty heart.
Whoever wants to have a healthy heart and wants to take care to keep it clean, should be careful when it comes to food. Anything can reduce the quality of our belief, such as being unable to pray at night (tahajud), not concentrating in the performance of religious activities, having a dull brain, as well as unanswered prayers, are sometimes caused by food. Therefore, in order to strengthen our ability or self-resistance to food, Allah and the Prophet have advised us to fast