What are the signs of a sound heart?

Do you have a sound heart?

How do we avoid true impoverishment of the soul?

Sister Yasmin Mogahed starts with this last question, then goes on to reflect on the way to inner peace.

“No one likes to fall.

And few people would ever choose to drown.

But in struggling through the ocean of this life, some times it is so hard not to let the world in.

Sometimes the ocean does enter us.

The dunya does seep into our hearts.

And like the water that breaks the boat, when dunya enters a heart it shatters it.

It shatters the boat.

If you allow dunya to enter your heart, you will sink down to the depth of the sea.

And you may feel as though you are at your lowest point.

Entrapped by your sins and the love of this life, you may feel broken, surrounded by darkness.

Because that’s the amazing thing about the floor of the ocean, no light enters it.

But this dark place is not the end.

Remember that the darkness of night precedes the dawn, and as long as your heart still beats, this is not the death of it.

You don’t have to die here.

Sometimes the ocean floor is only a stop in the journey.

And it is when you are at your lowest point that you are faced with a choice.

You can stay there at the bottom until you drown, or you can gather the pearls and rise back up: stronger from the swim and richer from the jewels.

If you seek Him, God can raise you up, and replace the darkness of the ocean with the light of His sun.

He can transform what was once your greatest weakness into your greatest strength, and a means of growth, purification and redemption.

Know that transformation sometimes begins with a fall.

So never curse the fall, the ground is where humility lives.

Take it, learn it, breathe it in, and then come back stronger, humbler and more aware of your need for Him.

Come back having seen your own nothingness and His greatness.

Know that if you have seen that reality, you have seen much.

For the one who is truly deceived is the one who sees his own self but not his Creator.

Deprived is the one who has never really witnessed his own desperate need for God.

Reliant on his own means, he forgets that the means, his own soul, and everything else in existence is His creation.

Seek God to bring you back, for when He does He will rebuild your ship.

The heart that you thought was forever damaged will be mended.

What was shattered will be whole again.

Know that only He can do this.

Seek Him, and when He saves you, beg forgiveness for the fall, feel remorse over it but not despair…”

Don’t miss the excellent ten minutes reminder by sister Yasmin Mogahed if you are searching for a sound heart.