[IMAN PUBLICATIONS] HEALING THE HEART: LEAVING DARKNESS FOR LIGHT

Terbitan: IMAN PUBLICATIONS

Penulis: Sharifah Nadirah & MUHAMMAD ANAS

"So truly with hardship, there is also ease; truly with hardship there is also ease."

(Surah Ash-Sharh: 5 & 6)

One of the things we struggle with is fulfilling the expectations we set upon ourselves. We race against time and compete with one another to achieve our dreams, only to find ourselves feeling frustrated when things don't go our way.

Over time, the frustrations and despair harden the heart.

Over time, we find it is hard to be kind to ourselves and accept our flaws.

Because everyone else seem to be living their life "perfectly".

But isn't Allah the only One who is Perfect? Aren't His plans for us perfect?

How do we make peace with this frustrated feeling in our heart?

Healing The Heart invites us on a contemplative journey of seeking Allah and His Guidance. This guidance that is meant to lead us gently and kindly to His Light. And with this Light, we will embrace compassion and self-acceptance.

A Roller Coaster Ride

How's life?

This is a question that I feel is difficult to answer. I will be searching high and low for the answers.

Some people are fine and okay with their life - they feel happy, but some people would feel down, sad, lonely and frustrated with life.

To be honest, I feel that way too sometimes, and I believe that everyone would feel same at times. When things don't go our way, when things do not turn out as we expected, we tend to feel frustrated. We will feel angry and we will think that things are unfair.

For us sometimes life is too frustrating, and we think that we deserve all the better things and not the worst events that keep happening in our life. We just want to experience the good, not the bad. Sometimes when it's too much in life, when the heart feels heavy, we would just feel like it is okay to rebel and ignore all the judgments and consequences, because we feel that we need to find justice for ourselves. We feel like we want to be happy too. We think that we are among the oppressed. We think that life is unfair.

We see people being happy without knowing what they have gone through in life, which may be worse, but we tend to only see and believe what people choose to portray. We are struck with that one perspective without giving a second thought, hence despair and frustration towards life come and control our innocent soul.

I understand all we want is just a happy life, free from problems. We don't want any more heartache and pain.

The truth is we are afraid to ruin our expectations towards life and bear frustrations. We just think that we need to find the answers, to find the way out from all life frustrations. But one thing is for sure; we usually seek answers without realizing that the answers are within us all along.

The question tries to explore how we feel about life episodes. The early question that I gave was 'How's life?' wants to discover how we are upon life events. The question is intriguing and simple, with answers that need to be roamed. But honestly, if you want to know how life is for me, it is a roller coaster ride. For me, life itself has offered a lifetime roller coaster ride with unbuckles seat belt. Due to that, I would always have myself ready to brace for any upcoming frustrating episodes of life.

A roller coaster ride is a challenging ride as it has your emotions and your feelings participating along. Fortunately, there will be happy moments. And unfortunately, there will also be saddening moments, and saddening moments are when you need to be careful because usually, downfall moments will place you in a real challenging emotional phase. But honestly and surprisingly too. this is the phase that has taught me a lot about life.

I have learned many things from the downfall phases, and one of the important lessons is to accept things with strength, sincerity and honesty. It made me realize that I'm not the only one who is experiencing all these. Other people are also having their ups and downs within the weeks, so it's best to focus on seeing the good side of the situation.

I understand we all feel so many negative emotions and frustrations when we are at our lowest, and the negative emotions take control over us.