WADAH 2013

Wadah Pendidik! Edisi 1 2013
POVERTY OF THE SOUL
Oleh:
HARITHUN BINTI ABDULLAH
Dipetik daripada artikel ‘Personal Development’ oleh Yasmin Mogahed
In speaking about poverty, we need to
understand that there is external poverty and there
is internal poverty. And one is far more dangerous
than the other, because while one form of poverty
determines how we live temporarily, the other
form, determines how we live eternally.
Internal poverty is the poverty of the soul. It
describes the unmoved soul. The soul that lives a
purposeless life. The heart that beats, but has
already died. Because while the body cries and
bleeds and feels pain from the material world, the
soul is untouched by these things. There is only
one thing that can cut or stab or impoverish the
soul. There is only one thing that can kill it: to
deprive it of its’ only true need: to be close to its’
Originator. To be near to God.
The Prophet (pbuh) explains that the true
poverty is not one’s lack of wealth in this life. True
poverty is standing poor on the Day of Judgment.
Despite this reality, we continue to live this life
feeding our bodies, but starving our souls. The sad
irony of this focus is that the body we tend to is
only temporary, while the soul we neglect is
eternal.
What impoverishes and kills the heart? It is
allowing the heart to love anything as it should
only love God. See the heart was created with a
very particular nature and for a very particular
purpose. When you fail to use any created thing for
the purpose for which it was created for, it breaks.
It dies. The heart was created by and for God. The
heart was created to know and love God. The heart
that is given to or filled by any other thing, suffers
the most painful impoverishment and death.
The human heart is like a boat in the ocean of
dunya. The boat that allows the oceans water to
enter breaks and then drowns. The human heart
that allows this dunya to enter, breaks and drowns.
And becomes owned. Owned by this life. Owned
by our gadgets, our facebook, our jobs, the
distractions, the fashion trends, the marketing
tools, the money, the power, the status. The heart
that is owned by this life is a prisoner of the worst
kind. The heart that is owned by any other master,
than the Master of masters, is the weakest of all
slaves. That is true oppression. True poverty.
As human beings we enslave ourselves to
different things. Some of us are enslaved to money.
Some of us have enslaved our hearts to other
people. Some of us are enslaved to status or to our
careers. Ask yourselves what do you love most?
Most of us will say we love God most. We say this
with our tongues. We say this in our minds. But our
hearts, our actions, say otherwise.
What are you afraid of most? Just the thought
of losing what thing causes you so much anxiety
that you feel it physically? Is it your husband, your
wife, your money, your job? Is it your image? Is it
your figure? What is it?
When you’re given a choice, what do you do?
When God says to dress and act a certain way, and
society says the opposite, which do you choose?
Who defines beauty for you? Who defines success?
Who defines richness? Who defines poverty? What
type of poverty are you most afraid of?
The truth is we choose what we love most.
When we love money most, that’s what we choose.
When we love people more, they fill our hearts. We
think of them most. Our life loses center. We leave
the orbit of the Creator and enter the orbit of the
creation—a painful and unstable orbit. In the orbit
of the creation, we rise and fall with the wave of
the creation, the wave of praise and criticism, our
standards for success and failure come from the
creation, from society. The standard for richness,
the standard for poverty…comes from the creation.
From society.
But the standard given to us by God’s
messenger (pbuh) is different. Prophet Muhammad
(pbuh) told us:
“Richness is not having many possessions. Rather,
true richness is the richness of the soul.”
[Sahih Bukhari, Book 76, Number 453]
! Muka Surat 41