Shahr Ramadhan Mubarak to you all beautiful souls
Bismillah
In my steps towards building some spiritual practices, I created something called the spiritual garden vision board to help myself with the stages of Al-Muhaasiba/ Al-Muraqabah, goal setting, and being self-vigilant.
Not to go too deep into this, I basically looked at seven key areas of life based around a Hadith by our 7th holy Imam Kadhim (as) on how to divide your day to be a purposeful, productive personality. I also took inspiration from a line from dua Kumayl
“Lord! O’ Lord, O’ Lord! I beseech You by Your Glory and Your Honour, by Thy supremely high attributes and by Your names to cause me to utilise my time, day and night, in Your Remembrance, by engaging myself in serving You (Your cause) and to let my deeds be such as to be acceptable to You, so much so that all my actions and offerings (prayers) may be transformed into one continuous and sustained effort and my life may take the form of constant and perpetual service to You”
The spirituality lawn is the base in the program as the lawn is the most important part of the garden, and from that lush lawn, I can grow, the family flower bed, my social botanical garden, my well- being rose bush, my intellectual fruit tree, I can lay my work or school pathway through the middle, which sits close to the community blossom tree. I recognised that the lawn that represents spirituality is the foundation of everything.
In this way, I keep adding to my own spiritual upliftment program according to the different areas of life, so one can lead a balanced life.
Takhliya
In relation to removing all the dust, clearing the heart of all rubbish, I called my own program, housekeeping my soul.
I realised that just as I cleared the rubbish each night, I must take a look at my deeds of the day and clear the rubbish from the day. I realised if I wanted to take lessons from the next day, I must clean the slate of my heart today, in a similar way, as I would wash the dishes I used to eat today, so I can have another meal tomorrow because eating a meal from a dirty plate will not be appetising even if the meal is mouth watering biryani with sweet jalabi.
I found journalling to be the best tool, and it would allow me to reflect.
If during the day I found myself a little annoyed, I would reflect on why and get to the root of the problem. I would be able to detect the triggers and not repeat these actions if the same trigger was posed again another time.
Tahliya
In relation to social life, when I saw something I did not like, I would first adjust my sight to see if that character is in me and work on that. I would also recognise things I did not like in others and make sure they don’t appear in my character.
In this way, believers became my mirrors.
I also found the Hadith, which highlights ten points to perfecting the intellect to be profound in relation to social life.
Indirect Riyadha
In relation to indirect Riyadha I found that It is only through a broken heart that the beauty of Allah (swt) and the light of Allah (swt) can find means to penetrate the heart on its journey towards perpetual joy. Each trail was a catalyst for feeling more encompassed in the mercy of The Sublime. With each trail I healed, finding ease in difficulty, almost like difficulty and ease, were woven together in the experience, and one can experience both simultaneously. I realised that I became comfortable when I was out of my comfort zone, and with this was deep holistic healing which became the fruit of a trail and after each experience, I felt I started a new phase in life.. It’s like a prize-winning art piece that had to depict the essence of peace in the art entry. The artist drew a chaotic scene with winds and storms, and in the corner, a bird completely at peace whole in this stormy environment.
Comments