#118 Allah Will Heal Your Heart
Lesson from Surah Al-Qasas [28:10]
Salam there,
Today’s newsletter is about the beginning of Surah Al-Qasas. In this story, Firaun wanted to slaughter all newborn sons, so Allah inspired Musa’s mother to cast him into the river to save him.
To understand this better, I encourage you to read several passages from Surah Al-Qasas, which is Surah number 28 in the Quran.
[Al-Qasas: 28:10] The next day, Moses’ mother felt a void in her heart––if We had not strengthened it to make her one of those who believe, she would have revealed everything about him––
This is from Surah Al-Qasas, and one of my favorite ayat of this surah is talking about the mother of Musa a.s (alayhi as-salam).
I picked this ayah because it's actually very close to my heart for many reasons, most important of which is, all human beings will suffer emotionally traumatizing experiences.
We're going to be hurt because of loved ones, because of the loss of loved ones, because of sickness, because of the pain our loved ones will cause us, like the hurtful things our parents will say to us or we will say to our parents.
Or what our children will say to us, or the wife and the husband will say to each other, or friends will say to each other.
And we're going to go through traumatic experiences in life, like you know, job loss or home loss;
Or even worse.
How many people in the world are living in really horrific situations that we cannot imagine suffering?
Children going through things that I can't imagine my children even close to suffering from.
That's a reality that so many people face.
This particular ayah, to me, is an ayah of great hope because when people get scarred, people get emotionally damaged, then they feel like they're never going to be able to recover and move on with life again.
Musa's mother had the colossal task of taking her baby and putting the baby in the water:
A mother has to put her child in the water.
That's not even an imaginable thing a mother can do.
But she has two options, watch her child be slaughtered by soldiers before her eyes, or take this child and put him in a basket which hasn't been tested for waterproof, navigation by any means, and just throw him into the river.
And Allah says, when she threw the baby into the river, by Allah's inspiration, because she couldn't have gotten herself to do it emotionally; Allah empowered her to be able to do that.
He says, وَأَصْبَحَ فُؤَادُأُمِّ مُوسَى فَرِغًا : ‘Musa's mother's heart was emptied out.’
Like the trauma of having to let go of her child, and watch the child float away into a river, and you can't even access him anymore, and you don't even know what happened to him, if he drowned or not, if a gator got to him, if those horrible soldiers caught him, if it flipped over. . .
She knows nothing.
The worse thoughts may be crossing her mind. Allah says ‘her heart was emptied out’— فَرِغًا (farighan) — her heart became emptied out, void of all emotion.
You know somebody hears traumatic news, and they don't blink, they don't talk, they're emotionally paralyzed, that's the state she reached.
إِن كَادَتْ لَتُبْدِىبِهِ : ‘She almost gave up her secret’, she almost came out running and saying "That's my baby, that's my baby!"
But if she said that, he would've been killed.
Now Allah says, لَوْلَآَأَن رَّبَطْنَا عَلَى قَلْبِهَا, : ‘had We not firmed her heart’, had We not tied up her heart, had We not kept her heart together…
Allah took her فُؤَادُ which is a heart that's inflamed, and in the same ayah, He used a different word for فُؤَادُ which is قَلْبِ , He calmed her heart down and brought her back to a normal state.
And Allah is describing that He did that.
You know there are people that are emotionally traumatized and can never recover.
Why not?
Because Allah hasn't tied up their heart. Allah hasn't done that.
We as human beings don't have the ability to emotionally recover sometimes, but we're learning in this ayah that:
Allah has the ability to let us heal and move on.
You could say to yourself, I don't have the emotional capability of forgiving you, but Allah says I'll tie your heart, and I'll give you that ability.
You can say in your heart, “I'm too damaged by what happened, there's no way I can move on with my life”, but faith (Iman) in Allah is enough for you to be able to move on with your life.
لَوْلَآَأَن رَّبَطْنَا عَلَى قَلْبِهَا, : “had We not tied up her heart”,
لِتَكُونَ مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ, “so she could be from those who truly believe.”
What mother can get over the trauma of putting her child in the water and not being able to see anymore?
How is she going to get over that?
But Allah gave the strength of heart that not only did she get over it, she was able to think clearly afterwards and send his sister after him.
She wouldn't have been able to think at all had Allah not intervened, so Allah will intervene into our emotional states.
He will intervene.
And she's not a prophet, she's just a believer, which means this is an opportunity for you and me.
Whatever emotional trauma you're going through, know that Allah can intervene and give you peace of mind, peace of heart, and He can give you tranquility again.
Whether it's anxiety, fear, grief, or anger, whatever emotion, whatever thing has happened that scarred you, that's left you scarred; Allah can remove that scar entirely.
I pray that you are able to ask Allah for that genuine removal of scar, and that Allah gives you that firmness of heart so you can be of those who truly believe, and can live a healthy spiritual life, and a healthy emotional life.