Worship is instigated in the heart due to the love of a thing. 

The word 'اله' ‘ilaah’ in its root verb form denotes the meaning of loving something. Our hearts incline towards worshiping ALLAH more when our hearts are filled with love for HIM. We want to be of service to HIM and do what pleases HIM because we love HIM.

I was reflecting on how love brings about obedience, worship and service to the thing that is loved and also how a heart that is full of the love of other things cannot be filled with the love of ALLAH. It’s like a container that can only contain one type of water in it. If you put juice (love of ALLAH) in a cup but then put the cup under running water and keep filling it with the love of other things eventually there will be no juice and only water in the cup. Also if the cup already has attachments or stones that are stuck to its inner surface then the juice will not be able to fill that space. I was thinking about how in these times this...

Today I want to talk about losing a person, a relationship or something we love, whether it's via death or estrangement or any other situation. It is a reminder for myself and anyone else who has experienced loss on how to use the painful situation to improve ourselves and form a stronger connection with ALLAH (swt).

I see loss as a death in itself. It may or may not be the death of the actual person or thing but it is a death of a part of your heart that was attached to that person or that thing. It creates an empty space in your heart and at the initial blow, one can feel empty and torn.

The devil may tempt us to react with anger at the decree of ALLAH, anger towards others or anger at ourselves. He may tempt us to react with hate, apathy and self-hatred. This is when we may hear a devilish voice inside telling us that 'this is what we deserve' or that 'bad things always happen to me' or that ‘I should have done this or that’ but at this point we can...