Public in our Hearts

And the crowd goes wild! Celebrating you and your accomplishments and your good deeds. Whether they witness it in person or see it advertised on social media, that you had a heart and did your part. You made time for Allah and you made time for the people. That reputation drives you forward to participate in more worship and community service on the world stage.

After all, why not take every opportunity to have an audience to your feats?

The hours go by and you’re sitting in the folds of the night, alone. And you pray and you pray to your Lord, all for yourself. For that ongoing success, for that ability to do good and for all the fame that comes along with it.

The bliss you feel is limited though by an entanglement of solitude vs congregation that lives on in all of us.

What things should be done in secret and which should involve others?

I remind myself, first and foremost, that our good deeds should be private, done only for the Lord. He and His Pleasure, no one else’s, should be the goal when we do good. When we pray or give charity or flash a smile, it’s for Allah. Not the number of cameras that caught us doing it, not the number of praises we get from passersby, and not the number of days that people remember it.

But this is for when we stand in front of the world. Intrinsically, it’s the opposite.

Yes, Dua’a is typically private, but let’s make our subject the public. As our hearts stand in front of Allah, let’s make Dua’a for others, for the Ummah. Pray for their wellbeing and pray for their forgiveness. Pray for the day all Muslims reunite in Jannah. Don’t populate your words asking for your success alone, ask for all of us to make forward strides together.

Our oppressed brothers and sisters,

Our hungry brothers and sisters,

Our poor brothers and sisters,

Our sick brothers and sisters,

Our harassed brothers and sisters,

Our jobless brothers and sisters,

Our homeless brothers and sisters,

Our incarcerated brothers and sisters,

Our student brothers and sisters,

Our struggling brothers and sisters,

Our brothers and sisters,

Our Ummah

They all need us.

The whole world doesn’t need to look at you act like a great Muslim. But a great Muslim needs to look out for the whole world and act selflessly with your Dua’a for them.

And your efforts and sincerity don’t go wasted. Every time you pray for someone else, an Angel follows it with “And you.”

By Anonymous