17 Aug Reminders for the Nafs
Here’s something I’m striving to teach my nafs—my spiritually flawed inner self—each day:
Every thought or feeling that passes through your mind and heart, even if deeply felt, does not need to be shared with the world or posted on social media. Some things you can keep between you, your nafs, and your Lord.
So before sharing or posting anything, ask your Rabb, humbly supplicating to Him: “O Allah, if sharing or posting this is good for my life and soul, then bless it for me and make it easy for me. And if sharing or posting this is harmful for my life and soul, then remove it from me and remove me from it, and make my heart content with that.”
In other words, I remind my fallible heart to each day heed the prophetic advice that we learn from Istikhaarah: Never trivialize the immeasurable benefit of taking a moment to consult your Creator before sharing anything with His creation, especially publicly. And never trivialize the potentially immeasurable harm of speaking or posting anything publicly—even if you imagine it to be harmless or beneficial.
That is, unless you are reasonably sure that you are not bringing unseen harm to your life or soul, or to that of others.
And surely, even this flawed human certainty is not possible unless you have first consulted your Merciful, All-Wise Rabb.
So I tell myself: Dear struggling soul, keep still your restless tongue, for you know not how its hasty movements can deeply harm the souls of those not encased in this body. And, by Allah, given the countless paths of pain your life has borne witness to before this moment, you should already well know the deep harm that this piece of flesh can bring to your own.
—from the journal of Umm Zakiyyah
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