Turning the Tide: Reawakening the Women's Heart and Soul

By Suma Din

A book on the journey and different stages of a woman's life, from the inception of the soul to the end of life on Earth. With contemporary thoughts, words of wisdom, guidance and inspiration.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kube Publishing Ltd
• Release date: Dec 22, 2020
• ISBN: 9780860377290

Book preview

And it is He Who has brought you into being from a single entity.

(Surah al-An[am 6:99)

Consider the human soul and the One Who shaped and gave it balance, how He imbued it with its capacity for moral failing as well as its God-consciousness.

(Surah al-Shams 91:7–8)

The Soul

The soul is that part of us that is an intangible reality, permanent yet elusive, constantly present yet unseen. Our soul is our centre, and the essence of our being.

To know ourselves, we need to recognise our souls. Before our time on earth began, our souls agreed to submit to al-Khaliq – the Creator who determines the nature and constitution of every creation. The One God, Allah.

Your soul in its original, pure state made this covenant. It agreed to worship none other than the One God. Now, in the soul’s earthly stay, it has an innate draw towards God and His wondrous signs. Every soul searches for inner peace, to be in harmony with its nature; it was designed this way. In today’s world, with its fixation on meeting physical and material desires alone, the soul is starved and seeks refuge in a variety of ways to ‘forget’ its emptiness. Still, the longing remains – the longing for a connection to the One greater than our selves.

You were entrusted with your soul, and the covenant it made. In your care, the soul needs to be nurtured on the remembrance of God. It needs to be fed on the contemplation of His innumerable signs in the vast cosmos and within the human self. It needs to be sustained by the grace of God and by seeking His guidance and forgiveness.

As water is the source of life on earth, our soul is the core of our being. It is unique and subtle like the ineffable clearness of water. It is free from anyone’s grasp. When our souls are valued and strengthened, then will we find our capacity and our worth, as deep and expansive as the widest ocean. Our soul, like the ocean, has a delicate balance where it’s ‘health’ is vital to humanity’s survival. A thriving ocean’s chemistry is best measured by its unseen floor, where it absorbs everything around it. How similar to the health of our invisible souls, in need of protection and investment if they are to be the life force they were created to be.

Myriad Voices

‘Where was my soul?

In the space between consciousness and the unconsciousness, where was my soul?

Through the rhythm of sleeping and waking, where is my soul?

As I drift in this earthly body, sleeping, waking, sleeping, waking, sleeping, waking,

sleeping, weeping. Seeking… where is my soul?’

‘Once, long ago, the soul was nurtured on the remembrance of its Creator. It was moulded and shaped, guided towards truth and balance-checking desires. Therefore, the soul found peace and, desiring good in all things, reached great heights.

What’s happened to the soul today? This is an age when carnal desires and instant pleasure and satisfaction have become the purpose of living. Every precious sense of the human being – taste, touch, sound, smell and sight – is gratified. No detail or comfort is overlooked.

The needs of the soul are neglected.

Spiritual needs go unnoticed.

Left aside, an outdated accessory.

The soul today is left to collapse and descend into annihilation, taking with it the heart and mind in a downward spiral, into the abyss of despair and conflict.’

‘I, your Soul, am the core of your being, the subtle reality.

I am Divinely created, and enter this world pure.

Before your bones and flesh took shape, I was there.

Present in the darkness of eternity, in the space between life and death.

Before your voice echoed your thoughts,

I spoke in unison with all humanity and affirmed Him as My Sustainer,

Creator of the Heavens and the earth.

Before your ears, the channel to your heart heard the sounds of this world,

I heard His call to worship and believe.’

‘Until my spiritual needs to know

and remember God are satisfied,

I shall not be at peace.’

‘Look inside for contentment.

In stillness, silence, solitude,

we can hear the whisper of contentment,

Like the whirling

in the seashell held up to our ears:

It was always there,

inside us,

not out

by the

sea…’

The Eternal Sources

The nafs (self) and ruh (soul) was brought into being by God, al-Bari[ – the Creator – who brings into existence a being out of nothing. The soul is entrusted to its owner to be cared for until it journeys back to God.

God is the Creator of all things, and He is the Guardian and Disposer of all affairs. (Surah al-Zumar 39:62)

He is God, the Creator, the Maker, the Bestower of forms and appearances. To Him belong all the most beautiful attributes of perfection. Whatever is in the heavens and on earth declares His Praises and Glory: and He is the Exalted in Might, the Wise. (Surah al-Hashr 59:24)

And We have created the human being in the best of moulds. (Surah al-Tin 95:4)

It is Allah who begins the creation then repeats it. Then shall you all be brought back to Him. (Surah al-Rum, 30:11)

‘Your Sustainer has a right over you, your soul has a right over you, and your family has a right over you; so you should fulfil the rights of all those who have rights over you.’ The advice of Salman al-Farisi, a Companion of the Prophet , to Abu Darda. (Bukhari)

‘Everyone starts his day and is a vendor of his soul, either freeing it or bringing about its ruin.’ (Muslim)

The soul lives beyond the boundaries of earthly existence into the Hereafter. This is central to our destiny.

And they ask you [O Muhammad] about the ruh. Say: ‘The knowledge of the ruh is with my Sustainer. Of its knowledge you have been given only a little.’ (Surah Bani Isra’il 17:85)

God is He Who excelled in the creation of everything that He has created. He began the creation of the human being from clay, then He made his progeny from an extraction of a mean fluid [from the male and female].

Then He fashioned him in due proportion and breathed into him something of His spirit, and He gave you the faculties of hearing, sight, feeling and understanding. And yet, little are the thanks you give! (Surah al-Sajdah 32:7–9)

The soul, the heart and the mind were all created in balance, in the state of fitrah – the natural state of the human being. When the souls were created, they agreed to the covenant, accepting Allah as their Lord, and it is this that opens up inner eyes to recognising the truth.

Allah has endeared faith [iman] to you and made it beautiful in your hearts. (Surah al-Hujurat 49:7)

Our Sustainer is He Who gave to each [created] thing its form and nature, and further, gave [it] guidance. (Surah Ta’ Ha’ 20:50)

On no soul do We place a burden greater than it can bear. Before Us is a record which clearly shows the truth. They will never be wronged. (Surah al-Mu’minun 23:62)

No misfortune can happen on earth or in your souls but is recorded in a decree before We bring it into existence. That is truly easy for God. (Surah al-Hadid 57:22)

‘Virtue is that which your soul and heart feel satisfied with. Sin is that which troubles the soul and about which the heart is uneasy and confused, even though people may give their legal opinions in its favour.’ (Muslim)

‘He is successful whose heart Allah has made sincere towards faith, whose heart He has made free from unbelief, his tongue truthful, his soul calm, his nature straight, whose ear He has made attentive and his eye observant. The ear is a funnel and the eye is a repository for what the heart learns. Successful is the one whose heart is made retentive.’