Book Review: Reflections on the first 80 pages of "Hati Sebening Mata Air" by Dr Amr Khaled
A little bit of a backstory: I was at a friend's house, doing my laundry, as the washing machine in my house broke down! While waiting for the rounds to be done, I borrowed a friend's book entitled "Hati Sebening Mata Air" which can roughly be translated to "(The) Heart as Clear as the Water Springs". (Based on further research, I feel like the original version is entitled "Islahul Quloob" which can be translated to correction of the heart [excuse my rusty Arabic]). The author himself sounded familiar to me as when I joined the halaqahs (studying circles) with my mum and other aunties in Christchurch, NZ (thinking back, I wonder how I combatted the feeling of awkwardness despite being the only high schooler there!), they used a book called "Quranic Reflections" which was written by the same writer.
A little bit info on the author: Dr Amr Khaled is an Egyptian Muslim influential da'ie (preacher) who preaches through his writings and on TV in Egypt. His educational background reveals a mixture of Islamic Education qualifications and general studies (Accounting). He is now based in the UK. (Now that I think about it, there is quite a lot of shuyookh (plural for shaykh) in the UK! MashaAllah, what an opportunity to learn more about the deen here!) A lot of his books are actually compilations of his sermons/lectures.
Reflection on the first 80 pages of the book (LOL, it's too obvious that I didn't get the chance to finish the book!)
I'll split this into four parts - just like how the book is compartmentalized into chapters: the introduction, the notion of 'Ikhlas', the notion of 'Niyyah', and the notion of 'Taubah'.
1. The introduction highlights the subject of the title itself: the heart! The heart is depicted to be the king of all our body parts. It is in control. It reminds me of this hadith/narration: I'd like to highlight the last sentence: "There is a piece of flesh in the body if it becomes good (reformed) the whole body becomes good but if it gets spoilt the whole body gets spoilt and that is the heart".
I'll split this into four parts - just like how the book is compartmentalized into chapters: the introduction, the notion of 'Ikhlas', the notion of 'Niyyah', and the notion of 'Taubah'.
1. The introduction highlights the subject of the title itself: the heart! The heart is depicted to be the king of all our body parts. It is in control. It reminds me of this hadith/narration: I'd like to highlight the last sentence: "There is a piece of flesh in the body if it becomes good (reformed) the whole body becomes good but if it gets spoilt the whole body gets spoilt and that is the heart".
2. The first concept/notion explained was "Ikhlas". Personally, "ikhlas" has always meant "sincerity" to me as in Malay, that is the literal translation of it (I know, the Malay language has tons of borrowed words!)
A particular quote I liked was: "Ikhlas is a secret between Allah and His servant. It is unknown to the angels, thus it can't be written by them. It is unknown to the shaytaan, thus it can't be attacked by them." To me, the quote encapsulates two things: its secretive nature and its consequently powerful nature.
Whether or not your 'ibadah (acts of worship) is ultimately accepted by Allah is governed by the presence of "ikhlas" i.e. doing it for the sake of Allah. (Recap: the acceptance of 'ibadah is governed by two things: the sincere intention ("ikhlas"), and the correct way as prescribed by the Qur'an and Sunnah (as taught by Prophet Muhammad S.A.W)
Another point which caught my interest was the analogy of pure milk,"labanan khalisan", to ikhlas in surah an-Nahl:
Milk is pure - not mixed with blood or excretion despite all of those coming from the same body of an animal!
In the same way, ikhlas should be pure from impurities!
3. The second notion illustrated by Amr was "Niyyah" which can be translated to "intention". Of course, the hadith on Niyyah in Imam Nawawi's 40 hadeeth was quoted by the author. "Our actions are (judged) according to our intentions!"
A particular quote I liked was: "Ikhlas is a secret between Allah and His servant. It is unknown to the angels, thus it can't be written by them. It is unknown to the shaytaan, thus it can't be attacked by them." To me, the quote encapsulates two things: its secretive nature and its consequently powerful nature.
Whether or not your 'ibadah (acts of worship) is ultimately accepted by Allah is governed by the presence of "ikhlas" i.e. doing it for the sake of Allah. (Recap: the acceptance of 'ibadah is governed by two things: the sincere intention ("ikhlas"), and the correct way as prescribed by the Qur'an and Sunnah (as taught by Prophet Muhammad S.A.W)
Another point which caught my interest was the analogy of pure milk,"labanan khalisan", to ikhlas in surah an-Nahl:
Milk is pure - not mixed with blood or excretion despite all of those coming from the same body of an animal!
In the same way, ikhlas should be pure from impurities!
3. The second notion illustrated by Amr was "Niyyah" which can be translated to "intention". Of course, the hadith on Niyyah in Imam Nawawi's 40 hadeeth was quoted by the author. "Our actions are (judged) according to our intentions!"
One particular point reiterated by the author that I liked was something along these lines: When you try to make sure all your actions have the right niyyah/intention (is for the sake of Allah), you are effectively deterred from translating your bad intentions into actions. It makes sense! For example, if you wanted to carry on with your bad habit, and then suddenly, you ask yourself, "can this be for the sake of Allah?" and due to the bad nature of the act, of course, there wouldn't be a way for it to please Allah or to be for the sake of Allah! Consequently, you will be deterred from doing it!
Our niyyah becomes a reference point or an axis for us to differentiate good and bad actions!
4. As homosapiens, we are imperfect by nature. Thus, here comes the notion of "taubah" or "repentance". In other words, asking Allah for His forgiveness.
In order to value "taubah", we should know what "sins" are and how sometimes we forget some actions are "big sins" such as missing/delaying prayers on purpose. It is through this approach that Amr Khaled tries to correct the misunderstandings of "taubah".
"Taubah" has a trilogy in its conditions.
"Taubah" should be done frequently. Even the prophet repeatedly asks for forgiveness from Allah, despite his status of being ma'soom/maksum, through this recitation (which is actually in the ma'thurat):
Oh, since the du'aa mentions taking refuge in Allah from any shirk/syirik, it reminds of a point about riyaa' (which is a subtle form of shirk). It brings us back to the notion of "ikhlas" where we do things for the sake of Allah. Riyaa', on the other hand, is doing it to show off to people. One particular point on riyaa' which I liked was: doing a good thing for the sake of people (to show off to people) is riyaa'. Deciding not to do good things, for the sake of people, is riyaa'. Get it? Don't fall to the trap of shaytaan where you stop doing good things due to the fear of it being riyaa'.
There are also circumstances in which it is okay to show good actions so that it becomes an example for others to follow.
But try to do some hidden good actions purely for the sake of Allah. Ikhlas can become a shield in the face of musibaah. Again, ikhlas is a secret between Allah and His servant.
Our niyyah becomes a reference point or an axis for us to differentiate good and bad actions!
4. As homosapiens, we are imperfect by nature. Thus, here comes the notion of "taubah" or "repentance". In other words, asking Allah for His forgiveness.
In order to value "taubah", we should know what "sins" are and how sometimes we forget some actions are "big sins" such as missing/delaying prayers on purpose. It is through this approach that Amr Khaled tries to correct the misunderstandings of "taubah".
"Taubah" has a trilogy in its conditions.
- Feeling regretful of the sin
- Stopping from committing the sin
- Determined not to commit the sin in the future
"Taubah" should be done frequently. Even the prophet repeatedly asks for forgiveness from Allah, despite his status of being ma'soom/maksum, through this recitation (which is actually in the ma'thurat):
There are also circumstances in which it is okay to show good actions so that it becomes an example for others to follow.
But try to do some hidden good actions purely for the sake of Allah. Ikhlas can become a shield in the face of musibaah. Again, ikhlas is a secret between Allah and His servant.
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