Reclaim Your Heart

T
HE
 D
ARKEST
 H
OUR AND THE
 C
OMING OF
THE
 D
AWN
According to a well-stated proverb, the darkest hour is
just before the dawn. And although astronomically the
darkest point is much earlier, the truth of this proverb is
metaphoric—but in no way less real.
So often we find that the darkest times in our lives are
followed by the most precious. Often, it is at the moment
when everything looks broken that something least
expected lifts us and carries us through. Did not Prophet
Ayoub (as) lose everything one by one, before it was all
given back and more?
Yes. For Prophet Ayoub (as), the night was real. And for
many of us, it seems to last forever. But Allah does not
allow an endless night. In His mercy, he gives us the sun.
Yet there are times when we feel our hardships won’t
cease. And maybe some of us have fallen to such a
spiritual low in our deen (religion) that we feel
disconnected from our Creator. And maybe for some of us,
it’s so dark, we don’t even notice.
But like the sun that rises at the end of the night, our dawn
has come. In His infinite mercy, Allah has sent the light of
Ramadan to erase the night. He has sent the month of the
Qur’an so that He might elevate us and bring us from our
isolation to His nearness. He has given us this blessed

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month to fill our emptiness, cure our loneliness, and end
our soul’s poverty. He has sent us the dawn that we might
find from darkness—light. Allah says,
“He it is Who sends blessings on you, as do His angels,
that He may bring you out from the depths of Darkness into
Light: and He is Full of Mercy to the Believers.” (Qur’an,
33:43
)
And this mercy extends to all who seek it. Even the most
hardened sinner is told to never lose hope in God’s
infinite mercy. God says in the Qur’an:
“Say: “O my Servants who have transgressed against their
souls! Despair not of the Mercy of Allah. For Allah
forgives all sins: for He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.”
(Qur’an, 
39:53
)
Allah is the Owner of mercy, and there is no time when
that mercy is showered more upon us than in the blessed
month of Ramadan. The Prophet has said regarding
Ramadan: “Its beginning is mercy, its middle is

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forgiveness, and its ending is liberation from the Hellfire.”
(Ibn Khuzaymah, al-Sahih)
Every moment of Ramadan is a chance to come back to
Allah. Whatever we are now going through in our lives is
often a direct result of our own actions. If we are
humiliated, or feel low, it is our own sins which have
lowered us. It is only by Allah that we can ever hope to be
elevated. If we are consistently unable to wake up for
Fajr, or if we find it increasingly difficult to stay away
from haram (the forbidden), we must examine our
relationship with Allah. Most of all, we must never be
deceived. We must never allow ourselves to think that
anything in this world succeeds, fails, is given, taken,
done, or undone without Allah. It is only by our connection
to our Creator that we rise or fall in life, in our
relationship with our world—and with all of humanity.
But unlike humanity, our Creator doesn’t hold grudges.
Imagine receiving a clean slate. Imagine having everything
you ever regret doing erased completely. Ramadan is that
chance. The Prophet 
told us: “Whoever fasts during
Ramadan out of sincere faith and hoping to attain Allah’s
rewards, then all his past sins will be forgiven.” (Bukhari)
So given this unparalleled opportunity, how can we best
take advantage of it? Two often overlooked issues to keep
in mind are:

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