Reclaim Your Heart

T
HIS IS
 A
WAKENING
It’s hard to describe the feeling. Imagine living your entire
life in a cave and believing it was your whole world.
Then suddenly you step outside. For the first time in your
life, you see the sky. You see the trees and the birds and
the sun. For the first time in your life, you realize that the
world you once knew was false. For the first time, you
discover a Truer, more beautiful Reality. Imagine the high
of that realization. For a moment, you feel you can do
anything. Suddenly, nothing from your previous life in the
cave matters. You become empowered, fully awake, fully
alive, fully aware for the very first time. It is an
unexplainable feeling. This is the spiritual high that comes
with newly discovered Truth.
This is Awakening.
A convert to Islam knows this feeling. A born Muslim who
comes back to the deen knows this feeling. Any human
being, who lives their life away from God, and returns,
knows this feeling. This state is what Ibn ul Qayyim (RA)
calls ‘yaqatha’ (awakening) in his book ‘Madarij Al
Salikeen’ (Stations on the Path to God). He describes this
state as the first station on the path to Allah. This is the
state sometimes referred to as the “convert zeal”. When a
person first converts or starts coming back to Allah they
are often full of motivation and energy that others do not
have. The reason for this energy is the spiritual high,

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characteristic of this state.
Characteristics of the Station of Awakening:
Allah makes worship easier- While in this state, worship
becomes much easier. A person is so driven and
motivated that they may easily sacrifice everything for the
sake of the new reality they have discovered. This zeal
can take a person from 0 to 60 in no time. It’s like being
on spiritual steroids. The strength you have is not from
your own self, but from an aid that was given to you. In
this case the aid is given by God. Some may advise not
changing too much, too fast. I don’t think fast change is the
problem. I think arrogance is. I think hopelessness is. If
Allah gives you a gift whereby you are able to do more,
use it. But thank Him—not yourself, for that ability. And
know that the heightened state is temporary. You may go
from 0 to 60 in a very short time due to it, but when the
high passes, don’t lose hope and let yourself slip back to
0.
Temporary- Like every state in this life, this state is
temporary. Life is never linear. And neither is the path to
God. Not realizing this can cause despair and
hopelessness once it passes.