It is easy to spot differences in one another, yet when we let our hearts connect to beat as one, the results are incredible. Looking for what divides us makes us smaller, whereas anticipating what unites us captivates us and is empowering.

The book “Hearts Connect” has at its heart, pun intended, the secret to the many ills facing humanity. The old complex of not being good enough, not speaking your truth, not feeling worthy is shattered when we realise we all have similar insecurities. When we work against the mental blocks that keep us stuck, coupled with faith in the divine, faith in a Higher power, we are able to achieve the unimaginable.

Shaytan, the devil, wants to keep us thinking small. He wants us to limit ourselves to the point we are unrecognisable. He derives pleasure in seeing us feel disconnected, lost and in pain due to not knowing or being aware of who we truly are. When we are aware of our potential and how close we are to being free of the burden of perceived judgement, we are able to shake of the weight of pessimism and fly freely as we were created. The soul is light and knows no boundaries, whatever it imagines it believes. This is why when we are told as a child you can be whatever you wish to be, it is completely true. However, as we grow older we learn of struggles and to expect them, we use our logical brain to set up in our minds how the world should operate, much of which goes against us.

Many others of us assume, this temporal life should be full of ease with no pain or sorrow, so we get disheartened when things don’t go the way we want immediately. We tend to give up and withdraw from it believing, it was never meant for us in the first place. Little do we realise that the reason you even had the thought in the first place was because it was meant for you. It was meant for you, but we are not in control of when it will manifest for you. For those who believe in a higher being, call it God, Allah, you know you need to tie your camel if you expect to stand a chance at obtaining your dreams, desires or goals. You recognise that the tying of the camel may mean you doing your own due diligence and working hard before you see the fruits of your labour.

If you have ever grown fruit or vegetables from a seed or seedling, you will appreciate the time, the care and the discipline it takes to help foster them to grow in order to reap what you have sown. You recognise the turn of the seasons and what must be down in each of them. Growing a goal or dream is no different. Due to entropy, weeds will inevitably grow around your precious plants and if you as gardener are not mindful and careful they may literally grow wrapping itself around your plants, strangling them to death. Likewise there will be situations you come across that if you don’t take the care and protect your boundaries, people will come along to kill off your goals and dreams. Note a life without goals or dreams is not a life lived as then we are no different to animals, who have no intellect and will not be questioned for what they do in this world. The point of our human lives is to be God’s representative on earth, His Khalifah, impacting others positively, leaving them in a better state than which we found them.

If we fail to prepare, we prepare to fail as there are laws of nature working all the time, and if you are not in tune with who you are and what you are doing, those laws may well be going against you. “By Time, surely mankind is in loss, except for those who encourage one another in goodness and encourage one another in patience.” – ch103 What other way is there to say thank you to God for the blessing of life, than to live a life worth living, rather than be buried with all your dreams still kept inside of you. They say some people die at 21 but are buried at 75. When you stop dreaming and believing in what you can do, what God can do for you then you are already dead as you are no longer using your heart to believe and yearn.

When you craft your life by pursuing your dreams you then intentionally live by du’a, supplications. You are constantly praying circles around what you want to achieve, you know your God can do it for you. You know whatever you desire God is greater than it so you pray in earnest. You understand that it is just a matter of time. Like when the Israelites, circled the walls of Jericho for six days and on the seventh day they circled the walls came tumbling down, it was only a matter of when as far as their faith was concerned. They didn’t know what would happen but they knew they had to do something for something. So they prayed for success and they made du’a. When any Muslim performs the ‘umrah or hajj, pilgrimage, one of the main rites is to circle the house of God seven times. The spiritual power this provides is magnanimous particularly if the person is supplicating at the same time. They are supplicating to overcome their own self and submit wholeheartedly to the lord of this house.

When a muslim is at the house of God, they know nothing of the affairs of others around them, they almost forget their own selves too. In that moment, all that occupies their mind is connecting to the Supreme Being, the Lord of all the worlds, the All Intelligent One who hears our most innermost thoughts. We plead for His support, strength so that we may return to our worldly lives with the vigour and trust that no matter what, all is well. They are able to anchor the knowledge, the faith that they have experienced at that time when they were so close to God and that memory, whenever they call on it will last them their life time, God Willing.