Secrets of Divine Love: A Spiritual Journey into the Heart of Islam

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Just as when you read a beautiful and thoughtful book you are naturally inclined to ponder the brilliance of the author, when we reflect on the intricacy of our creation, it naturally points us to the unfathomable perfection of the Author who wrote us into existence". Secrets of Divine Love was written for the longing heart, for the one who is searching for something they have not been able to find. For the one who sometimes spirals into hopelessness and cannot help but feel too imperfect for a perfect God to love. This book is for the one who is at the edge of their faith, who has experienced religion as a harsh winter instead of the life-bearing spring it was sent to be by God.

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A marvelous book that gives a sound grasp of this great religion andnourishment to the heart we deeply need. This book is a source of majesty and beauty.” Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it." (Rumi). Connect with your faith: The journal is filled with a 100+ thought-provoking prompts designed to give you the space to feel, reflect and ultimately return to Allah. God sends hope in the most desperate moments. Don't forget, the heaviest rain comes out of the darkest clouds."In the beautiful exploration of death, A. Helwa reveals the fear of death as a “sign that we are holding on to something other than Allah.” Our view of death is erroneously narrow and negative: “Death is not extinguishing the light; It is only putting out the lamp because the dawn has come.” In Western society, we have come to misunderstand death, to fear it, and avoid discussing it. But A. Helwa argues: We do not worship God because God needs it, we worship God because we need it. Prayer is not you reaching out for God, it is you responding to God, who first reached out to you". In fact, I couldn't fast read it as every message of it made me think deeply, understand myself and the world surrounding me, burst into tears feeling the love and mercy of God, and feeling peace inside of me. I have found out that before reading this book, I didn't understand what peace truly feels, and I am soo much blessed having touched by the mercy and love of God. Buku ini sudah diterbitkan di beberapa negara seperti UK, US, Pakistan, India, Malaysia, dan Indonesia dalam bahasa Inggris. Kini hadir untuk pembaca setia, Secrets of Divine Love versi bahasa Indonesia. Selamat membaca!

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So often we are asked where and how one accesses the inner heart of the Islamic tradition, and now I can say, here it is!”

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Hajj is a perfect example of this acceptance of others for it nurtures a collective sense of unity as “fear and bias tend to be changed not through facts and data, but rather through relationships… [Hajj] is a spiritual journey that calls us to contemplate how attached we are to this life and how ready we are for death.” The rituals call us to shed our ego along with our comforts and recognise how needy and how dependent we are on the mercy of our Lord.

Secrets of Divine Love: A Spiritual Journey into the Heart of Secrets of Divine Love: A Spiritual Journey into the Heart of

Helwa covers key Islamic understandings of Allah, who we are, the message of the Qur'an, repentance and return, and the ecstasy of oneness. She does a fine job explaining the importance of salat (five-times-a-day prayer) as a means of tuning into Divine Love. She defines prayer as "swimming in the current of God's generosity and immersing every atom of our souls in gratitude for the blessing of being given another day to serve God's will on Earth." In sturdy chapters on Zakat: Giving as an Instrument of God; Ramadan, the Holy Month of Fasting; and Hajj: A Pilgrimage to God, Helwa presents these traditional pillars of Islam as poignant ways in which Muslims affirm to the world the Oneness of God. The book explores our roles as human beings, not through our eyes but through the eyes of the Creator. Studded with beautiful gems and words of wisdom, it is hard to deny the overwhelming feeling of love and belonging. “You are an everlasting spirit held in the mortal embrace of clay. You are not a human being meant to be spiritual, you are a spiritual being living this human being miracle”, writes the poet Aru Barzak. A Few Things to Consider Although this book will walk you through major concepts of Islamic spirituality, it is not a textbook on Islam. Instead of emphasizing every aspect of a Muslim’s spiritual practice, it highlights inspirational and practical insights from the Qur’an and Islamic tradition. However, before we jump into the ocean of divine love, there are a few stylistic things that I would like to further clarify to avoid any confusion. 1. I use Allah and God interchangeably as a means of articulating to the English speaker that God, the one transcendent omni- present reality, and Allah are one and the same. Although in Arabic the word Allah has many connotations that the English word “God” does not have, it felt important to use both, since the majority of Muslims are not born Arabic speakers. Also, since Allah transcends all language, I will often speak metaphorically in expressing different aspects of His holy qualities by using symbols and metaphors. 2. After the words “Prophet Muhammad,” “Prophet,” or “Muhammad” you will find the following Arabic symbol, , which stands for salla Allahu alayhi wa-sallam and translates to “Peace and blessings be upon him.” This emblem is included in the text because Allah says in the Qur’an to send blessings upon the Prophet every time his name is mentioned. As the Qur’an says, “Allah and His angels shower blessings upon the Prophet. Oh you who believe, send blessings on him and salute him with worthy greetings of peace” (33:56). In a sense, when we send blessings upon the Prophet we are following the sacred path (sunnah) of Allah and His angels. 3. Outside of reciting the words of the Qur’an, whenever the Prophet Muhammad spoke, his words were referred to as Hadith. These “Prophetic sayings” paired with the written Ane udah banyak baca buku Islami, tapi baru kali ini ane nemu buku Islami yang super keren dan berkesan yang dimulai sejak kata pengantarnya. Salah satu alasannya adalah karena bahasanya yang puitis sehingga bikin adem dan betah dibaca, sampe ga bisa berhenti. Diksi yang kayak gini bikin apa yang berusaha Helwa sampein ke pembaca jadi gampang meresap, soalnya langsung nancep di hati dan dari hati naik ke otak lalu dari otak berubah jadi aksi dan tingkah laku.Di sini, Helwa menggunakan pembuktian ilmiah, meditasi terbimbing, dan juga latihan praktis dalam buku ini. Sehingga kita bisa mengembangkqnnua untuk membedakan dan mengatasi berbagai macam kritik batin yang negatif yang ada di dalam diri kita. Ibaratnya adalah cahaya penuntun. Dimana buku ini akan mengembalikan pembacanya pada sumber kedamaian dan juga penyerahan Ilahi. us, not because of who we are, but because of how merciful and loving He is. Allah Is Love Allah is the origin and cause of love. Allah never stops loving you, because His love is eternal and has no beginning or end. Love is not something Allah does, love is something Allah is. You cannot separate love from God any more than you can separate water from the ocean. We can respond to Allah’s love by loving and worshiping Him, but our unwillingness to honor Allah does not affect His divine qualities, as Allah is entirely “independent of all creatures” (3:97). Whereas the human being can be kind, God is Kindness (Ar-Ra’uf); where we can be merciful, God is Mercy (Ar-Rahman). God is not just peaceful, He is Peace (As-Salam). God’s loving qualities do not change in response to our choices because God is not reactive. He is the cause of everything in existence.14 The Prophet explains that if every single human on Earth reached the height of spiritual piety—or if they were all the worst in existence—it would not add or take away anything from Allah’s sovereignty. The Prophet continues to say that if Allah chose to fulfill the prayer of every single human being at once, it would not decrease what Allah has “any more than a needle decreases what is in the ocean when it is put into it.”15 As the twentieth-century theologian, C.S. Lewis said, “A man can no more diminish God’s glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word ‘darkness’ on the walls of his cell.” Allah’s love for us never diminishes. What changes is our ability to be receptive to divine love. In fact, the word “hate” does not exist in the Qur’an in relation to Allah. The English translations of “God hates” can more accurately be translated as “God does not love,” which implies that our experience of Allah is always on the spectrum Through our endless material pursuits in this world, it can be easy to be heedless of our need for Allah and our supreme reliance on him. But we find something is always missing, a hole of longing: “The hole we carry inside, that we so desperately long to fill, comes from the experience of once being unified with all of existence.” DR. NAZITA LAJEVARDI, Assistant Professor at Michigan State University and author of Outsiders at Home: The Politics of American Islamophobia have said that the word Rahman linguistically implies that it is happening in the here and now.11 In other words, Allah is loving, caring, and merciful not just in a general sense, but in this very moment right now.12 Allah emphasizes His name, The Most Merciful (Ar-Rahman), over His name, The Most Loving (Al-Wadud) because Rahman is all- encompassing and present in all places and times. Love is not separate from but enfolded into the meaning of Rahman. “Limitless is your Lord in His Mercy” QUR’AN 6:147 Allah’s Rahman is like the sky, it covers everything in existence, including us and the worst of our sins. We were created from Allah’s mercy, and the Qur’an was sent like a ladder from Heaven to Earth, so that we could get closer to the Divine. Allah has opened the door for us; it is up to us whether we walk into the palace of His mercy and love. The Importance of Divine Justice It is important to understand that God’s mercy and justice go hand in hand. The word for justice in Arabic is ‘adl, which at its root means “to proportion, to create symmetry, to be equitable.” In other words, harmony and balance are dependent on justice. Jewish mystics metaphorically describe God’s justice as scolding hot water that, if poured on its own into a clay vessel, would break it. God’s mercy is described as freezing cold water; if poured on its own into a clay vessel, it would also break it. But if you pour them together, a neutralizing balance is created, preventing the vessel from breaking. The clay vessel in this story is a metaphor for the human heart, which is unable to contain only God’s mercy or only God’s justice. If God was only merciful there would be chaos on Earth because there would be no accountability; however, if God was only just there would be no one on Earth because no human being is perfect. As

of Divine Love Journal: Into The Heart of Review Buku Secrets of Divine Love Journal: Into The Heart of

This is simply a wonderful book, written with care and precision, weaving us into God’s beautiful tapestry.” God gave every single one of us unique abilities and talents, and based on what He gave to us, He will evaluate us. God does not grade us on a curve, He compares us to ourselves. Our work on Earth is to receive and cultivate the gifts given to us by God for the benefit of the entire creation. “The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.” PABLO PICASSO, ARTIST Helwa menulis buku ini setelah melewati perjalanan spritual yang panjang. Dalam satu wawancara disebutin kalo Helwa sempat nggak menyembah Tuhan mana pun selama hampir 10 tahun karena ia masih bingung dengan entitas Tuhan mana yang harus ia sembah. Lalu setelah mencari-cari dan berguru ke sana ke mari, hatinya pun tertancap di Islam dan jadilah ia seorang Muslimah yang taat, cerdas, dan menyenangkan sampe sekarang. Ramadan teaches us how discipline and boundaries don’t restrict our freedom, but actually lay the foundation for true freedom. Our addictions enslave us. Our attachments to our desires enslave us.” Helwa writes:Buku yang satu ini mengingatkan lagi mengenai pesan klasik bahwa Agama Islam diturunkan sebagai suatu rahmat pada semesta alam atau rahmatan lil alamin. Dengan begitu, semua aspek keislaman dalam hubungannya dengan ketuhanan, interaksi antar makhluk, dan kehambaan, seharusnya berdasarkan rasa cinta, bukan sebuah egoisme, rivalitas, ataupun kekerasan. A. Helwa not only unveils dozens of spiritual secrets hidden within the Qur’an, but she does so in an uplifting and gentle way that meets each reader exactly where they are on the path to God. While staying true to classical Islamic theology, A. Helwa’s emphasis on the forgotten teachings of love in Islam has a way of speaking not to just Muslims but to spiritual seekers of all traditions. Unlike your average book on religion that is focused solely on rules and outer practices, Secrets of Divine Love is a motivational and inspiring guide of how to experience the beauty hidden in the heart of the Qur'an and the Islamic tradition from a place of love, passion, and joy. If you have been longing to experience a more intimate and loving relationship wiht Allah, then this book was written for you.