The Place Where the Divine Tent is Erected: Grieved Hearts
Human nature inherently seeks joy, ease, and worldly happiness; perceiving sorrow and hardship as a disaster. However, in Sufi depth, the breaking of the heart and a person’s feeling of being without support from worldly causes is the moment when God draws closest to that heart. Shaykh Geylani narrates a sacred hadith conveying this immense good news: “I am with those whose hearts are grieved for My sake.” When a believer renounces worldly desires for the sake of Allah, or is abandoned by transient friends, and their heart breaks, then the compassion and light of God itself seep into the cracks of that brokenness. That sorrow is, in fact, a herald of divine healing.
Becoming a Royal Guest
The grieved servant who cuts off hope from the world and its transient existence and turns his face completely towards Truth, finds immense divine proximity (unsiyyah). “Remembering Him draws your heart closer to Him. And you enter the house of closeness, becoming a guest. Every guest is treated with generosity, especially the guest of the king.” The simple and fleeting consolations of this world are replaced by tranquility and knowledge directly bestowed by God, who is the King of Kings. That grieved heart has become the most valuable guesthouse of the universe.
A Temporary Prison, An Eternal Palace
The sorrows, griefs, and illnesses endured in this temporary world are the price for eternal happiness (serenity) in the hereafter. Those who shed tears and grieve for God in this world, upon arriving at their abode in the afterlife, perform the highest form of gratitude by saying, “Praise be to Allah, He has removed sorrow from us” (Fâtir, 34) 17. While those who are distracted by the false laughter of the world tumble into eternal darkness; those whose hearts are grieved for God’s sake attain an eternal smile in the light of divine love in both worlds.