The heart is as vast as the sea…
Sometimes rain-laden clouds cover it, sometimes the clouds weep, and the sea overflows.
From heart to tongue, from tongue to pen it overflows…
There are days when it experiences tides between fear and hope.
There comes a day when the sound of the waves whispers melodies of hope. Either we reach eternal peace swimming with the melodies of hope or we feel like drowning in that sea.
On a stormy night, a sea as calm as a sheet, they sing together. Just like a polyphonic choir… The harmony of voice and rhythm arises from their contrasts.
As it is said to be attributed to Rumi, “The heart is the sea, the tongue is the shore. Whatever is in the sea washes up on the shore.” It is such a vast sea that it accepts whatever you put into it. Love, respect, loyalty, compassion, goodwill, or hatred, anger, hypocrisy, jealousy, lies, and slander… It returns them with interest. You meet people who touch your heart. You experience moments when your heart breaks. You open your heart to some people. You carry some people as heartache. There are people you win over with your heart, they become loyal friends. Some people’s hearts are hardened. Some are darkened. There are also those who find a way from heart to heart and walk the path together. As expressed in a saying attributed to Abdul Qadir al-Jilani, “Every heart gives off the scent of its own flower.”
Just as water has buoyancy, the heart also has a carrying capacity. If one day it cannot carry anymore, it heads towards its depths. Perhaps it gathers algae, or perhaps hope turns into a diver. It brings it up like a pearl. Some beautiful hearts share their burden, and everything becomes lighter, the heart becomes calmer, the soul reaches the shore of salvation.
We should strive to live by the hadith of our beloved Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), “When a servant commits a sin, a black spot appears on his heart. If he repents, it is polished and erased. If he commits the sin again, the black spot grows bigger until it takes over his heart.”[1] We should avoid both sin and the paths that lead to sin just as a small fish flees from a big fish. We should not let it swallow us. The waves hitting the shore of our hearts either bring us debris or pearls and corals.
[1] Tirmidhi, Tafsiru’l-Qur’an, 83.
