Revive Your Heart: Putting Life in Perspective

in shā
’
 Allāh
, next time’. That’s what he said—‘
in shā
’
Allāh
, next time’—and I wanted to slap him! This is what the 
mushrik
would
have said. This is what the people who didn’t believe in Allah would have said.
You’re saying this?
The fact that I had my third daughter I can actually celebrate those words of
the Prophet (
ṣallā Allāh ʿalayhi wa-sallam
) what bigger congratulations can
there be? And yet we have done such a number in many cultures across the
world on the stigma of having a daughter. Such a huge number has been done
there are even mothers-in-law! Mothers-in-law are mad at their daughters-in-law
because they didn’t have a son. And they are yelling at them for not having a
son! The kind of ignorance that is beyond imagination. You’re a woman

---

yourself! Do you realize what you are saying!? Do you realize how insane that
is? She is putting her daughter-in-law down and threatening her, ‘He’s going to
marry another one because you’re not capable of giving him a boy’. The level of
ignorance that we have reached and you would think these are people of Qur’an?
These are people of 
dīn
? And this ignorance, by the way, is not just limited to
people who aren’t religious. These are people with big beards and hijabs and
memorizing Qur’an, 
dīn
is everywhere else except here. What happened to these
āyāt
? Where did they go?
Ẓalla wajhuhū muswaddā
—his face turns black, his face turns dark, he gets
depressed and then Allah says he almost has no words—
min sū’ mā bushshira
bihī
— from the ugliness of the congratulations that he has been given. He’s
thinking why are you congratulating me? You should be feeling sorry for me. I
wish you never told me and then Allah adds—
wa-huwa kaẓīm
— and he is
constantly swallowing his anger.
When any of them is told about the birth of a female his face turns
dark, and he is filled with suppressed anger.
(Al-Nahl 16: 58)
He’s not letting the words out. 
Kaẓama
in Arabic to swallow anger. He looks
like something bad tasting is in his mouth all the time. He hears the girl crying
and it bothers him, it irks him. It’s a humiliation to him. And on top of that:
and he hides himself from people because of the bad news, thinking:
should he keep the child despite disgrace, or should he bury it in dust?
How evil is their estimate of Allah!
(Al-Nahl 16: 59)

---

He stays away and covers himself up from meeting people. He doesn’t like
socializing with people because he is too embarrassed. They might ask him and
he might even have to smile, have to say, ‘Yeah, 
mā shā
’
 Allāh
, it’s a girl’. He is
saying 
mā shā
’
 Allāh
with a smile but inside he is dying. He is dying. And Allah
is capturing this entire disgusting psychology, these disgusting emotions, Allah
is painting all of them in these 
āyāt
. 
Yatawārā min al-qawm min sū’ mā
bushshira bihī
—he stays away from people, out of the ugliness of the
congratulations he was given.
Ayumsikuhū ʿalā hūn
—this was the 
mushrik
’s thinking back in the day—
should I keep holding on to this girl despite the humiliation. Should I just let her
be even though this is such a terrible thing. You know the Arabs back in the day
the worst thing they used to do is in the next words—