Heart > Head

 “I could run an arrow through my head, and I wouldn’t be at loss. In fact, my life will fall into place.”, I thought and chuckled.

 

In prostration (sujood) our heart’s position is physically above our heads placed on the ground. Think about it for a minute. Normally, the head is the crown of our body, directing our every thought and act. But in sujood, the closest you can be to your Creator, your heart is higher than your head. It implies that the heart knows better than the head. It implies that the heart understands what the head does not grasp. It implies that the head is a worldly organ, while the heart transcends. 

Because honestly, what is the source of all your troubles if not your tainted perception of everything around you? Your projection of whatever is going on in your head onto the outside world and making an elephant out of a mosquito (or something along those lines)?

The challenge lies in placing our heart above our heads not just in prayer but also in person. To let go of a perception of reality we singsong to ourselves and another drilled into us since school and tap into reality as Allah designed. And I’m not just talking on a small scale, I also mean to shackle our understating of how the world works. The state of economies and social justice and country borders and all those bigger things dictating how we think and act, in fact limiting us, to be moulded into a tiny man-made shoebox of a world.

Finally, don’t you think that it is plausible for the head to be in fact governed by the self (Al- Nafs) while the heart is the realm of the spirit (Al- Rouh)? Al- Nafs, the sinner and blamer and lowly version of you, versus Al- Rouh, the -well you know- godly perhaps part of you.

For one, I would rather place my heart above my head even if it means walking on my hands. But Allah has made it easier for us by calling us to pray regularly, reminding and teaching us how to ascend/rise/elevate الخ.