---
title: "Oh Bilal, Make My Heart and Soul Peaceful"
event: "Patience"
session_number: 4
published_at: "2024-10-23"
canonical_url: "https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/oh-bilal-make-my-heart-and-soul-peaceful"
event_url: "https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/patience"
type: "event-session"
scripture_reference: "Ghurur al-Hikam, The Ordinances of Allah, Aphorism 2"
---

# Oh Bilal, Make My Heart and Soul Peaceful

*Session 4 of [Patience](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/patience) — 23 October 2024*

Every religious obligation you find difficult was designed to be difficult — and this session argues that is precisely the point.

Prayer requires you to stop, wash and dress a particular way; fasting means sitting with hunger and thirst all day; the hajj, the pilgrimage to Makkah, now means visas, expense and separation from home. None of this sits comfortably with a comfort-loving nature, the session argues — and that discomfort is not a flaw in the system, but exactly where patience in obedience does its work.

Drawing on Imam Khomeini's Sirr as-Salat, the Secrets of the Prayer, the session examines presence of heart in prayer, described as a bird jumping branch to branch, unable to settle while attached to worldly love — contrasting someone who owns nothing but is consumed by this world, with someone like Prophet Sulayman, peace be upon him, who possessed everything yet remained untouched by it. There is a warmer moment too: the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him and his family, asking his companion Bilal to call the prayer and "make my heart and soul peaceful."

The session closes on the Qur'an's promise that twenty steadfast believers can defeat two hundred, and the prayer facing Goliath's army: "pour down patience on us, and strengthen our foothold."

If the obligations are hard by design, what is patience in obedience actually training you for?

What the evening covers

Why the compulsory is uncomfortable. Prayer, fasting and hajj examined as obligations that were never meant to be easy.
The heart like a bird. Imam Khomeini's teaching on presence of heart in prayer.
"Make my heart and soul peaceful." The Prophet's words to Bilal before the call to prayer.
Twenty against two hundred. The Qur'an on patience as the deciding factor in battle.

## Scripture

> لَوْ حَفِظْتُمْ حُدُودَ اللّهِ سُبْحانَهُ لَعَجَّلَ لَكُمْ مِنْ فَضْلِهِ المَوْعُودَ.
>
> If you were to preserve the bounds of Allah, the Glorified, He would hasten for you His promised bounty.

— *Ghurur al-Hikam, The Ordinances of Allah, Aphorism 2*

## Programme

- [Watch the full session](https://youtu.be/kzO_0khydMk)
- [Sermon: Oh Bilal, Make My Heart and Soul Peaceful](https://youtu.be/kzO_0khydMk)

## Other sessions in this event

- [Session 8 — Burn the Ships](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/burn-the-ships) — 20 November 2024
- [Session 7 — The Gardener Who Never Saw the Fruit](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-gardener-who-never-saw-the-fruit) — 13 November 2024
- [Session 6 — The Man Who Shut His Door](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-man-who-shut-his-door) — 6 November 2024
- [Session 5 — The Rope Around His Neck](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-rope-around-his-neck) — 30 October 2024
- [Session 3 — The Head of the Body](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-head-of-the-body) — 16 October 2024
- [Session 2 — Stand for the Truth, Even If It Is Bitter](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/stand-for-the-truth-even-if-it-is-bitter) — 9 October 2024
- [Session 1 — Nothing But Beauty](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/nothing-but-beauty) — 1 October 2024

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_Read this session on the web: https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/oh-bilal-make-my-heart-and-soul-peaceful_