In the Name of Allâh, the Most Beneficent, the Most
Merciful
By Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah
Just as the heart may be described in terms of being alive
or dead, it may also be regarded as belonging to one of three types; these are
the healthy heart, the dead heart, and the sick heart.
The Healthy Heart
On the Day of Resurrection, only those who come to Allah
with a healthy heart will be saved. Allah says:
"The day on which neither wealth nor sons will be of
any use, except for whoever brings to Allah a sound heart. (26:88-89)"
In defining the healthy heart, the following has been said:
"It is a heart cleansed from any passion that challenges what Allah
commands, or disputes what He forbids. It is free from any impulses which
contradict His good. As a result, it is safeguarded against the worship of
anything other than Him, and seeks the judgment of no other except that of His
Messenger Prophet Muhammad (Sallallahu-Alayhi-Wassallam) . Its services
are exclusively reserved for Allah, willingly and lovingly, with total
reliance, relating all matters to Him, in fear, hope and sincere dedication.
When it loves, its love is in the way of Allah. If it detests, it detests in
the light of what He detests. When it gives, it gives for Allah. If it withholds,
it withholds for Allah. Nevertheless, all this will not suffice for its
salvation until it is free from following, or taking as its guide, anyone other
than His Messenger Prophet Muhammad (Sallallahu-Alayhi-Wassallam) ."
A servant with a healthy heart must dedicate it to its journey's end and not
base his actions and speech on those of any other person except Allah's
Messenger Prophet Muhammad (Sallallahu-Alayhi-Wassallam) . He must
not give precedence to any other faith or words or deeds over those of Allah
and His Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. Allah says:
"Oh you who believe, do not put yourselves above Allah
and His Messenger, but fear Allah, for Allah is Hearing, Knowing. (49:1)"
The Dead Heart
This is the opposite of the healthy heart. It does not know
its Lord and does not worship Him as He commands, in the way which He likes,
and with which He is pleased. It clings instead to its lusts and desires, even
if these are likely to incur Allah's displeasure and wrath. It worships things
other than Allah, and its loves and its hatreds, and its giving and its
withholding, arise from its whims, which are of paramount importance to it and
preferred above the pleasure of Allah. Its whims are its imam. Its lust is its
guide. Its ignorance is its leader. Its crude impulses are its impetus. It is
immersed in its concern with worldly objectives. It is drunk with its own
fancies and its love for hasty, fleeting pleasures. It is called to Allah and
the akhira from a distance but it does not respond to advice, and instead it
follows any scheming, cunning shayton. Life angers and pleases it, and passion
makes it deaf and blind (1) to anything except what is evil.
To associate and keep company with the owner of such a
heart is to tempt illness: living with him is like taking poison, and
befriending him means utter destruction.
The Sick Heart
This is a heart with life in it, as well as illness. The
former sustains it at one moment, the latter at another, and it follows
whichever one of the two manages to dominate it. It has love for Allah, faith
in Him, sincerity towards Him, and reliance upon Him, and these are what give
it life. It also has a craving for lust and pleasure, and prefers them and
strives to experience them. It is full of self-admiration, which can lead to
its own destruction. It listens to two callers: one calling it to Allah and His
Prophet Prophet Muhammad (Sallallahu-Alayhi-Wassallam) and the
akhira; and the other calling it to the fleeting pleasures of this world. It
responds to whichever one of the two happens to have most influence over it at
the time.
The first heart is alive, submitted to Allah, humble,
sensitive and aware; the second is brittle and dead; the third wavers between
either its safety or its ruin.
Footnotes:
1. It has been related on the authority of Abu'd-Darda' that the Messenger of Allah said, "Your love for something that makes you blind and deaf." Abu Daw'ud, al-Adab, 14/38; Ahmad, al-Musnad, 5/194. The hadith is classified as hasan.
1. It has been related on the authority of Abu'd-Darda' that the Messenger of Allah said, "Your love for something that makes you blind and deaf." Abu Daw'ud, al-Adab, 14/38; Ahmad, al-Musnad, 5/194. The hadith is classified as hasan.
Courtesy of:
kalamullah.com
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