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In the name of Allah most gracious most merciful
Assalaamu alaykum wa rahmatuallahi wa barakatuhu
The Types of Heart
Author: Ibn al-Qayyim
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 judgement of no other except that of His
Messenger . 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 lght of what He detests. When it
gives, it gives for Allah. If it witoholds, 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 ." 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 . 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 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.
Notes:
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.
Allah Knows Best
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