The Muslim Optimist

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The shrine’s gold-and-silver door is opened annually for the even during hajj season. Ministers and body guards stay near. Muslim dignitaries take this opportunity to perform a tawaf and kiss the Black Stone,  encased in silver. Embedded in a corner of the Kaaba, the Black Stone is believed to be the only extant piece of Abraham’s original shrine. The Kaaba itself has remained empty since A.D. 630, when Muhammad cleansed it of idols and reaffirmed Islam as a one-0God faith. National Geographic, November 1978

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Disease of the Heart: Notes 

By Ibn Taymiyyah

**The notes are directed towards the male but they are equal in importance and need for females

 

Types of Hearts

Three types of Hearts:

 1)      Corrected/Sound Heart: a heart that is secure of all desires that oppose command of Allah. There is no impediment in preventing the heart in accepting the truth, loving it and giving it preference other than coming to know of it. This heart is a living heart.

2)      Dead Heart: a heart who’s base desires are its leader, carnal desires are its commander, ignorance is its driving force and negligence is the vessel upon which is embarks . This is a heart with no life.

3)      Heart with a defect: This heart is alive but has a problem. It has love for Allah, faith, sincerity, and trust but also love for vain desires and preference for them. This heart continuously waivers between that which is bad for him and that which is good for him.

 

Four Types of Heart (Hudhayfah)

1)      Clear Heart that us illuminated and this is the heart of a believer (Mumin)

2)      Encased Heart which cannot see or hear, this is the heart of a disbeliever (Kafir)

3)      Inverted Heart or two faced heart this is the heart of a hypocrite

4)      Heart with two attractions, hypocrisy and Iman. 

 

The heart that is alive, its owner is alive. The heart contains modesty which prevents it from performing evil and despicable actions because in modesty lies immunity from these actions. Modesty is from faith. 

 

 

“The example of those who disbelieve is like that of one who shouts at what hears nothing but calls and cries cattle or sheep - deaf, dumb and blind, so they do not understand” 2:171

 

Chapter one: Concerning the aliments of the heart and cures

As the body is infected with a disease, it degenerates. The same goes for the heart-there is a degeneration, failure in perception and desire and doubts upon doubts. The Quran is the cure for the heart and righteous actions cure the heart. Zakah (purification) in Arabic means growth and an increase in correction, something has Zakah if it has grown in correction. Sadaqah extinguishes sins as water, causing the heart to be purified.

 

 

Take, [O, Muhammad], from their wealth a charity by which you purify them and cause them increase, and invoke [ Allah ‘s blessings] upon them. Indeed, your invocations are reassurance for them. And Allah is Hearing and Knowing. 9:103

 

Sins affect our heart. Leaving indecent actions leads to purification, We need to purify ourselves in order to attain a sound heart.

 

 

He has succeeded who purifies it, And he has failed who instills it [with corruption]. 91:9-10

 

Adl (Justice) is I’tidal (Balance) and in balance lies the correction of the heart, just as in Zulm (imbalance) lies its corruption. Every sin that a person commits oppresses him. The person does an action and will receive the fruit of his action whether it be good or bad. “…It will have [the consequence of] what [good] it has gained, and it will bear [the consequence of] what [evil] it has earned.” (2:286) Actions whether good or bad can affect your heart, good actions constitute justice for your soul and bad actions oppress your soul. “Whoever does righteousness - it is for his [own] soul; and whoever does evil [does so] against it. And your Lord is not ever unjust to [His] servants.” (41:46).

 

Chapter Two: Envy is a Sickness of the Heart/Soul

 

Two types of Envy:

1)      “Ghubta”: desire to possess the blessings bestowed upon the one who is envied

2)      “Hasad”: desires the good condition of the envied

a.       Dislike of blessing on another and takes pleasure in the removal of the blessing

b.      Dislikes the superiority of that person over him, desires to be like him or better, this can be called Ghubta.

 

Ibn `Umar (May Allah be pleased with him) reported: Messenger of Allah (sws) said: “Envy is justified in regard to two types of persons only: a man whom Allah has given knowledge of the Qur’an, and so he recites it during the night and during the day; and a man whom Allah has given wealth and so he spends from it during the night and during the day.’

Cure for Jealousy

 

Treat Jealousy with patience, taqwah and dislike for it in our souls.  Those who believe do not take a stance against the envied and do not help those who oppress them. 

 

Causes of Jealousy

 

The cause is commonly rooted amongst those that share authority or property in the case when some take a share from it and others are left with none. Also amongst those that debate and their opponent is better than them such as in the story of Prophet Yusuf (AS) and Adam (AS). It was said that: “The first sins by which Allah was disobeyed were three: Covertness by Adam (AS), Arrogance by Iblis, andJealousy by Qabil and Habil.” An illness if a sickness that harms and corrupts the heart, jealousy is an illness and is mentioned along hatred because the envier dislikes the bounty bestowed by Allah upon the person envied and begins hating the person. Hatred of what is being bestowed leads to hatred of the one it is bestowed on. The Prophet (sws) said (Anas bin Malik (R) reports), “Do not envy each other, do not hate each other, do not oppose each other and do not cut relations. Rather be servants of Allah as brothers…”

 

Between Jealousy and Miserliness

 

Greed is a sickness as is miserliness and jealousy is worse. The Prophet (sws) stated (reported by Abu Dawud), “Jealousy eats away at good deed, just as fire eats away a firewood and giving charity extinguishes sins just as water extinguishes fire”

 

“…And whoever is protected from the stinginess of his soul - it is those who will be the successful.” 59:9

Chapter Three: The Disease of Desires and Passionate Love

 

Miserliness and jealousy are sicknesses to the soul that hate that which would benefit it and love that which would harm it. This is why jealousy was mentioned alongside hatred and resentment. The sickness of desire and passionate love is the soul loving that which would harm it coupled with its hatred of that which would benefit it.  

 

There are two thoughts on passionate love:

1)      Falls into the category of intentions and wish (most famous opinion)

2)      Falls into the category of imagination and fantasies, it is a corruption of the imagination since it causes one to depict the one who is loved in other than reality.

 

Passionate love is love that exceeds the proper bounds and it is only employed with regards to a man loving a woman or child. Examples are men who leave what is obligatory for the woman they love, single her out of inheritance she does not deserve, keep her happy but harm his religion, goes into excess spending on her, and makes unlawful things possible for her. It is a sickness that corrupts the religion and objectives of the one who possesses it, his intelligence and then his body. When the soul loves something it will do all that is can to attain it.

 

Passionate love is a psychological sickness which afflicts the mind and body by liking melancholy through weakness and emaciation. The heart afflicted by love is names by its connection to the loved, either by seeing, touching, hearing and thinking about it. If he gives into the desire then the sickness becomes stronger and becomes a way which the grievance is increased.

 

The only cure for the sick is to remove the sickness by removing the love for it from the heart. For those who hold back and are patient on their desires, Allah is reward him for his taqwah.

 

 

“…Indeed, he who fears Allah and is patient, then indeed, Allah does not allow to be lost the reward of those who do good.”” 12:90

This holds true for all sicknesses that afflict the heart. When the soul pursues that which anger Allah, and the person prevents himself from this, fearing Allah, then…

 

  

 

But as for he who feared the position of his Lord and prevented the soul from [unlawful] inclination,

 

Then indeed, Paradise will be [his] refuge.

79:40-41

We ask Allah that he eliminates all of these illnesses from our hearts and we seek refuge with Allah from evil manners, desires, and sicknesses.

 

The Natural Inclination of Heart is to Love Allah

 

The heart has only been created for the worship of Allah,

 

 

“So direct your face toward the religion, inclining to truth. [Adhere to] the fitrah of Allah upon which He has created [all] people. No change should there be in the creation of Allah . That is the correct religion, but most of the people do not know.” 30:30

Our natural disposition is to love and worship Allah. The messengers were sent to affirm this disposition and to perfect it, not to alter it.

 

Preventative measure from Passionate Love

 

1)      Repenting to Allah and loving and to know that this is more satisfying and purer than anything else and nothing will be left to love alongside Allah

2)      Fearing Allah, for indeed fear is opposite of passionate love and will remove it.

 

Everyone who loves something with passion, this love can be removed by loving that which is more beloved to compete with it. This love can also be removed by fearing the occurrence of a harm that is more hateful to one than leaving this love. When Allah is more beloved to the servant than anything else and more feared by him than anything else, he will not fall into passionate love or find any love that will compete with love for Allah.

 

Some Cures For the Heart 

 

Every host loves that people come to his table spread, the Quran is the table spread of Allah.

 

Things that nourish the heart:

-Supplication at night

-Times of Adhan and Iqamah

-Prostration

-Ends of prayers

-Repentance

-Dhkir

-Eagerness to obligatory duties

-Remembering that help from Allah comes with patience, relief comes with anxiety and distress

-Remembering that all praise and thanks are to Allah

-Remembering that Abundant peace and blessings are to the Prophet Muhammad (sws)

‘O Allah give my heart its piety And purify it, for you are the best who can purify it You are its protector and guardian’.

More Knowledge Konnection: http://destination-jannah.com/ 

(Source: wardatuljannah)

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