saima abdullah
my life iz 4 Allah
The Hardened Heart
The slave is not afflicted with a punishment greater than the
hardening of the heart and being distant from Allah for the Fire was
created to melt the hardened heart. The most distant heart from Allah
is the heart which is hardened. If the heart becomes hardened, the eye
becomes dry.
If four matters are exceeded in quantity, beyond what is necessary,
the heart shall become hardened:
Food, sleep, speech and sexual intercourse. A body afflicted by
disease does not derive nourishment from food or water, similarly a
heart diseased by desire does not benefit from admonishment or
exhortation.
Whosoever desires to purify his heart, then let him prefer Allah to
his desires.
The heart which is clinging to its desires is veiled from Allah,
commensurate to the degree that it is attached to them. The hearts are
the vessels of Allah upon His earth, hence the most beloved of them to
Him, are the ones most compassionate, pure and resistant to deviation.
They (the transgressors) preoccupied their hearts [in the pursuance]
of the Dunya, would that they preoccupied them with Allah and the
Hereafter, then surely they would have reflected upon the intended
meaning of His poignant Words and Verses. Their hearts would have
returned to their masters with a wisdom, marvelously curious and [in
possession] of the rarest of precious gems.
If the heart is nourished with remembrance, its thirst quenched with
contemplation and cleansed from corruption, it shall witness
remarkable and wondrous matters, inspiring wisdom.
Not every individual is endowed with knowledge and wisdom, and
assumes its character is from amongst its people. Rather the People of
Knowledge and Wisdom are those who infused life into their hearts by
slaying their desires. As for the one who slew his heart and vitalized
his desires, then knowledge and wisdom are naked upon his tongue.
The destruction of the heart occurs by security [in this Dunya] and
negligence, its fortification occurs by fear and remembrance. If the
heart renounces the pleasures of the Dunya, it settles upon the
[pursuance] of the pleasures of the Hereafter, and amongst those who
call towards it. Should the heart become content with the pleasures of
the Dunya, those pleasures [of the Hereafter] cease [to continue].
Yearning for Allah and His meeting is like the gentle breeze blowing
upon the heart, extinguishing the blaze of the Dunya. Whosoever caused
his heart to settle with his Lord shall be in a state, calm and
tranquil, and whosoever sent it amongst the people shall be disturbed
and excessively perturbed.
For the love of Allah shall not enter a heart which contains the love
of this world, except as a camel which passes through the eye of a
needle.
Hence, the most beloved servant before Allah is the one whom He
places in His servitude, whom He selects for His love, whom He causes
to purify his worship for Him, dedicates his objectives for Him, his
tongue for His remembrance, and his limbs for His service.
The heart becomes sick, as the body becomes sick, and its remedy is
al-Tawbah (repentance) and protection [from transgression].
It becomes rusty as a mirror becomes rusty, and its clarity is
obtained by remembrance.
It becomes naked as the body becomes naked, and its beautification is al-Taqwa.
It becomes hungry and thirsty as the body becomes hungry, and its
food and drink are knowledge, love, dependence, repentance and
servitude.
By: Imam Ibn ul Qayyim al Jawziyyah
