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 All
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
(saw). 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 (saw)."
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 (saw). 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
Thisi s 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 (saw) 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.
May Allah help and guide us and heal our broken heart,Ameen
