The human heart

  

The human heart

 

The Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) said:  The person, who turns to Allah with all his (or her) heart, Almighty Allah suffices for all his needs and grants him sustenance from such an entirely unexpected source.  The person who turns to the world, Allah Most High hands him (or her) over to the world.

 

Hadhrat Junaid Baghdadi (May Allah shower His Mercy on him) says:  Almighty Allah channels absolute virtue to the hearts to the extent that they remember Him sincerely.

 

        The heart is a strange thing given to humankind.  What is even more delightful is that everyone and everything assails the heart only.  This heart is surrounded by hundreds of attachments.  The more the relationships and attachments increase and the love of others takes root in the heart, the love of Allah Most High decreases correspondingly.  Almighty Allah wants that one should have relations with others as per need but the real attachment should be with Almighty Allah Himself.  Love for others should be there for namesake and real love should be for Almighty Allah Himself.

 

For this reason, we have been given commands.  If you look at it a bit carefully, you will get to know that the real reason behind all the rules is that we don’t develop absolute attachment with anybody else.  For e.g., when our hearts are attached to our relations, children, relatives, friends and acquaintances and we are sitting with them enjoying their company, immediately an announcement is made on behalf of Almighty Allah, the Muezzin sounds the Adhaan from the mosque: My slaves!  You are getting too much attached to others, We don’t like it.  Come!  Break off all your attachments and come and stand before Us.  This way, by calling into the mosque 5 times a day, we are being conditioned to break away all other attachments.

 

When our hearts get stuck in eating, drinking and sexual desires and these attachments keep increasing.  Thus, in Ramadhan, the habits of eating, drinking and sex are detached during the day and sleep is reduced during the night so that these attachments don’t increase and the attachment with Almighty Allah is not affected.

 

When the heart of a worshipper is immersed in one’s business, lands, factories and warehouses, when the heart is inundated with the love of one’s land, then to detach their hearts Hajj is made Obligatory (Fardh) and one has to leave one’s land, one’s business, home and hearth and wander about in the valleys and jungles so that except the attachment to Allah Most High no other attachment takes root,.

 

In the same way, when attachment to wealth grows, to check that attachment, we are ordered to give Zakaat, sacrifice animals and others forms of charity so that the slave forgets everyone and attaches himself (or herself) to Allah Most High.

 

Hadhrat Shamsuddin (May Allah shower His Mercy on him) says:  A Pure Heart (Qalbe Saleem) is the heart which is free of ascribing partners to Allah and free of lies, rancor, jealousy, miserliness, pride and free of the love of the material world and wealth, etc.  Thus, the heart is a paradise in this world itself and in the netherworlds and in the hereafter also, it will enter paradise.  A heart will not become pure unless and until it refrains from the following 5 things:

 

From associating someone/something with Almighty Allah which is against the Oneness of Almighty Allah

 

From (reprehensible innovations) which are against Sunnah

 

From lust which is against the command of Almighty Allah

 

From heedlessness which is against the remembrance of Almighty Allah

 

From the desires of the self, which are against sincerity

 

These 5 things are also veils and stop one from the closeness of Almighty Allah.

 

Hadhrat Ibn ‘Ata (May Allah shower His Mercy on him) says:  Making the heart heedful of Almighty Allah is the best worship as the good deeds of the inward aspect are better than good deeds of the outward aspect.

 

The heart is related to the body in such a manner that whatever we do with our body, it has an effect on the heart.  Good deeds create radiance and bad deeds darken the heart.

 

Hadhrat Abu ‘Ali Ahmed bin Muhammad Roodbari (May Allah shower His Mercy on him) says: The heart gains wisdom when it gives up the love of the world and worldly wealth.

 

Hadhrat Malik bin Deenaar (May Allah shower His Mercy on him) says:  When the disease spreads inside the whole body, one doesn’t like eating and drinking and this is the state of the heart as well.  If the heart is filled with the love of the world, then advice has no effect on it and neither does it gain the love of Almighty Allah.

 

Sultaan Ul Mashaaikh Hadhrat Khwaja Nizamuddin Auliya (May Allah shower His Mercy on him) says:  Gladdening the heart of somebody and assuring that person and providing succor to that person is the best of all deeds and the best means of gaining closeness to Almighty Allah.

 

He also said:  I was given a book in my dream, in which was written:  As much as possible provide succor to the hearts as the heart of a believer is the seat of divine secrets.

 

He also says:  After reaching the station of Sincerity and Annihilation (Ikhlaas Wa Fanaaiyat), the heart of the Seeker (Saalik) becomes free of sorrow, difficulties and vengeance and there is no strength left at all to hurt anyone.  Then the Seeker becomes not only generous with his (or her) friends but also becomes grateful towards one’s enemies and prays for them as if the enemy is also someone who grants favors and the hurts of the heart are rare gifts and the salve of the heart on which involuntarily the heart prays for the enemy.

 

Hadhrat Sultan Ji (May Allah shower His Mercy on him) says:  If there is enmity between 2 persons then the method of removing the enmity is that one empties one’s inward aspect of all enmity.  Then the hurts from the other will also be lessened.

 

[Excerpted from Mawaaiz-e-Hasana, Vol. 2]