Purification of the Soul: The Types of Heart

Purification of the Soul: The Types of Heart

Compiled
from the works of Ibn Rajab Al-Hanbali, Ibn Al-Qayyim Al-Jawziyya,

and AbuHamid Al-Ghazali.

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;

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." [Quran 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 judgment
of no other except that of His Messenger (peace be upon him).
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 light
of what He detests. When it gives, it gives for Allah. If it
withholds , 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 that His Messenger (peace
be upon him). A servant with a healthy heart must dedicate it
to its journeys end and not base his actions and speech on those
of any other person except Allahs Messenger (peace be upon him).
He must not give any precedence to any other faith , 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." [Quran
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
lust and desires, even if these are likely to incur Allahs displeasure
and wrath. It worships things other than Allah, and its love
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 Shaytan. 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 temp 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 (peace be upon him) and the Hereafter;
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.

 

References

1.
It has been related on the authority of Abud-Darda that the
Messenger of Allah (pbuh) said, "Your love for something
that makes you blind and deaf." Abu Dawud, Al-Adab, 14/38:
Ahmad, Al-Musnad, 5/194. Classified as hasan.

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