Our Hearts

Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Raheem

According to Diseases Of The Hearts & Their Cures by Sheikhul-Islaam Ibn Taymiyyah, there are three types of hearts.

1. The dead heart.  A heart containing no life, neither knowing or worshiping Allah (swt).
2. The correct heart: A heart in which opposes all desire that goes against Allah (swt).
3. The heart with some life but also with a defect:  A heart in which loves Allah (swt), has faith in Him, sincerity and trust towards Allah from those things that are essential to remaining alive.  However, this heart contains the love and preference to it's desires, despicable manners from those things that causes it's death and is constantly wavering between these two conditions.

Ponder for a moment... where does your heart sit?

Done pondering?  So let's work on this insha'Allah!  Let's work on getting ourselves to having the correct heart which is humble, soft and gentle.  Have you ever met a person who has a heart like that?  They radiate! Suban'Allah!  They simply draw you closer in a way that you cannot understand and this is from Allah (swt)!
May Allah (swt) Guide us and Soften all of our hearts and keep us from having a dry and hardened heart.

Allaah, the Most High, said: “There has come unto you an exhortation from your Lord, a healing for that which is in your breasts, a guidance and mercy for the believers.” [Surah Yoonus (10):57].

“O you who believe! Answer the call of Allaah and His Messenger when he calls you to that which gives you life, and know that Allaah comes in between a person and his heart. And verily to Him you shall be gathered.” [Surah al-Anfaal (8):24].

“He brings out the living from the dead, and brings out the dead from the living.” [Surah ar-Room (30):19].

In the book, The Purification of the Soul, four poisons of heart are mentioned:

1. unnecessary talking
2. unrestrained glances
3. too much food 
4. keeping bad company

Anas in al-Musnad said:  

“The faith of a servant is not put right until his heart is put right, and his heart is not put right until his tongue is put right.”

Umar Ibn al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, said: 

"A person who talks too much is a person who often makes mistakes, and someone who often makes mistakes, often has wrong actions. The Fire has a priority over such a frequent sinner."

 This brings us to unnecessary talking... What exactly does unnecessary talking mean?   Well... Let's look at the following:

Abdullah ibn Masud said: "By Allah, besides Whom no god exists, nothing deserves a long prison sentence more than my tongue." He also used to say: "O tongue, say good and you will profit; desist from saying evil things and you will be safe; otherwise you will find only regret."

Abu Huraira reported that Ibn al-Abbas said: "A person will not feel greater fury or anger for any part of his body on the Day of Judgement more than what he will feel for his tongue, unless he only used it for saying or enjoining good."

Al-Hassan said: "Whoever does not hold his tongue cannot understand his deen." The least harmful of a tongue's faults is talking about whatever does not concern it. The following hadith of the Prophet is enough to indicate the harm of this fault: "One of the merits of a person's Islam is his abandoning what does not concern him."

Abu Ubaida related that al-Hassan said: "One of the signs of Allah's abandoning a servant is His making him preoccupied with what does not concern him." Sahl said, "Whoever talks about what does not concern him is deprived of truthfulness."

SO we MUST guard our tongues and whatever doesn't benefit us, we should refrain ourselves from speaking it.  This isn't just our tongues anymore however... It is also what is in our hands.  Many of will go off on rants about "so and so" and really... will that help us on The Day of Judgement?  If it cannot benefit us there, let's refrain from utilizing both our tongues and our hands in speaking and typing words that will not help us.  Let's refrain from backbiting, lying, gossiping, showing off, arguing, complaining, singing, mocking others.  The list of things our tongue can do is endless.  These things ruin our heart and can cause us to lose happiness and pleasure in this life but more importantly, what will our success and profit be from the next life?


We should be preparing ourselves for our REAL LIVES.  This is the time in which we should be working on that.  Just like we take all kinds of preparation going on vacations, we should take even more time preparing ourselves for the akhirah, where we shall remain.

Unrestrained Glances...  I believe that is self-explanatory and in the Quran we will find:

 “Tell the believing men to lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that is more purifying for them. Surely Allaah is aware of what they do.” [24:30] . 

Allah says: "Do not go near fornication and adultery, it is an abomination and an evil way." (Quran 17:32).

"Tell the believing men that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that will make far greater purity for them; And Allah is well acquainted with all that they do. And tell the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty." (Quran 24:30-31).

It has been related that the Prophet (saws) once said words to the effect: "The glance is a poisoned arrow of shaytan. Whoever lowers his gaze for Allah, He will bestow upon him a refreshing sweetness which he will find in his heart on the day that he meets Him."

If we see something that is indecent for us to look out (according to Allah, not ourselves), then we should simply look away and not take a second glance. This even goes to the lengths of looking at the same gender.  Something which could be quite hard to avoid if reading any fashion magazines and watching television. 

Abu Sa'eed, (r.a.) the Prophet (s.a.w.) said, "A man should not look at the Awrah of another man, and the woman should not look at the Awrah of another woman." (Muslim).

Too much food... one can ponder why this is something that can cause a disease in the heart... well, we know it causes physical disease but spiritual?  Muslims fast during Ramadan during the daylight hours and we have a different sense in life in which we feel more tender, humble, gentle and our desires are weakened. Is this because it is "Ramadan"?  In a way, yes... However, what do we do during Ramadan? We fast!  Now, if we fast and we fast appropriately in a way in which we do not over-fill our stomachs, we will insha'Allah feel all that we should within our hearts the entire month.

Al-Miqdam Ibn Ma’d Yakrib said:  “I heard the Messenger of Allaah (saws) say: “The son of Adam fills no vessel more displeasing to Allaah than his stomach. A few morsels should be enough for him to preserve his strength. If he must fill it, then he should allow a third for his food, a third for his drink and leave a third empty for easy breathing.”

 1/3 for food
1/3 for drink
1/3 for air


If we all followed that equation above, I have a feeling we would not only be more humble, gentle and kind... but the obesity rates would drop enormously.  Health would also improve insha'Allah.


Keeping bad company: 

The Prophet (saws) said, "The example of a good companion (who sits with you) in comparison with a bad one, is I like that of the musk seller and the blacksmith's bellows (or furnace); from the first you would either buy musk or enjoy its good smell while the bellows would either burn your clothes or your house, or you get a bad nasty smell thereof."

 Suban'Allah! Have you ever had a friend who... as much as you tried to guide her to doing righteous things that your life sorta took its own twists? From personal experience, we should guide others but we should remember for WHO.  We guide others for the sake of Allah (swt).  We should keep that as our main goal and not go any steps beyond that with a particular person who could be deemed as "bad company" because as much as we believe we are strong... the shaitan still has a few tricks up his sleeve.  Astaghfirullah. Aoudobillah!  May Allah protect us all from the traps of shaitan, Ameen!

We should benefit from whatever companionship we have in our lives.  There are four categories of companions:

1. People whose company is like food; indispensable , night or day.  
2. People whose company is like medicine; only needed when a disease sets in.
3.  People whose company IS the harm, never profiting here in this life or the Akirah.
4. People whose company is the DOOM itself.  This shouldn't be confused with number 3. This is the worst type of people.  These are the people who are like poison to the heart and many people belong in this category.  They have misguidance and practice innovation.  They abandon the Sunnah and implement their own beliefs (desires).  They call what is Sunnah, bidah and vice versa.

We should CURE our diseased hearts even if we feel that the disease which we behold is not that harmful.  It is more harmful than what we know.  Allah (swt) Knows best.  

So if you, O servant of Allaah, wish to cure your heart then it is upon you to be truthful with regards to:

(1)seeking refuge with Allaah and

(2)putting trust in Him, to

(3)pray a great deal of supererogatory prayers, to

(4)perform the actions of obedience to Allaah frequently,

(5) to pray the night prayer while the people are sleeping, and to treat your heart by

(6) making it continuously stick to the remembrances and by

(7) befriending only the righteous and to

(8)frequently recite the Qurâan. And Allaah will indeed allow all of this to be preserved by Him.

(Source: Diseases of the Hearts and their Cures by Shaykhul Islaam ibn Taymiyyah)

Whenever we struggle to please Allah (swt), He will Reward us several times over in this life and more importantly, the Akirah.  It is a Jihad but a Jihad but a Jihad worth undertaking and we will be all the better for it insha'Allah!