Let’s Understand Our Heart~!

~Hello~
and
Salamun A’laikum to those have ‘faith’ ( i.e Mukmin ) – QS 06:54

In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

The Heart. The Prophet Muhammad salallahu a’laihi wa salam also told us about this least, little organ in our body in the hadith :

“. . . . If it is healthy, the rest organs will be healthy, if it is corrupted, the rest will follow . . . .” ( Sahih Bukhari and Muslim )

What do we know about the heart generally ? It is the organ which like a machine, a device, which its mechanism is to pump the blood around of our body.

In arabic language, the heart is ‘Qalb’. The meaning of ‘Qalb’ :

1. The best part of anything, the core of anything is called ‘Qalb’. It was named so, because normally the core is the best thing.

Look and think at our hearts ! It is the core of our body, isn’t it ? It is the core, the very important organ which supply oxygen, nutrition and etc to the whole organs in our body ( i.e to the brain, the liver and etc ). Am I right ?

2. Changing of its state / ‘ to turn over’.

for e.g. “Qalbatu warakah” = I turned over the paper.

The heart of a human being can change very quickly. A man sleeps at night as a believer. He wakes up in the morning as a disbeliever. That is why the prophet salallahu a’laihi wa salam taught us to cry to Allah subhanahu wa taa’la all the time to ‘ keep our hearts steady and firm upon the truth’.

Allah subhanahu wa taa’la mentions us in the Quran al-Karim, even the heart blindness is exist ! That is mean the heart could change into such situation !

” Have they not travelled in the land, and have their hearts may learn wisdom and ears may learn to hear? For indeed it is not the eyes that grow blind, but it is the hearts, which are within the breasts, that grow blind. ” ( Quran. Surah al-Hajj. i.e Chapter 22 : Verse 46 )

Let us discuss about the actions of the heart. Before that, Let us look through and understand what is the prophet salallahu a’laihi wa salam said which related to our hearts :

Abu Hurairah radiallahu a’nhu reported Allah’s Messenger salallahu a’laihi wa salam as saying: ” Verily Allah does not look to your faces and your wealth but He looks to your heart and to your deeds “. ( Sahih Muslim )

Think ! what is inside of our hearts ? Arrogance ? Jealousy ? Pride ? ( and etc. ) All of them are described as the actions of the heart. Some of them as following :

1. Intention or ‘niah’.

Niah is one of the most important actions of the heart, because every thing we do ( any actions of our limbs for e.g ) whether any good deeds or bad deeds or something people say as our routine or else, are START with INTENTION of our heart.

Are there any actions without intention / niah ? The answer is YES. Very well, let us understand from what the prophet salallahu a’laihi wa salam told us about ‘ niah ‘ :

Narrated U’mar bin al-Khattab radiallahu a’nhu, reported : Messenger of Allah salallahu a’laihi wa salam said : ” The deeds are considered by the intentions, and a person will get a reward according to his attention. So whoever emigrated for Allah and His Messenger, his emigration will be for Allah and His Messenger; and whoever emigrated for worldly benefits or for a woman to marry, his emigration would be for what he emigrated for. “ ( Mutafaqun a’laihi – in Sahih Bukhari and Muslim. )

2. Learning and understanding by our heart.

” Have they not travelled in the land, and have their hearts may learn wisdom and ears may learn to hear? For indeed it is not the eyes that grow blind, but it is the hearts, which are within the breasts, that grow blind. “ ( Quran. Surah al-Hajj. i.e Chapter 22 : Verse 46 )

It is not only the heart could be blind but also may learn.

3. Love.

4. Hatred.

5. Humbleness.

The opposite of humbleness is ARROGANCE.

In case for reminding, who is the very first person acts such way ? The answer is IBLIS laknatullah ( Lucifer ). Let us refer to the Quran al-Karim which Allah subhanahu wa taa’la mentioned about how rude and arrogance Iblis is, :

” And We created you, then fashioned you, then told the angels: Fall ye prostrate before Adam! And they fell prostrate, all save Iblis, who was not of those who make prostration. He said: What hindered thee that thou didst not fall prostrate when I bade thee? (Iblis) said: I am better than him. Thou createdst me of fire while him Thou didst create of mud. He ( Allah ) said: Then go down hence ( from paradise )! It is not for thee to show arrogance ( takabur ) here ( in paradise ), so go forth! Lo! thou art of those degraded.“ ( Quran. Surah al-A’raf. i.e Chapter 7 : Verse 11, 12 and 13. )

From these verses, could we say that if our hearts have such action i.e arrogance, do we have a chance to dwell Allah’s Paradise ? The answer is : NO.

The Prophet salallahu a’laihi wa salam warned us that : ‘ No one will enter the Jannah ( i.e Paradise ), those who has felt takabur ( i.e arrogance, pride ) in his heart even it is small as an atom. ‘

6. Conviction.

7. Fear.

8. Tawakkal.

9. ‘Sabr’ i.e. Patience.

10. Bravery and courage.

11. etc.

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[ Please be more attention with this part, thank you ]

Types of the heart :

1. Pure heart.

The pure heart completely opposite to all types of the heart after this. [ NOTE : Please read about other types of heart and its explanation as following. ]

I would like to advise you, as well as to myself, that before we go to sleep, please RESET our hearts. Clear our hearts and do not hold any grudge to any Muslims. Why ? Because, we do not know whether we will be able to wake up on the next day, and can you imagine, on the Day of Resurrection, we will resurrect while holding grudge to our brothers/sisters ( i.e Muslims ) ?

2. Sick heart.

Why our hearts become sick ? Because ( i.e Causes sickness of the heart ) :

sinfulness, disobeying Allah subhanahu wa taa’la, committing ‘haram‘.

selfishness, being the slave to our self ( i.e. our ‘nafs‘ ).

leave the ‘ i’lm‘ ( i’lm means to know something, knowledge, studying and etc. ), living in ‘ jahal‘ ( i.e Neglect studying, living in small world-do not want to know more even about his/her surrounding, do not want/have any intention to improve him/her self and etc. ), deserting the studying circle, living in ignorance.

Love of ‘ Dunya ‘ ( i.e This world ) : ‘al-Dunya‘ is our objective, content-happy-all the time is only the ‘Dunya‘, unaware of the real life. [ NOTE : If you do not clear in this point, you may ask me, thank you. ]

and etc.

3. Dead heart.

Some one does not know his/her creator.

Some one does not know his/her purpose of life.

for instance, if you ask him/her :

” What is the purpose of this pen ?”

” To write. “

” What is the purpose of this shirt ?”

” To cover our naked body.”

” What is the purpose of this pair of shoes ?”

” To protect our foot.”

” What is the purpose of your LIFE ?”

” NOTHING “

” The pair of shoes, they have their purpose, but you don’t ?”

” The pair of shoes are more important than your life ?”

Let us think ! Do we think this life just came like that ? We were created for the purposes that we have to fulfil in this life ! But some one even does not want to know !

That is why the Quran al-Karim described this kind of person ( i.e who does not know his/her purpose of life, living in ignorance about the creator and the purposes of the human creation and so on so forth ) :

” . . . . They are just cattle – nay, but they are worse! They truly are the neglectful. “ ( Quran. Surah al-Araf. i.e Chapter 7 : Verse 179 )

Imagine, the cattle in the field know its creator ! But we do not ?

Well, some one will say that, ” Our creator is the Mother Nature ! ”
What is the Mother Nature ? The Mother Nature is nothing more than animates, plants and animals. Look at our surrounding ! See what is surrounded us ? We surrounded by animates ( i.e Non-living things – stones, ocean, mountains, etc. ), plants and animals.

Very well, let us list up which is the least complex to the most complex creation. Of course, from the bottom to the top ( just like pyramid ) : animates, plants, animals, human being.

Animates ( for e.g soils ) serve plants. Plants serve animals. Animals serve human being.

Hence, all the things are made to serve us. Who made them as subservient to serve us ? our self ? NO ! Of course not, God made it ! Another situation :

Allah subhanahu wa taa’la made the elephant tame, that you can put your little child and will lead that elephant. If you said you are the ONLY ONE that tamed the elephant, why can’t you tame the ‘ Rattlesnake ‘ ? You can’t, can you ? It will bite you and will inject you with its poisonous venom that you would die if not treated immediately.

So that is Allah subhanahu wa taa’la, the Creator who made the elephant became tame and the Rattlesnake is dangerous and poisonous to us.

And that is Mother Nature, all these things below us.

The last question for thinking : ” Mother Nature does not have intelligence, so, how did Mother Nature gave us intelligence when it does not have it ? “

4. Heart posses a ‘disease’.

The disease that I mentioned on this point is ‘nifaq’.

A person which his/her heart posses the ‘disease’ as known as Munafiq.

The disease already existed during the prophet Muhammad salallahu a’laihi wa salam‘s life, started in Madinah.

The fact is, all of the prophet’s sahabah ( i.e Companions ) radiallahu a’nhum are afraid if the disease exist in their heart. Once those who posses such kind of disease, he/she will be hated by the Lord subhanahu wa taa’la and His Messenger salallahu a’laihi wa salam.

What is ‘nifaq’ ? Why the person will treat as such way by the Lord and His Messenger ? Because nifaq is a very dangerous disease exists only among the Muslims which his/her heart against Allah subhanahu wa taa’la and the prophet Muhammad salallahu a’laihi wa salam, against Islam, annoy with the brotherhood between Muslims and etc. ( this hatred show in his/her heart ) BUT in order to cover his/her true self, he/she acts as usual Muslim ( for e.g Performing solah, etc. ). In Other word to describe this type of person which posses such type of heart is : HYPOCRITE.

Many verses of the Quran al-Karim told us about the Munafiq, some of them are :

” And a mankind, there are some ( hypocrites ) who say : ‘ We believe in Allah and the Last Day’, while in fact they believe not. They ( think to ) deceive Allah and those who believe, while they only deceive themselves, and perceive ( it ) not ! In their hearts is a disease ( in doubt and hypocrisy ) and Allah has increased their disease. A painful torment is theirs because they used to tell lies. “ ( Quran. Surah al-Baqarah. i.e Chapter 2 : Verse 08, 09 and 10 )

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The causes that effect our heart.

1. Too much mingle with people until have no time to sit by your self.

At least for 1 hour on daily basis : ask your self, self analysis, self inventory – What did I do today ? If it is good deeds, Alhamdulillah. If it is sins, ask for forgiveness.
My advise is, if we were committed sins, ask for forgiveness as soon as possible. Reset our heart, our mind and our actions that we will do after this and that, in order to realize and to show our correctness after committing sins. Insha Allah, may Allah subhanahu wa taa’la accepts our ‘taubah‘.

If we do not do regularly, our heart will get sick.

2. Being unrealistic.

Keep living in fantasy, fantasizing.

For instance, some one will say : ” Insha Allah, when I am old, I will become good Muslim ( or after marriage, or after doing Hajj, etc. ). “

This person is dreaming if he/she has guarantee that he/she will live until that time. You can die any time ! WAKE UP ! Go to the grave yard and see the graves ! How old is he/she ? 50 years ? 18 years ? 5 years? See, young man also dying. WAKE UP, man !

3. To rely upon other than Allah subhanahu wa taa’la. Do not trust in Allah subhanahu wa taa’la.

4. Too much eating.