The Hardened Heart
Imam Ibn ul Qayyim al Jawziyyah
The slave is not afflicted with a punishment greater than the hardening of the heart and being distant from Allah. For the Fire was created to melt the hardened heart. The most distant heart from Allah is the heart which is hardened. If the heart becomes hardened, the eye becomes dry.
If four matters are exceeded in quantity, beyond what is necessary, the heart shall become hardened:
Food, sleep, speech and sexual intercourse. A body afflicted by disease does not derive nourishment from food or water, similarly a heart diseased by desire does not benefit from admonishment or exhortation.
Whosoever desires to purify his heart, then let him prefer Allah to his desires.
The heart which is clinging to its desires is veiled from Allah, commensurate to the degree that it is attached to them. The hearts are the vessels of Allah upon His earth, hence the most beloved of them to Him, are the ones most compassionate, pure and resistant to deviation.
They (the transgressors) preoccupied their hearts [in the pursuance] of the Dunya, would that they preoccupied them with Allah and the Hereafter, then surely they would have reflected upon the intended meaning of His poignant Words and Verses. Their hearts would have returned to their masters with a wisdom, marvelously curious and [in possession] of the rarest of precious gems.
If the heart is nourished with remembrance, its thirst quenched with contemplation and cleansed from corruption, it shall witness remarkable and wondrous matters, inspiring wisdom.
Not every individual is endowed with knowledge and wisdom, and assumes its character is from amongst its people. Rather the People of Knowledge and Wisdom are those who infused life into their hearts by slaying their desires. As for the one who slayed his heart and vitalized his desires, then knowledge and wisdom is naked upon his tongue.
The destruction of the heart occurs by security [in this Dunya] and negligence, its fortification occurs by fear and remembrance. If the heart renounces the pleasures of the Dunya, it settles upon the [pursuance] of the pleasures of the Hereafter, and amongst those who call towards it. Should the heart become content with the pleasures of the Dunya, those pleasures [of the Hereafter] cease [to continue].
Yearning for Allah and His meeting is like the gentle breeze blowing upon the heart, extinguishing the blaze of the Dunya. Whosoever caused his heart to settle with his Lord shall be in a state, calm and tranquil, and whosoever sent it amongst the people shall be disturbed and excessively perturbed.
For the love of Allah shall not enter a heart which contains the love of this world, except as a camel which passes through the eye of a needle.
Hence, the most beloved servant before Allah is the one whom He places in His servitude, whom He selects for His love, whom He causes to purify his worship for Him, dedicates his objectives for Him, his tongue for His remembrance, and his limbs for His service.
The heart becomes sick, as the body becomes sick, and its remedy is al-Tawbah and protection [from transgression].
It becomes rusty as a mirror becomes rusty, and its clarity isv obtained by remembrance.
It becomes naked as the body becomes naked, and its beautification is al-Taqwa.
It becomes hungry and thirsty as the body becomes hungry, and its food and drink is knowledge, love, dependence, repentance and servitude.
I love food and eat it beyond a regular quantity. Yes you are right my heart is hardened hence, I have little faith in your organisation and your views.
However, let me ask one question and if your organisation are true believers of Allah (swt)then you will publish this comment;
How many of your parents are overweight because all they do is sit at home and eat food with very little exercise? Does this mean that their faith has declined over the course of their inactivity too?
I can tell most of you followers of OBM hold a sense of allegiance to him, but please for the love of Allah (swt) please put some time into your Western existence by helping those less fortunate than yourselves (regardless of their religious views) rather than turn your back on society and becoming welfare dependant zombies. I am sure you will positively influence more non believers this way rather than the unpopular ways you have adopted.
All the Best
Food, sleep, speech and sexual intercourse in this article identifies the four major fields or parts of life. A person strives and struggles in this duniya without considering haram and halal for delicious food, for comfortable rest or sleep, speech is used by power hungry for being heard by masses and illegal sexual intercourse is practised by the hyper sexuals on the power of their wealth. In such cases the heart hardenes. If u r eating food from your halal wealth then it is not applicable to you. Rasoolalah(SAW)gave milk to Abu Huraira (RA) and he drank till he is full.
So your comments on having lot of food, overweight etc is a result of misundersting of the content of the article. Allah knows best. May Allah guide you and me to sirate mustakim. Ameen.
Their hearts would have returned to their masters with a wisdom*
Master, not masters.
Life is but a moment. Let it be a moment of obedience.
The article is highlighting a major issue and has mentioned a lot of sub-headings. Those sub categories should not be used as a reason to nitpick and reject the whole reading.
I hope the mothers of these people are good women and do not reduce it all to ”food”. Eat, Islam does not stop you. But if someone, anyone, would cross the limits, he would face the loss.
Good advice should be accepted, not mocked at.
This article is indeed a great reminder for the heedful soul.
Food, sleep, speech and sex are undoubtedly the crux of human desires which must be curtailed save it exceeds safe limits. The excess of any of it makes the body miserable, so does it to the heart by further indulging the desires,succumbing the heart to the machinations of shaytan and distancing it more from Allah.Then the heart is left hardened, heedless and lost in the ephemeral world.
These desires are what we fight in ramadhan and that is why we could move closer to Allah. IHDINAA SIRAATAL MUSTAQIIM
jzk, the last couple of days i have lost myself into the life of this world. i became too concern with the dunya to the point that i start getting depress. hence, i was looking for an article to read that would remind me of the hear after and i stumbled into this article which i felt like it was talking to me directly. by allah i couldn’t stop tearing as i was reading it. May allah reward you for posting this article !
Ilovefood (though it is better to love Allah) are you Muslim or a critic of Muslims I can’t tell?