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.
