The Cure to Diseased Hearts

This is part 3 in a series of 3 posts under the category of:

انواع القلوب فى القرآن الكريم The Types of Hearts in the Noble Quran

There are a few simple points which can help you to check and cure your heart:

1 – Purify your intention, and a lot of these diseases will go away by the mercy of Allaah.

I would like to put only one question here for discussion: I want to do it, and you want to do it, so how do we make our intentions pure?

There are 4 ways of it:

First: If when someone praises you, you feel good, and when someone insults you, you feel bad or angry then know that there is a problem with your intention.

‘Adi ibn Arta’ said, “When one of the Companions of the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) was praised, he said in supplication to Allah:

اللهم لا تؤاخذني بما يقولون ، واجعلني خيرًا مما يظنون واغفر لي ما لا يعلمون

O Allah! Do not call me to account for what they say and forgive me for what they have no knowledge of – Allaahumma laa tu’aakhithnee bimaa yaqooloona, waghfir lee maa laa ya’lamoona

Reference: Al-Bukhari, Al-’Adabul-Mufrad no. 761. See Al-Albani, Sahih Al-’Adabul-Mufrad (no. 585). The wording is slightly different to the above  and is perhaps taken from another narration. Allaahu ‘Alam.

And whoever said it said the truth:

If people would know how sinful I am they would not even want to say Salam to me, they wouldn’t even want to sit near me. But O Allaah it is your Rahmah (mercy) that you have hidden my sins.

It is narrated in Saheeh Muslim from Miqdaad (may Allah be pleased with him) that a man began to praise ‘Uthmaan (may Allah be pleased with him) so Miqdaad proceeded (towards him) and went down on his knees and began to throw the gravel on his face. So, ‘Uthmaan (may Allah be pleased with him) said: ‘What’s the matter with you?’ So, he said: Indeed, the Messenger of Allah (sallAllaahu alaihi wa sallam) said:

“When you see those who praise people (to their faces), then throw dirt in their faces.”

Muslim in Az-Zuhd War-Raqaaiq…(Vol.4, No.3002, page 2297)

A person who loves to be praised can never be pious in his life.

 

Second: Do a good deed and forget it.

A sincere person hides his good deeds just like he hides his sins.

Remember this principle: In the worldly life, everything that has a witness is valued. But in the sight of Allaah, the most valuable deeds are the ones whom no one has witnessed on earth.

 

Third: Give the best of your things in charity.

Today when we want to gather charity, we have to give all the proofs to a person to convince him. People have forgotten that whoever spends in charity his wealth does not decrease, but only increases!

But the Sahabah were on a different mindset.

Imam Ahmad reported that Anas bin Malik said, “Abu Talhah had more property than any other among the Ansar in Al-Madinah, and the most beloved of his property to him was Bayruha’ garden, which was in front of the (Messenger’s) Masjid. Sometimes, Allah’s Messenger used to go to the garden and drink its fresh water.” Anas added, “When these verses were revealed:

لَن تَنَالُوا الْبِرَّ حَتَّىٰ تُنفِقُوا مِمَّا تُحِبُّونَ

(By no means shall you attain Al-Birr unless You spend of that which you love,)

Abu Talhah said, “O Allah’s Messenger! Allah says,

(By no means shall you attain Al-Birr, unless you spend of that which you love;) No doubt, Bayruha’ garden is the most beloved of all my property to me. So I want to give it in charity in Allah’s cause, and I expect its reward and compensation from Allah. O Allah’s Messenger! Spend it where Allah makes you think is feasible.” On that, Allah’s Messenger said,

(Well-done! It is profitable property, it is profitable property. I have heard what you have said, and I think it would be proper if you gave it to your kith and kin.)

Abu Talhah said, `I will do so, O Allah’s Messenger.’ Then Abu Talhah distributed that garden among his relatives and cousins.”

This Hadith was recorded in the Two Sahihs.

 

Fourth: While working for a cause, if a person keeps working whether someone praises him or scolds him then that is a sign of sincerity. But if he works only when he is praised and sits down when he is scolded then he is not doing it with sincerity.

May Allaah allow us all to purify our intentions and make them sincerely for Him.

 

2 – Start respecting the scholars if you want your heart to be cured.

Ibn Al-Qayyim Rahimahullaah used to say that the religion is taught by 2 things: The mosque and the person in the mosque.

The day you get disgusted by the mosque or the scholar, then that day you have lost your Emaan.

The Prophet (peace be upon him) said a beautiful thing (mentioned in Sahih Bukhari/Muslim) that out of the 7 people who will get the shade of Allaah’s Throne on the Day of Judgment, one is he whose heart is attached to the mosque.

What does this mean? This means that when he prays one prayer he is constantly waiting for the next one. This Hadith is about a person who stays outside the mosque. So what about those who dedicate their whole day to the mosque and stay in it all the time?

In fact I would like to say, if a person takes even a single step towards a scholar Allaah can grant him Jannah for this. You must be thinking this is a big claim? It is narrated in Sahih Al-Jami’ that a person did 99 murders. He then went to a priest asking if he could be forgiven. The priest said no there is no forgiveness for you. So he killed the priest as well. Then he went to a pious person who told him that yes you can be forgiven but for future you must leave this place and go to another town where there are pious people of Allaah. He was on his way when he passed away. Allaah sent angels to take his soul. The angels started arguing whether he would be an inhabitant of Heaven or Hell. Allaah sent another angel to measure the distance from where he had started to where he was going. If he was closer to his destination he would be forgiven but if he was closer to the starting point, he will go to Hell. Allaah ordered the earth to shrink and upon measuring he was only a span (approximately 9 inches) closer to the pious people and was forgiven because of this (ONLY a step!).

So until you have a good relation with the true scholars, you can never remove the diseases from your heart.

 

3 – If you can’t guard your tongue, you cannot cure your heart.

A person’s Emaan cannot be corrected until he corrects his heart, and the heart cannot be corrected until he corrects his tongue.

Lying, Backbiting, Slandering: these things cannot let you be pious.

Therefore the Prophet (peace be upon him) advised a Sahabi to read this Du’a (mentioned by Imam Bukhari in Adab Al-Mufrad, Hadith 660):

اللَّهُمَّ عَافِنِي مِنْ شَرِّ سَمْعِي ، وَبَصَرِي ، وَلِسَانِي ، وَقَلْبِي ، وَشَرِّ مَنِيِّي

O Allah, protect me from the evil of my hearing, my seeing, my tongue and my heart, and the evil of my sperm.)” – Meaning his sexual organ.

Also see: Sunan an-Nasa’i 5484.

 

4 – You cannot cure your heart, until you have Haya (Modesty).

We know that Ayesha (radiAllaahu anhu) is the mother of the believers. It is Haram for any man to marry the wives of the Prophet (peace be upon him). Even then when the Sahaba (radiAllaahu Anhum) used to go to her to study there would be a curtain between them.

Modesty is not only limited to interaction with other people. Today’s youth thinks that if we have closed the door of our room no one can see what we are doing on our computer. Have they forgotten that Allaah sees everything?

When Luqman Al-Hakeem’s son asked him for advice, he had him write this:

O my son: If you want to sin you may do it, but only those (sins) for which you have the strength to bear the punishment. If you want to sin you may do it, but only there where Allaah cannot see you. If you want to sin you may do it, but not on Allaah’s earth. Go to a place which does not belong to Allaah.

Everything belongs to Allaah, so where will he go?

Remember when you will stand in front of Allaah, and Allaah will talk to you. No one will be able to say that I cannot speak for myself so I want to hire a lawyer. What will be the answer there? How will we face Allaah if we are not modest?

Last thing I would like to mention is:

 

5 – A heart that has Jealousy and Malice cannot be cured.

Sa’d ibn Mu’az (radiAllaahu anhu) became a Muslim at the age of 30 and died at the age of 36. The ‘Arsh of Allaah shook when he died. How many years did he spend as a Muslim? Only 6!

What did he do? After the Prophet (peace be upon him) told the Sahabah that Sa’d is one of the inhabitants of Heaven, one Sahabi decided to stay with him at his home. He spent 3 days with him and at the end of the term said that I have seen you and every good deed you do, is done by me as well. When he was about to leave Sa’d (radiAllaahu Anhu) called him and told him that I have never kept jealousy or malice in my heart against a Muslim.

Let us decide today to take all sorts of jealousy and malice out of our hearts.

This brings us to the end of this series.

May Allaah cure the diseases of our hearts and allow us to enter Jannah. He who promised Jannah to Sa’d bin Mu’az (radiAllaahu anhu) is able to gives us Jannah as well. Ameen.