Signs of Impure, Diseased & Dead Hearts by ibn al-Qayyim

[Bint ul Islam]

Signs of an impure, diseased, and a dead heart:



* The person does not feel any hurt or pain when he commits evil
deeds and sins.

* The person finds both pleasure in committing acts of disobedience
to Allah and a take it easy attitude after performing them.

* The person looks after the less important matters and does not care
about the more important ones.

* The person dislikes the Truth and has difficulty accepting or
submitting to it.

* The person does not find comfort in being among the righteous
people but finds a great deal of peace while among the evil and sinful.

* The person is susceptible to be affected by misconceptions and
doubts. He is attracted to discussions, debates and arguments that surround
such misconceptions rather than trying to understand the Qur'an, follow the
Sunnah and other such beneficial acts.

This aspect can truly be seen nowadays among Muslims, especially over the
Internet. Today, a Muslim may spend hours discussing, for example whether or
not Hijaab is part of Islam or if Riba [Usury, Interest] is forbidden and so
forth. Many times, such discussions begin by quoting non-Muslim authors,
hours are wasted and no one learns any aspect of the Deen.

* The person may not be affected by any kind of admonition
whatsoever.

Some people, for example, have the capacity of listening to many Khutbahs
[Islamic lectures], but still it does not bring any change in them. Or when
someone is given repeated advices and warnings from those who are
knowledgeable in Deen, it doesn't affect them. They arrogantly insist upon
sticking with the falsehood.



Imam Hasan al-Basree [rahimahullah] once said to a man,

* Cure your heart for Allah desires that His slaves should purify
their hearts.

* You should know that you never truly love Allah until you love
obeying Him.

(Jaami' al-'Uloom v.1 by Ibn Rajab)



The heart cannot become purified until a person knows Allah, loves Him,
fears Him, has hope in Him and trusts Him. This is the true realization of
the statement Laa ilaaha ill-Allah.

The heart will never be pure until it loves, deifies [worships, exalts],
fears, and submits to no one except Allah, eventually ending up of the limbs
by following and making the actions pure.

(Ref. Taken from Imam Ibn al-Qayyim's Ighaathah al-Luhfaan min Masayid
al-Shaytaan, Volume 1, page 70-73)

[Bint ul Islam]

Allah distinguishes the humans from the rest of the creatures due to the
human's heart and intellect.

* Indeed there is a piece of flesh which, if it is sound, all the
body is sound and which, if it is diseased, all of the body is diseased.
This part of the body is the heart. (Bukhari & Muslim)

* Have they not travelled through the land, and have they hearts
wherewith to understand and ears wherewith to hear? Verily, it is not the
eyes that grow blind, but it is the hearts which are in the breasts that
grow blind. (Hajj 22:46)

The heart is the commander and the limbs are the soldiers. Therefore, if the
heart is good, the soldiers and their acts are good, and if the heart is
evil, the soldiers and their acts are evil.



Clean/Pure Hearts:

If the heart is completely pure it will contain only love for Allah, love
for the things that Allah loves, fear of Allah and fear of engaging in
something that Allah hates. Such a heart will abstain from all of the
forbidden acts and will also abstain from the doubtful matters out of fear
that they are forbidden. The only heart that will aid the person in Allah's
sights is the sound, wholesome, submitting heart. Allah says:



* The Day when neither wealth nor children will benefit, except him
who brings to Allah a clean heart. (Ash-Shu'araa' 26:88-89)

Evil Hearts:

If the heart is greatly evil it will follow its own desires and it will
perform the acts that it loves, regardless of whether Allah loves those acts
or not. Allah has described the main reason behind it being the lack of use
of their heart as it was dead, thus not responding to the signs around it.
Allah says:



* And surely, We have created many of the Jinns and Mankind for Hell.
They have hearts with which they do not understand. (al-A'raaf 7:179)




(Ref. Taken from Imam Ibn al-Qayyim's Ighaathah al-Luhfaan min Masayid
al-Shaytaan, Volume 1, page 70-73