Signs, Symptoms and Cures of
the Spiritual Diseases of the
Heart
Tazkia & TASFIA
Almost universally, religious traditions have
stressed the importance of the condition of
the heart. In the Muslim scripture, the Day of
Judgment is described as
A day in which neither wealth nor children
shall be of any benefit [to anyone], except
one who comes to God with a sound heart
(QURAN, 26:88-89).
Heart a physical organ
spiritual heart
The Chinese characters for thinking,
thought, love, the intention to listen, are all
contain in the heart.
metaphors that directly or indirectly
hint to the heart.
hard-hearted
cold hearts
warm-hearted
Hearts on their sleeves
touched my heart
skipped a beat
stealing one’s heart
The ancients were also aware of spiritual diseases
of the heart. And this understanding is certainly
at the essence of Islamic teachings. The Quran
defines three types of people:
al-mu’minūn (believers),
al-kāfirūn (scoffers or atheists), and
al-munāfiqūn (hypocrites).
The believers are described as people whose
hearts are alive and full of light, while the
scoffers are in darkness:
Is one who was dead and then We revived
[with faith] and made for him a light by which
to walk among the people like one who is in
darkness from which he cannot exit? (QURAN,
6:122).
Also, the prophet Muhammad said
“The difference between the one who
remembers God and one who does not is like
the difference between the living and the
dead.”
In short, the believer is someone whose heart
is alive, while the disbeliever is someone
whose heart is spiritually dead. The hypocrite,
however, is somebody whose heart is
diseased.
Heart as a Physical Organ
The physical heart, which houses the spiritual heart, beats
about 100,000 times a day, pumping two gallons of blood per
minute and over 100 gallons per hour.
The human heart does this every hour of every day for an
entire lifetime without respite.
The vascular system transporting blood is over 60,000 miles
long – more than two times the circumference of the earth. So
when we conceive of our blood being pumped throughout our
bodies, know that this means that it travels through 60,000
miles of a closed vascular system that connects all the parts of
the body – all the vital organs and living tissues – to heart.
heart starts beating before the brain is fully
functional,
The dominant theory states that the central
nervous system is what controls the entire
human being, with the brain at its center.
Yet we also know that the nervous system
does not initiate the beat of the heart, but
that it is actually self-initiated, or, as we
would say, initiated by God.
The Quran, for example, speaks of wayward people
who have hearts
with which they do not understand (7:179).
Also the Quran mentions people who mocked the
prophet and were entirely insincere in listening to his
message, so
God placed over their hearts a covering that they may
not understand it and in their ears [He placed] acute
deafness (6:25).
So we understand from this that the center of the
intellect, the center of human consciousness is actually
the heart and not the brain.
Only recently have we discovered that there are over
40,000 neurons in the heart. In other words, there are
cells in the heart that are communicating with the
brain.
While the brain sends messages to the heart, the heart
also sends messages to the brain.
Two physiologists in the 1970s, John and Beatrice
Lacey, conducted a study and found that the brain sent
messages to the heart, but that the heart did not
automatically obey the messages.
Sometimes the heart speed up, while at other times it
slowed down, indicating that the heart itself has its
own type of intelligence..
The Prophet spoke of the heart as a repository of
knowledge and a vessel sensitive to the deeds of the
body.
He said, for example, that
wrongdoing irritates the heart. So the heart actually
perceives wrong action. When someone commits a
crime, he does so first against his own heart, which
then affects the whole human being.
When one peers into the limitless world through
remembrance of God and increases in beneficial
knowledge, one’s concerns become more focused on
the infinite world, not the finite one that is
disappearing
When people are completely immersed in the
material world, believing that this world is all that
matters and all that exists and that they are not
accountable for their actions, It results into a spiritual
death of their hearts.
Before the heart dies, however, it shows symptoms of
disorder. These disorders are the spiritual diseases.
In Islamic tradition, these diseases fall under two
categories.
The first is known as shubuhāt diseases that relate to
impaired understanding.
Shubuhāt refers to aspects closely connected to the
heart: the soul, the ego, Satan’s whisperings and
instigations, caprice, and the love of this world.
Most surely, in the remembrance of Allah do
hearts find calm (QURAN, 13:28).
The second category of disease concerns the base
desires of the self and is called shahawāt. This relates
to our desires exceeding their natural state,
The Prophet said,
“Actions are based upon intentions.”
All deeds are thus valued according to the
intentions behind them, and intentions
emanate from the heart. So every action a
person intends or performs is rooted in the
heart.
The well-known civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. said that in
order for people to condemn injustice, they must go through four
stages.
The first stage is that people must ascertain that indeed
injustices are being perpetrated.
.
The second stage is to negotiate,
the third stage is self-purification,
The fourth stage, then, is to take action after true self-examination,
after removing one’s own wrongs before demanding justice from
others.
The Quran implies that if a people oppress
others, God will send another people to
oppress them:
We put some oppressors over other
oppressors because of what their own hands
have earned (6:129),
Freedom and Purification
Freedom, is achieved when one realizes the qualities of
shame and humility, and empties oneself of shamelessness
and arrogance.
With these qualities come true freedom, wealth, and dignity,
which require freedom from the bonds of one’s whims.
People may claim to be “free,” yet they cannot control
themselves from greed in the presence of food or from illicit
sexual relations when the opportunity presents itself.
Dignity with God comes to those who are humble
before Him; who place prime value on how they are
received by their Maker and not by how they will be
judged by the ephemeral norms of people.
Dignity and honor are gifts
:
“[O God], You exalt whomever You will, and
You debase whomever You will” (QURAN,
3:26).
There is no salvation “like the heart’s salvation, given that all the
limbs respond to its desires,” If one’s heart is safe, so too are the
limbs, for they carry out the deeds inspired by the heart,
The limbs of the corrupt become instruments through which
corruption is spread:
We shall set a seal upon their mouths; and their hands will
speak to Us and their fret shall bear witness to what they have
earned (QURAN,36:65);
And spend [on the needy] in the way of God. And do not throw
yourselves into ruin by your own hand (QURAN, 2:195);
They shall have immense torment on the day when
their tongues and their hands and their legs bear
witness against them for what they had been doing
(QURAN, 24:23-24).
A hadith implies that the tongue is the “interpreter of the heart,”
Hypocrisy is miserable because the hypocrite says with his tongue
what is not in his heart . He wrongs his tongue and oppresses his
heart. But if the heart is sound, the condition of the tongue
follows suit.
We are commanded to be upright in our speech, which is a gauge
of the heart.
Engaging in the regular remembrance of God safeguards the
tongue and replaces idle talk with words and phrases that raise
one in honor.
The tongue is essential in developing courtesy with God, which is
the whole point of existence.
The Purification Process
Purifying the heart is a process.
First, one must understand the necessity of having
courtesy with God and the importance of fulfilling its
requirements.
Second, one must be aware of the diseases of the heart
—aware of their existence, of their ailments, and of the
complications and troubles that ensue from them, and
recognize that these diseases prevent one from attaining
this courtesy.
Knowledge of the diseases of the heart, their causes, and
how to remove them is an obligation on every sane adult
human being.
