{Quick Reflections 30} The Sound Heart

Last time we mentioned the ayah, “The Day when neither money nor sons will profit (anyone), Except for him who comes up to Allah with a sound heart”(TMQ, 26: 88-89) . That means that our only way out and the key for success on the day of Judgment is having a sound heart. Many people can claim that they have sound hearts but who really has it? Accordingly the issue of knowing the exact definition and criteria of a sound heart is crucial for all of us.

I will quote al-Hasan al-Basry and use his very wise words as a guideline to help us explore the different dimensions of a sound heart. He says, contrary to common knowledge it is not a Hadeeth, “Iman is not achieved by wishful thinking, rather it is what is ‘deeply rooted’ in the ‘heart’ and is affirmed by ‘deeds’”.
The three underlined words in the above quote are the axes around which this little study will proceed.

Definition and criteria of a sound heart:
Linguistically in Arabic the word saleem is derived from the root salam, which means free of any defects. Hence a “sound heart” is a heart with no defects, a heart free of shirk, kofr, envy, deceit, hatred, evil intent, suspicion and hesitancy.
It is a heart that is free from anything except Allah (TWT) and hence Prophet Muhammad (SAWS). Any love to any other one or thing does not “follow” them but is rather “derived” from love to Allah (AWJ) and the Prophet (SAWS).
A sound heart is one that carries the manners of the Qur’an and that is why our Beloved’s (SAWS) manners were the Qur’an, he had the soundest of hearts.
A sound heart is one that has no arrogance in it, “…humble towards the believers, mightily proud towards the disbelievers…”(TMQ, 5:54) .
A sound heart is one that loves all Muslims. It is one that wishes that all people were good Muslims, “…and do not set up in our hearts rancor towards (the ones) who have believed…”(TMQ, 59:10) .
A sound heart is one that not only loves the good for other Muslims and non-Muslims, as our Beloved (SAWS) says, “None of you will have faith until he wishes for his (Muslim) brother what he likes for himself” , but even prefers others to his own self, “but give [them] preference over themselves, even though they are in privation”(TMQ, 59:9)


Nature of the heart:
The heart in general has got a very strange nature. Prophet Muhammad (SAWS) says, “The similitude of the heart is that of a feather in an open space twirled about by the wind” . It is ever changing and is so vulnerable to the extent that our Beloved (SAWS) who has the soundest of all hearts says, “O Allah, You ever changer of hearts make our hearts hold steadfast onto your religion” .

The sahaba’s (companions of the Prophet) hearts and our hearts, that’s where the difference lies:
What is deeply rooted in the heart dictates success and acceptance of deeds in this life and in the hereafter. Hearts –rather than deeds- differ greatly from good to better and better and best and hence the great differences in levels in jannah.
I will explain further. The heart should be the drive for the deeds. The heart leads and the deeds follow. What happens if they are dissociated? Let us examine the different scenarios one by one.

Can the soundness of the heart be much greater and yet the deeds so little? The answer is no. Examine the sahaba’s lives and you will see that they all had great deeds though of different nature. For example Omar Ibnul-Khattab’s (RA) deeds were mostly outspoken and well known while those of Othman Ibn-Affan (RA) were mostly hidden and those of Abu-Bakr (RA) were both. The more the heart is sound the more it propels one to do more good deeds (regardless of the exact type or nature of the deeds). Accordingly a very sound heart equals very great deeds. However the opposite is not true as we will see in the next scenario.

Can the greatness of deeds be much more than the soundness of the heart? The answer is yes.
That is where the hypocrisy, shirk, ‘ojb (when one is proud of his good deeds) and nifaq come in. We all know the following Hadeeth, “The Messenger of Allah (SAWS) said, “Truly on the Day of Judgment, Allah the All-Mighty will descend to the slaves to judge them and every nation will be kneeling. The first of people against whom judgment will be pronounced will be a man who has learnt all the Qur’an, a man who died a martyr and a wealthy man. Allah will say to the Qur’an reciter, ‘Did I not teach you what I revealed upon my Messenger?’ He will say, ‘Yes, my Lord.’ Allah will say, ‘What did you do with your knowledge?’ He will say, ‘I used to recite it around the clock.’ Allah will say to him, ‘You have lied.’ And the angels will say, ‘You have lied.’ And Allah will say to him, ‘You actually wanted it to be said of you: He is a reciter. And so it was said.’ The wealthy one is then brought up. Allah will say, ‘Did I not grant you all kinds of wealth that you may not need anyone?’ He will say, ‘Yes, my Lord.’ Allah will say, ‘What did you do with what I granted you?’ He will say, ‘I used to keep good kinship ties and give charity.’ Allah will say to him, ‘You have lied.’ And the angels will say, ‘You have lied.’ And Allah will say to him, ‘You actually wanted it to be said of you: He is generous. And so it was said.’ Then the martyr is brought up. Allah will say to him, ‘For what sake were you killed?’ He will say, ‘I was ordered to fight for Your sake so I fought until I was killed.’ Allah will say to him, ‘You have lied.’ And the angels will say, ‘You have lied.’ And Allah will say to him, ‘You actually wanted it to be said of you: He is courageous. And so it was said.’” Then Allah’s Messenger hit me on my knees saying, “O Abu-Huraira, these three are the first of Allah’s creatures with whom the Hell-fire will be kindled on the Day of Judgment.”
The third and last scenario is more or less the first scenario but in the opposite direction. The less sound the hearts the less the good deeds and achievements.
We all know as generations are concerned that the generation of the sahaba was the greatest generation ever followed by the following and the following ones. (However on individual basis some people in any generation can be as great or even greater than some of the sahaba). Now why was that generation the best? Because they had the soundest hearts. Comparing our generation to theirs for example, they had much much less means to help them spread Islam than we do yet they did in 30 years what we did not do in hundreds of years. We are mostly very well educated with PhDs and Masters Degrees having certificates of “higher education” with access to the internet and all kinds of media (much more means and even deeds) and they had non of that yet their “achievements” are much more than ours. Now why is that? Again because their hearts were sounder.



How to promote the soundness of your heart:
Here is a 10 point-summary for methods of promoting soundness of one’s heart each of which needs a separate article or study to elaborate upon.
1. Estimation of Allah’s true estimate in one’s heart.
2. Estimation of the hereafter’s true estimate in one’s heart.
3. Observation of the surrounding creation with meditation and learning from history.
4. Living with hope.
5. Persistence on obtaining knowledge and reading.
6. Reading the Qur’an and learning it.
7. Performing the voluntary night prayers (qyam) out of love to Allah (SWT) rather than out of compulsion.
8. Remembrance of Allah (AWJ) all the time along with istighfar, du’aa and continuous repentance.
9. Staying away from sins and bad deeds.
10. True brother/sisterhood in Allah.

Death:
This is actually a point that belongs to the above subtitle but I would like to stress on it on its own due to its very “materialistic” and “touchable” nature and hence great effect in disciplining oneself.
The only sure future event in the life of any of us is death. One has to have this on his/her mind all the time. Our Beloved (SAWS) used to remember death more than 20 times a day.
Now why is that? As previously mentioned the heart is of a very vulnerable nature and is ever changing and is continuously affected by the surrounding environment and the materials of this lowly life. The only materialistic and visible way to tame it and redirect it to arrange its priorities and head for its goal is to continuously remind it of the visible destination, the grave. This way one will always be able to differentiate what is true and what is false, what is to be followed and what is to be left and whom to believe and whom not to believe.

I know of someone very successful in life and very cheerful who after a few years of his marriage bought a grave even before buying an apartment of his own. He even took his less than 10-years old kids down into that grave and told them that this will eventually be any living being’s future. One of these then-kids is one of my best friends now and he knows his priorities very well and is a very cheerful and successful man.

What degrades the heart:
“No indeed, (but) whatever they were earning has overlaid on their hearts”(TMQ, 83:14) . All kinds of sins and bad deeds simply accumulate over the heart and blacken it making it less and less sound to the extent that it might hear the Qur’an and not understand it (as was mentioned previously in “Heart and Mind), have the light and guidance in front of it but not see it and listen to the truth but not recognize it.
Following one’s desires and inclinations is the road to an ill heart and hence failure and hell.

General strategy and conclusion:
From all of the above and especially from the difference between the sahaba’s hearts and our hearts we can conclude that we all need to give much more attention, effort and time to purification of our hearts, more than that we give to “performing” good deeds. We should persistently ask Allah to grant us sound hearts. In our attempt at achieving perfection we should work on the heart first. If we concentrate on that, with time Allah (TWT) will bless our “little” deeds and they will become greater and greater and eventually much more effective and finally more perfect.

May Allah (AWJ) grant us all the soundest of hearts and guide us to reach His utmost content.

References:
 The Noble Qur’an.
 The Prophet’s sunnah (SAWS).
 Life of the sahaba.
 Our life.
 History.
 http://www.islamway.com/?iw_s=Lesson&iw_a=view&lesson_id=35216
 http://www.qaradawi.net/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=3285&version=1&template_id=104
 http://ar.fgulen.com/a.page/qna/a443.html?PHPSESSID=c9e4929c5b8fd288678828b7f80faaf5
 http://egyamira.tigblog.org/post/38587
 http://www.muslimtents.com/zakihassan/index2.htm
 http://www.islamway.com/?iw_s=Scholar&iw_a=series&series_id=1590
 http://www.islamway.com/?iw_s=Scholar&iw_a=series&series_id=2038
 http://www.islamway.com/?iw_s=Lesson&iw_a=view&lesson_id=36975&scholar_id=361&series_id=2021
 The Ahadeeth team database.
 http://dorar.net/mhadith.asp

Special thanks to our sister who helped me editing the translation of some Ahadeeth.