Notes taken during Translation of Shaikh ‘Abdullaah al-Bukhaaree’s Lecture.

Conference Day, UK, 6th February 2010.

(I was listening to the lecture live and I had to jot down in a hurry, so I wrote as I best understood it. BaarakAllaahu feekum.)

The Hearts of The Believers

When the heart isn’t filled with Taqwa (fear & love of Allaah/piety) and Imaan (faith) it becomes weak in times of Fitn (trials/corruption).

When you add desires the heart becomes even weaker.

The believer constantly needs to keep a link to his/her heart to keep it from becoming weak. That is by increasing in and pursuing knowledge.

The heart is the leader of all the body parts, so whatever the condition of the heart is –the body parts will be lead by that state.

The Hardened Heart

The hardened heart is the heart which is most distant from Allaah.

The one who is not busy in pursuing knowledge, does not feel fear of Allaah, nor does he feel close to Allaah. A person who distances himself from Allaah, distances himself from the remembrance of Allaah and distances himself from supplication to Him.

This is one of the greatest punishment’s a person can go under, for his heart to be hardened and to grow heedless of Allaah.

“His heart is hard, and his eyes are dry.”

So this man’s heart is void of feeling any emotion, regret or sorrow, his sins do not distress him and the Qur’aanic words do not affect him. Thus his eyes are dry and he does not weep.

This is understood from the narrations of the Prophet Muhammad (salallaahu 3alaihi wasallam) who said: “The hearts are softened, and thus the eyes weep” (an-nasariya)

The Softened Heart

From the previous hadeeth we understand that when the heart is soft it weeps from remembrance of Allaah. The believer with the soft heart gives precedence to remembrance of Allaah over his desires.

The heart is like a vessel. So, If the heart becomes filled with the remembrance of Allaah, then it softens. So when the believer hears of the fire of Jahannam or he hears of the gardens of Jannah then he weeps.

The most beloved to Allaah are the believers with the softest of hearts. They are always busy with remembrance and obedience to Allaah.

If this believer is reminded of something from Qur’aan and Sunnah then he remembers. If he is warned of something from Qur’aan and Sunnah he remembers. He takes admonition from that alone.

Whereas the hardened heart does not immediately take caution. The destruction of the heart is negligence –this ruins the heart.

The heart that is strong and firm, is the one that always remembers Allaah, it is the example of a live heart compared to a dead heart. The dead heart being, of the one who does not remember Allaah. (From hadeeth of prophet Muhammad salallaahu 3alaihi wasallam)

The need for a person to continually remember Allaah can be compared to a fish’s need for water. If you remove a fish from the water, it dies, it needs to remain in water to survive. And thus a person’s heart is kept alive by constantly remembering Allaah.

Desires

By Allaah! There is not a person who has love for Allaah enter into his heart, that the desires of this world and the love of desires exit from his heart.

When a person’s love for Allaah enters into his heart, his love for the Dunyaa and his desires exit from his heart.

For the believer to gain the love of Allaah in his heart, he must remove the love of the world and his love of desires.

If the believer is able to use all his body parts in the remembrance and worship of Allaah, then he will be successful.

Illnesses

The most severe of diseases of the heart is Desires.

The cure to this disease of the heart, is by the person returning Allaah and contemplating upon the verses of the Qur’aan. The Qur’aan is a healing for the heart. It is the cure to this illness, to ponder and contemplate upon the Qur’aan is a healing for the ill heart.

So reading the Qur’aan is a means of removing desires. In the Qur’aan are evidences of right and wrong, by reading of what is said in the Qur’aan , the desires are removed. It is a means of removing illnesses and the disease of the heart.

When a person has desires in the heart, his understanding of things becomes difficult and his comprehension becomes cloudy. To remove the desires he must ponder over the Qur’aan, concentrate on it and it is necessary to understand the Qur’aan and its meanings.

Then his heart will be full of love for Allaah, it will be such that loves to be guided and hates to be misguided.

Then it becomes such that it does not accept anything but the truth. The truth is nutrition for the heart, and likewise is knowedge. Both are in need of being protected from what harms them.

The trials of the believer’s heart is not just through desires but through doubts. Repentance is necessary to overcome this.

The heart is naked and must be clothed with Taqwa.

The nutrition of the heart is knowledge of Allaah, being subserviant to Allaah, and knowing what Allaah Loves and what Allaah Hates.

Six Places the Heart Approaches

There are six places a person’s heart may go towards:

1. The heart has love of the world, it is attached to the Dunyaa.

2. The heart is ruled by desires, the person goes by his nafs and approaches evil desires.

3. There are two great Enemies that whisper to the person’s heart:

The first is the enemy from among the Shayateen, the evil whispers of Shayateen are obvious, yet they may come in different forms.

The other enemy that poses a deceptive danger is the enemy that is from among the people. Some people may seem harmless, good and loving but truly their words may be poisonous. They may seem righteous but in reality their words are from shaitaan and what they speak may be against goodness.

4. The fourth category is where the believer seeks knowledge which makes things clear to him i.e. gaining beneficial knowledge of the deen which he can implement. Through this he attains the pleasure of Allaah and of the Prophet Muhammad salallaahu 3alahi wasallam by keeping to his Sunnah.

5.The believer’s mind/intellect guides him towards goodness, and it guides him away from dispraiseworthy actions.

6. The believer has knowledge and knowledge of Allaah, his heart is attached to Allaah and attached to ‘Ibaadah i.e. Salaah. In his Salaah he tastes its sweetness, and finds great comfort and pleasure.

Tag: iman

Hearts of the Believers (Videos)