How Does the Heart Fast?
الحمد لله رب العالمين والصلاة والسلام على سيد المرسلين وعلى آله وأصحابه أجمعين
InshaAllah, in tonight’s reminder, I intend to share some thoughts on the human heart and how it fasts during Ramadan and outside Ramadan. In the Arabic language, the human heart is called Qalb, which means heart, mind, and conscience all at once.
أَلَا بِذِكْرِ اللَّهِ تَطْمَئِنُّ الْقُلُوبُ
“Truly, it is in the remembrance of Allah that hearts find peace (ar-Ra’d, 13:28). The Qur’an also refers to the heart as sadr, meaning chest.
فَمَن يُرِدِ اللَّهُ أَن يَهْدِيَهُ يَشْرَحْ صَدْرَهُ لِلْإِسْلَامِ
“Whoever Allah wills to guide, He opens their heart to Islam” (al-An’am, 6:125). Sometimes the heart is referred to as fuad meaning intellect.
إِنَّ السَّمْعَ وَالْبَصَرَ وَالْفُؤَادَ كُلُّ أُولَٰئِكَ كَانَ عَنْهُ مَسْئُولًا
“Indeed the ear, the eye, the heart, each will be questioned” (al-Isra’, 17:36). All this illustrates the centrality of the heart in Islam.
There are also many sayings of the Prophet (SAW) mentioning the heart. For example, a Prophetic tradition tells us: “Truly, Allah does not look at your outward forms and wealth, but rather at your heart and actions.” This means that believers should focus on the reformation of their hearts as well as on accumulating good deeds. Pointing to his heart, the Prophet (SAW) said, التَّقْوَى هَاهُنَا (“Consciousness and fear of Allah is here!”). The Prophet (SAW) used to pray with the wordings:
يا مُقلِّبَ القُلُوْبِ ثَبِّت قَلْبِي عَلَى دِيْنِكَ اللَّهُمَّ مُصَرِّفَ الْقُلُوبِ صَرِّفْ قُلُوبَنَا عَلَى طَاعَتِكَ
“O turner of hearts! Keep my heart firm upon your religion.”
“O Allah, turner of hearts! Turn our hearts to your obedience.”
Scholars suggest that the heart overpowers the mind and is more fundamental in shaping our behavior, especially as regards to fulfilling our faith. Given the importance of heart in Islam, many scholars wrote about it from the spiritual context. Imam Al-Nawawi refers to heart as the seat of the mind and Ibn Kathir interprets it as an organ of understanding. Imam Al-Ghazali explains that the spiritual heart represents the entire human personality. “It enables man to attain knowledge of Allah (SWT), draw near Him, work for Him and labor towards Him. It is the heart, which rejoices in closeness to Allah (SWT) and prospers when it is purified, and miserable when corrupted.”
Ibn Taymiyyah, in his well-known book, “Diseases of the Heart” writes that the heart has special importance in Islam because it is considered the leader ofthe body and it is only through the purification of the leader that the organs become pure. With its corruption, they also become corrupted.
The desire to exploit, the urge to dominate, the excessive love of wealth, power and status, hypocrisy, jealousy, needless interfering in other people’s lives, indulging in gossip, rumor mongering, backbiting, and all such manifestations of diseases are found nowhere but in the heart. Every criminal, every miser, every abuser, every boastful, arrogant and hateful person does what he does because of a diseased heart. In the Qur’an, one of the descriptions of the Day of Judgment is:
يَوْمَ لَا يَنْفَعُ مَالٌ وَلَا بَنُونَ () إِلَّا مَنْ أَتَى اللَّهَ بِقَلْبٍ سَلِيمٍ
“The day when neither wealth nor children will benefit anyone; except for someone who comes to Allah with a sound heart” (ash-Suh’ara, 26:88-89).
The sound heart is understood to be free of spiritual diseases and corruption. The fasting of the heart is done by emptying it of all diseases and corruption such as false beliefs, and evil intentions and actions.
The heart of the believer fasts and abstains from egotism. Egotism is when the individual sees himself as perfect, better than others and is possession of good qualities that are not found in anyone else. The cure for this false sense of self-importance is to look at one’s own faults, sins and misdeeds that one has committed, wrongs that one has done and forgotten but the knowledge of which is with Allah in a book.
The heart of the believer fasts and abstains from envy because it puts out the light of the heart and stops its progress toward Allah (SWT).
When people are completely immersed in the material world, believing that the world is all that matters and all that exists and that they are not accountable for their actions, they affect a spiritual death of their hearts. However, before the heart dies, it shows symptoms of affliction. These afflictions are the spiritual diseases of the hearts. From this perspective, Islam places great emphasis on hearts and calls for cleansing them from sins for it is the heart at which Allah (SWT) will look on the Day of Judgment.
The Prophet (S) gave glad tidings of Paradise to one of his companions. When the companion was asked about what was it that earned him a place in paradise, he said, “I do not sleep with envy, grudge or deceit in my heart for any Muslim.”
In this special month of Ramadan, let us make a commitment to cleanse our hearts and minds of all base thoughts and destructive emotions, beliefs, and concepts. This is only possible if we guard our organs of tongue, stomach, hands, ears, eyes, hands, feet, and mind of all sins, both outward and inward, Let us rid ourselves of diseases such as pride, jealousy, ill-feeling, backbiting, anger, dishonesty, selfishness, revenge, obsessive love of the world, manipulation of power and abuse of Allah’s favors.
رَبَّنَا لَا تُزِغْ قُلُوبَنَا بَعْدَ إِذْ هَدَيْتَنَا وَهَبْ لَنَا مِنْ لَدُنْكَ رَحْمَةً إِنَّكَ أَنْتَ الْوَهَّابُ
“Our Lord! Do not let our hearts deviate after you have guided us. Grant us Your mercy. You are indeed the Giver of all bounties.” (Al ‘Imran, 3:8)
رَبَّنَا اغْفِرْ لَنَا وَلِإِخْوَانِنَا الَّذِينَ سَبَقُونَا بِالْإِيمَانِ وَلَا تَجْعَلْ فِي قُلُوبِنَا غِلًّا لِلَّذِينَ آَمَنُوا رَبَّنَا إِنَّكَ رَءُوفٌ رَحِيمٌ
“Our Lord, forgive us and our brothers who preceded us in faith, and leave no malice in our hearts toward those who believe. Our Lord, You are indeed full of kindness, most merciful.” (al-Hashr, 59:10)
أَقُولُ قَوْلِي هَذَا وَأَسْتَغْفِرُ اللَّهَ لِي وَلَكُمْ وَلِسَائِرِ المُسْلِمينَ وَالمُسْلِمَاتْ فَاسْتَغْفِرُوهْ إِنَّهُ هُوَ الْغَفُورُ الرَّحِيمُ
وَصَلَّ اللهُ عَلَى خيرِ خَلقِهِ مُحمَّدٍ وعَلَى آلِه وأصْحَابِه أجْمَعِين- بِرَحْمَتِكَ يا أرْحَمَ الرَّاحِمِين
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Some passages have been excerpted and paraphrased from the book “Thirty Lessons for Those Who Fast” by Aa’id Abdullah al-Qarni.
