Heart

· Almost universally, all religious traditions put a strong emphasis on the condition of the heart.

· In the Quran, the Day of Judgment is described as a day in which neither wealth nor children shall be of any benefit, except one who comes to God with a sound heart.

· So what exactly is a sound heart?

o In this context, a sound heart is not referring to the physical organ itself per se, but it is referring to spiritual heart. Therefore, the sound heart, which the Quran makes reference to, is understood to be a heart which is free of character defects and spiritual blemishes.

· The first part of this khutba Inshallah will analyze the heart by discussing why it is Islamically important.

· In a physical sense, the heart is incredible. The heart beats 100,000 times a day and pumps two gallons of blood every minute and over 100 gallons every hour. Think about carrying 100 gallons of water from one place to another, it would be an exhausting task. Yet, the human heart does this every hour of every day for an entire lifetime.

· We know that the heart beat is one of the first things to form after conception and remarkably the heart beat develops before the brain is fully formed. Dominant theories state that the brain is what controls the human being but we now know that the brain does not initiate the beat of the heart, it is actually self-initiated, or as Muslims say, initiated by Allah SWT.

· Many western scholars believe that the brain is the center of consciousness. But in traditional Islamic thought, it is the heart that is viewed as the center. The Quran, for example, it says god placed over their hearts a covering that they may not understand it and in their ears he placed acute deafness when referring to the people who mocked the Prophet SAW after he gave them the message of Islam. In this ayah Allah SWT is saying that their inability to understand is a defect from the normal functioning of a sound heart.

· There are many other places in the Quran that Allah SWT put an emphasis on a strong heart.

· The Quran defines three types of people: al-mu’minun (the believers), al-kafirun (the ones who have rejected the faith), and al-munafiqun (the hypocrites). The believers are described as people whose hearts are alive and full of light, while the ones who reject the faith are in darkness. In the Quran, Allah SWT says, is one who was dead and then we gave life and made for him a light by which to walk among the people like one who is in darkness from which he cannot exist? According to commentators of the Quran, the one who was dead refers to having a dead heart, which God revived with the light of guidance that one may walk straight and honorably among human beings.

· Also, the Prophet Muhammad SAW 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 essence, the believer is someone whose heart is alive, while a disbeliever is someone whose heart is effectively dead. The hypocrite, though, is somebody whose heart is especially diseased.

· The Prophet of Islam SAW spoke of the heart as a depository of knowledge and a vessel sensitive to the deeds of the heart. He said, for example, wrong doings irritate the heart. So the heart actually perceives wrong action.

· The heart is an organ designed to be in a state of calm, which is achieved with the remembrance of Allah SWT. In the Quran, Allah SWT says, most surely, in the remembrance of God do hearts find calm. This calm is what the heart seeks out and gravitates to. It yearns to remember Allah SWT, but when it does not, the heart falls into a state of agitation and turmoil. In this state, the heart becomes vulnerable to spiritual diseases because it is undernourished and exposed. Cells require oxygen, so we breathe. If we stop breathing, cells die, then we die. The heart also needs to breathe, and the breath of the heart is none other than the remembrance of God. The heart is like a fish, and the water is the remembrance of Allah SWT. The very purpose of revelation of scripture is to remind us again and again that our hearts need to be nourished. One can say that Islam is in essence is a program to restore purity and calm to the heart through the remembrance of God. Talk about brain and heart…

· Interestingly, if you examine the trials and tribulations, wars and other conflicts, and every act of injustice all over earth, you will see that they all are rooted in the heart. The desire to exploit people and the love of wealth and position are both manifestations of diseases of the heart. Every criminal, abuser, embezzler, and hateful person does what he or she does because of a diseased heart. If hearts were sound, these actions would be longer a reality. So if you want to change the world, do not begin by rectifying the outward. Instead, change the condition of the inward.

· Inshallah, the second part of this khutba will discuss three specific diseases which afflict many of us today.

SECOND KHUTBA

· Hatred, other than for the sake of Allah SWT. We all have those people we hate because they annoy us, or that person that can’t seem to ever mind their own business. We need to remember we do not hate these people for the sake of Allah. The reason this disease is so hurtful is that a person wastes so much internal effort hating a person which won’t affect him in this world or the hereafter. We end up backbiting about the person and never helping him to stop what we don’t like about him. Let me get this str8, we can hate an action a person takes, but unless the person hates Islam and is stopping you from being Muslim, then you have no right to hate the person. The best way to end this sickness to forgive them and ask for forgiveness and make duaa for them. It is very beneficial to make duaa for a brother or sister without them knowing it. The Prophet SAW said if you make duaa for another Muslim without them knowing it, the angels will make duaa for you. The Prophet SAW once said to his companions, “Do you want too see a man of Paradise?”…

· Another illness we can go into is something that many active Muslims may commit. Seeking a rep, doing Islamic actions in order to have people praise you. This is a sickness in a few forms: The fact that the actions are done for other than Allah, the fact that a person will become upset when people don’t notice, and that a person might work extra for the sake of people. How many of us do a little more when people are looking at us? The cure for this is fixing our intentions, and doing our actions for Allah without any need for people top see us and/or reward from anyone. We all know that actions are based on intention, but we can all use a reminder.

· The final sickness I wish to discuss is a very important one which is often overlooked. This illness can’t be found easily in a person, because action wise, the person has done nothing wrong. This illness is considered a gateway into all wrong doings. Heedlessness, or being unaware of Allah throughout the day, is the source of all other diseases. The reason this disease is so bad is that a person that sins night and day may one day get sick of his sins. After leaving his sins he returns to Allah better than he was before out of fear of his sins. However, a heedless person never gets sick of his sins because he doesn’t do them, or he is unaware of wrong and right. How often to we remember Allah, half of us don’t even think of Allah in our prayers! Ways to end heedlessness is easy: 1) seek repentance right after sin and even if one hasn’t, 2) Have good friends that remember Allah 3) Remember and love the Prophet(s), since it leads back to love for Allah, 4) and read as much Quran as you can, as these are the words of Allah, and what better way to remember him than through his words.

The Prophet Muhammad SAW said, Surely in the breasts of humanity is a lump of flesh, if sound then the whole body is sound, and if corrupt then the whole body is corrupt, it is surely the heart.