Search your heart

By: Tamime Khemmar

My brother ! My sister ! Have you ever wondered about your heart?

Just as you tend to the health of your heart and periodically seek the opinion of the best cardiologist on the state of your heart health – the physical state I mean -, have you ever wondered about the state of the faith of your heart?

If physical health is indispensable for the material life of your heart, faith is also indispensable for the spiritual and religious life of your heart.

Only, the latter is more important because it conditions our happiness in the life here below and in the last life, unlike the physical health of the “organ” heart which concerns only the life here below.

Let’s see what one of the greatest cardiologists of the spiritual heart says who is none other than the great Companion of the Prophet [ﷺ] : Abdullah Ibn Mas^vsOud (may Allah be pleased):

“Seek your heart in three places: When you listen to the Qur’an, during meetings of remembrance (dhikr) and when you are alone. If you can’t find it in those moments, know that you have no heart. So ask Allah to grant you another heart. »

What does this mean ?

Does this mean that you have to ask Allah to grant you a surgeon who places a new heart in your chest?

No, of course ! Because it wouldn’t change your condition.

The only remedy is that Allah has great mercy on you to direct you towards repentance which will purify your heart, heal your heart and give it new life.

So when you seek him in these three places, you will find him present, awake, and full of faith.

What are these three places?

Search your heart when you listen to the Quran

Do you like to hear the recitation of the Quran? Do you like meditating on your senses, reading books of tafseer (exegesis) or listening to scholars who explain the meanings of Allah’s words?

Let each of us ask ourselves: “How much time do we devote to the Quran each day? »

“What is the part of the Word of Allah in our life? »

“How much time do we spend in front of our screens, our newspapers? »

“What is the part of the words of others in our life? »

Then let’s compare the two. We will then know what is the true place of the word of our Lord in our life and what importance we give to it.

Seek your heart in reminder meetings (dhikr)

If you are one of those who likes reminder meetings where Allah is mentioned, where His Prophet [ﷺ] is evoked and where the most beneficial teaching is lavished, know that your heart is alive, that it beats and that it overflows with faith.

The Prophet [ﷺ] said :

“The example of the one who evokes Allah and the one who does not evoke Him is like the living and the dead. »[1]

Search your heart when you’re alone

When you are alone and no one sees you, know that Allah is watching you; He sees your every move and hears your every word.

What do you do when you’re alone?

Do you think of Allah and come to mind His greatness, His power, His majesty and His mercy, then your eyes overflow with tears?

Do you remember your sins, your mistakes and your great negligence against your benefactor Lord, then your eyes overflow with tears?

Or, you take advantage of the opportunity, the false opportunity, and you commit what your soul, your desires and the Chayyouân tell you to do?

Certainly, Ibn Mas^vsOud (may Allah be pleased with him) is a great doctor of the heart, but it is Allah alone who grants healing.

Let us turn to Allah, Subhanah, and invoke Him to forgive our sins, look upon us with an eye of mercy and heal our hearts from all their ills.

Author’s notes:

[1] Al-Bukhari (6407)