The Human Heart

Turning on the news, we see all the manifestation of this world's pain and suffering: wars, poverty, starvation, politics of hatred, intolerance as well as the abuse of the environment and our beautiful nature. All of these problems are man-made; there is absolutely no doubt about that. Every crime committed against humanity, against nature, against other creatures... every act of malice, cruelty... all of these injustices come from MAN. The heart of man.

My writing is inspired by an article I read about purification of the heart and the fact that today is the first day of Ramadan.. so perhaps the best time to isolate oneself and seek closeness to our Creator.

In Islam, we believe that there are different types of hearts: the healthy, the sick and the dead heart and that there are poisons that aggravate our hearts. Here is the gist of the article:
- Healthy heart: is a heart that if filled with Allah's (saw) will and whose life is dedicated to following His path, lovingly and willingly. This heart has complete love for Allah and it is this love that gives it life.
- Dead heart: is a heart that does not know Allah or worship Him or his commands. This is a heart that places great importance of worldly pleasures, lusts and desires regardless if they will incur Allah's wrath. It is a heart "drunk with its own fancies and its love for hasty, fleeting pleasures".
- Sick heart: is a heart with love for Allah, faith and sincerity towards him and reliance upon Him YET it also craves lust and pleasure and yearns to experience them. One part of its heart is calling it to Islam while the other is calling it to the fleeting pleasures of this world. Basically, the sick heart is a wavering one.

The poisons of the heart include talking excessively (gossip, backstabbing, lying, quarrelling), unrestrained glances (it is believed that the shaytan enters with the glance which may result in disillusionment and forbidden actions thereby distracting the heart from more important concerns), overeating (as it promotes laziness and may inhibit a person in his/her worship to Allah), and negative companionship (befriending those with dark hearts can lead to our own destruction, regardless of how strong we are). These must be avoided at all costs to maintain virtue of being as we continue in the path to becoming better people and purifying our hearts.

In the history of Islam, the prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was known as the most virtuous and pure of human hearts. Through his goodness and his virtue, he transformed the world mash Allah. If we would follow is example and teachings, maybe just maybe we could actually smile and feel pride when turning on that TV and watching the news...

Ramadan Kareem to all - I wish all Muslims across the world a wonderful Ramadan and pray that Allah accepts all of our prayers and fasts during this holy month. As we deny anything that our bodies crave, we are elevating our mind and showing that our will is stronger than our desires. So may Allah help us to clarify our thinking, purify our hearts and have a greater awareness of ourselves so we feel closer to Him. Ameen.