Seek out your heart

Ibn Qayyim (ra) said:

“When the slave wakes up as the night encloses him and his only concern is Allah and how to please and obey Him, then Allah takes it upon Him to fulfill all his needs and remove from him all that causes him anxiety. Allah also makes his heart free to love Him only, his tongue free to remember Him only, and his body free to serve Him only.

However, when a slave of Allah wakes up and the night encloses him and his main concern is the world, Allah will make him bear the burdens of its anxiety, grief and hardship. Allah will entrust him to his own self and He will make his heart busy, sealing it from His love since it will be preoccupied in the love of creation. Allah will keep his tongue from His remembrance because it will be engaged with His creation: his body will be kept from obedience since it will be enslaved by its desires and services. And he will toil like a beast of burden toils in the service of another. And all who turn away from the worship, obedience and love of Allah will be put into trial with the worship, service and love for creation.

Allah SWT says:

“And whosoever turns away (blinds himself) from the remembrance of the Most Gracious (Allah) (i.e this Quran and worship of Allah), We appoint for him Shaytaan to be a Qarin (an intimate companion) to him” (43:36)

Ibn Qayyim continues to say, ”Seek out your heart in three situations first, when you are listening to the Quraan, when you are part of a gathering of remembrance and third, when you are alone and away from the world and its distractions. If you cannot find your heart in these situations, then ask Allah to bestow upon you a heart, for indeed you are bereft of one.”

Revenge is not sweet



Imam Ibn al-Qayyim r.h says:

“The scene of peace and coolness of heart is a very honourable for the person who recognizes it and tastes it’s sweetness. This entails his heart and his inner feelings not bothering about the harm that he has experienced,

Furthermore, his heart should not bother about avenging this harm and satisfying his soul Rather, his heart should be empty and devoid of all this. He should realize that the peace and coolness of his heart and it being devoid of all this is more beneficial for him, more delightful, more wholesome and more advantageous.”

“This is because if the heart occupies itself in any sort of revenge, it would miss all that is more important and better for it. In so doing, the person will be deceived. An intelligent and discerning person will not be pleased with that. He will consider all this to be the engagements of a foolish person. How can there be any comparison between peace of the heart and it being filled with deception and evil whisperings? And being fully engrossed with exacting revenge?”

As for the scene of peace and tranquility — if a person abstains from replying to the harm and exacting revenge, he will save himself from all that is worse than this, if he exacts revenge, he will certainly experience fear.

This because revenge sows enmity. And an intelligent person never feels safe from his enemy even if he is an insignificant one. Many an insignificant person has brought about the fall of his major enemy.

So if a person forgives, if he does not exact any revenge, if he does not reply to the harm, he will save himself from the birth of enmity or the increase of enmity. His pardon, his forbearance and his overlooking will certainly break the power of his enemy and repulse his fear — contrary to what exacting revenge will do. Experience also bears testimony to all this.”

Ibn al-Qayyirn, Madãrij as-Salikin, Vol2 p320

Ibn Qayyim al Jawziyyah



Some beautiful words from Ibn Qayyim rahimahullaah:

“The Heart, in its journey to Allah (swt) is like that of a bird:
Love is its head, and fear and hope are its two wings. When the
head and two wings are sound the bird flies gracefully; if the
head is severed, the bird dies; if the bird loses one of its wings, it
then becomes a target for every hunter or predator.”

 ---

“Truly in the heart there is a void that can not be removed except with the company of Allah.

And in it there is a sadness that can not
be removed except with the
knowing Allah and being true to Him.

And in it there is an emptiness that can not be
filled except with love for Him and by
turning to Him and always remembering Him.

And if a person were given all of the world and
what is in it, it would not fill this emptiness.”

The point of knowledge

Sufyaan Ath-Thawree, Rahimahullaah, said: “The excellence of knowledge is due only to the fact that it causes a person to fear and obey Allaah, otherwise it is just like anything else.” [Related by ibn Rajab]

From Jaabir (radiyAllâhu ‘anhu) who said that Allâh’s Messenger (salAllâhu ‘aliahi wa’sallam) said:

“Do not acquire knowledge in order to compete with the scholars, nor to argue with the ignorant, nor to gain mastery over the gatherings. Since whoever does that, then: The Fire! The Fire!”

The heart will not find complete happiness except by loving Allah

Ibn Taimiyah said:

“The heart will not find complete happiness except by loving Allah and by striving towards what is dear to Him. It is not possible to achieve this love except by rejecting all things that compete with it. This is what the words, ‘There is no god but Allah’ mean; this is the spirit of the deen of Ibrahim and of that of every other prophet.”

(Ibn Taimiya, Majmu’ al-Fatawa, vol 28, p.32, Riyadh)

Advice

Be content with what you have, be satisfied with your dwelling place to accommodate your enterprise, restrain your tongue, and shed tears of regret regarding past sins you committed knowingly, and those you do not recognise.

`Abdullah bin Mas`oud

Do good in what remains, then what has passed shall be forgiven

Al-Fudhayl ibn Iyyâdh said to a man, “How many (years) have come upon you?”He replied, “Sixty years.” He said, “Therefore, for sixty years you have been going to your Lord and you are about to reach (Him).”So the man said, “To Allâh we belong and to Him we are returning!” So al-Fudhayl asked, “Do you know the meaning of that (statement)? You are saying, ‘I belong to Allâh as a servant and I am going to return to Him.’ So whoever knows that he belongs to Allâh as a servant and that he will return to him, then he should know that he will be stopped. And whoever knows that he will be stopped, then he should know that he will be questioned. And whoever knows that he will be questioned, then let him prepare an answer for the question.” The man asked, “So what should I do?” He said, “It is easy.” The man again asked, “What is it?” al-Fudhayl said, “Do good in what remains, then what has passed shall be forgiven. Yet, if you do evil in what remains, then you will be taken to account for what has passed as well as for what remains.”

Why was the speech of the salaf better than ours?

Abdullah Ibn al-Mubarak said: “Hamdun Ibn Ahmed was asked:

‘Why was the speech of the Salaf better than ours?’

He said: ‘They talked for the honour of Islam, for the safety of souls and the pleasure of Allah whereas we talk for the honour of the souls, to seek the pleasure of the world and to please people.”

A weapon is only as good as the person who is using it.

Imaam Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allaah have mercy on him) said:

“duas and ta’awwudhaat [prayers seeking refuge with Allaah] are like a weapon, and a weapon is only as good as the person who is using it; it is not merely the matter of how sharp it is. If the weapon is perfect and free of faults, and the arm of the person using it is strong, and there is nothing stopping him, then he can lay waste the enemy. But if any of these three features is lacking, then the effect will be lacking accordingly.”

(al-Daa’ wa’l-Dawaa’, p. 35).