A Pandemic of a Different Kind

Many contagious diseases are running rampant these days but what is perhaps even more dangerous, insidious, and inconspicuous than the ones that we constantly hear dire warnings about are the diseases that enclose most people’s hearts in a deathly embrace to blacken, defile, and consume them. If proper caution is not exercised, such diseases could eventually extinguish the life within, essentially deadening the heart and leaving the person to live on unaware. Those who die in the grip of these spiritual diseases cannot reach the rewards of martyrdom unlike those who pass away due to biological pandemics do. Moreover, the aftermath is nothing but regret and misery.

What makes us human are not our hands, feet, eyes, or ears; it’s our heart. Mankind is in the center of life on Earth and the heart is the center of mankind. The heart is the core of every human being, their essence. It is the center of every willful action. Thus, the heart is the headquarters for every deed and word that is human in this world.

It is where the decisions are made for all things good and bad.

It is where the choice is made for believing in the truth or denying it.

It is the heart that loves and hates.

What becomes corrupt is not the world or the time one lives in, but the heart.

What makes the world either a place of celebration or a place of suffering is the heart.

The heart is the source of all the honor and disgrace in the world.

The heart is the seedbed that can be nourished to yield either obedience or rebellion.

It is the heart that wills peace and it is the heart that yearns for war.

It is the heart that breaks other hearts and it is by the heart that one makes amends.

In this world, it is the heart that kindles the fire of the torch of khidmah (serving others for the sake of Allah) and it is the heart that fans the flames of fitnah (unrest and strife).

It is the heart that engulfs this world in peace with its love and mercy and it is the heart that sets it on fire with its ambitions and grudges.

What makes humans as benign as angels or as foul as shaytan is the heart.

As it says in the Qur’an, all the capacity for corruption and taqwa exist internally in a human. He who purifies it and achieves taqwa (piety) succeeds, and he who instills corruption and depravity in it has failed. (Ash-Shams, 8-10)

A famous hadith tells us that if one’s heart is sound, then so will be his deeds as well as the person himself. Likewise, if one’s heart is corrupt, then so will be the person and his deeds. (Bukhari, Iman 39; Muslim, Musaqah 107; Ibn Majah, Fitan 14) That’s when life will become full of distress, pain, suffering, and degeneracy.

In short, without heart, there would not be man. Without man, no deeds could be done that necessitate the rewards of Heaven or the punishment of Hell. Therefore, if we wish for peace in this world and the afterlife, the responsibility  is on us to rid our hearts of all spiritual illnesses. We must show conjoined effort at social and public levels to achieve the wellbeing of our hearts and to find peace in our lives just as we fight as a united front against the virus that is invading our bodies and causing destruction.

Many contagious diseases are running rampant these days but what is perhaps even more dangerous, insidious, and inconspicuous than the ones that we constantly hear dire warnings about are the diseases that enclose most people’s hearts in a deathly embrace to blacken, defile, and consume them. If proper caution is not exercised, such diseases could eventually extinguish the life within, essentially deadening the heart and leaving the person to live on unaware. Those who die in the grip of these spiritual diseases cannot reach the rewards of martyrdom unlike those who pass away due to biological pandemics do. Moreover, the aftermath is nothing but regret and misery.

The Afflictions That Plague the Heart

Two of the chief afflictions that are deadly to the heart are denial and shirk (associating partners with Allah). There is no greater atrocity on the face of the Earth than denying the existence of Allah and ascribing any being as a partner or equal to Him.

Another widespread affliction is nifaq. Nifaq means hypocrisy. Nifaq in religion is appearing as a mumin on the outside but being a denier on the inside. The following cases constitute nifaq:

• Outwardly appearing as a salih (good) person but being full of depravity within.
• Speaking of bettering society and the world while planning to cause strife in truth.
• Posing as a man of the people while working to undermine them.
• Seeming to be a good-natured, civil human being while having monstrous intentions; being a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
• Singing praises of someone while stabbing them in the back.

Being a munafiq (hypocrite) is worse than being a kafir (denier/unbeliever) and its punishment in the afterlife is more severe. There is nothing as disastrous and destructive for human nature as nifaq. Munafiqun can be in any society, among any group just like the ones that had found their way into the gathering and the masjid of Prophet Muhammad (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam)...

Another one of the common afflictions of our time is lying. It is defined as making a statement outside of the truth. Lying and iman cannot occupy the same heart. All kinds of libel and fitnah can be considered as part of lying. Lying even as a joke is forbidden and the liars are cursed. (Ali Imran, 61; An-Nur, 7). Both the telling and spreading of lies are a disaster. Without being rid of this affliction, neither the individual nor the society can know peace.

Pride is yet another widespread affliction that brings about the death of the heart. According to the description of Our Beloved Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam), pride is thinking highly of oneself, showing disdain when faced with the truth, and looking down on others. (Muslim, Iman 147; Ahmad, Musnad, 4/133-134)

Rasulullah (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) said: “He who has in his heart the weight of a mustard seed of pride shall not enter Paradise.” (Muslim, Iman 147; Tirmidhi, Birr 61) Having an overblown opinion of oneself leads to a very rigid state of bigoted fanaticism. Such bigotry addles the mind, blinds the eye, and deafens the ear—so much so that when someone is under the influence of such a state of mind, he can easily sling mud at an angel for not being on his side and just as easily sing praises of the shaytan for backing him up. We shouldn’t even think of capturing the scent of Heaven until we completely purge pride from ourselves, our families and society.

Envy is another deadly affliction that infects the heart. Envy is begrudging someone the blessings, wealth, happiness, success, beauty, or health that they have been granted. Not only that but envy goes so far as to seek out ways of bringing an end to these benefits. The person filled with such envy eats his own heart out to see someone else enjoying such benefits and he feels elated when they lose these blessings.

He who harbors envy cannot know happiness, cannot be a man of manners. Envy goes against the ordainment and allotment done by Allah (subhanahu wa taala). The flames of envy consume the person and the society as well as the ajr (rewards) for one’s ibadah and obedience. If not remedied, the flames of envy in this world will be followed by the flames of Hell. Allah forbid.

With all these maladies roaming around

Lust, fame, heedlessness, greed, ambition for status, power, prestige, love of the world and worldly things, shirking the duty of taat (obedience and submission to Allah), neglecting the fard, allowing haram to be a part of one’s life and livelihood, gossiping, backbiting and many others fall under the category of dreadful maladies that stain and blacken the heart.

Let us ask ourselves this question: How can we feel well and say that we are peaceful and blissful people when our nafs, our children, our household, and our society are besieged on all sides by these afflictions?

We should be vigilant against maladies that ensnare our hearts, make sure to recognize them for what they are, take them seriously and take care to remedy them just as we watch out for the diseases that inflict themselves on our flesh and bone. All of these afflictions are similar to viruses; unseen to the eye but ultimately and unmistakably harmful. When someone passes away while still in the grip of these afflictions, their cries echo into the afterlife.

One cannot enter Heaven without cleansing the taint of sins on his heart with ashq (divine love) or with fire. With a tainted heart, one gets admitted neither into the heaven of marifah (having the light of divine knowledge shine upon the heart) in this world nor into the heaven of eternal blessings in the afterlife. While in this situation, one cannot know the joy of witnessing jamalullah either.

The cleansing by ashq is called tawbah (repentance). If one makes tawbah of his own will in this world, it serves as a remedy for all afflictions of the heart. A servant can find eternal bliss through tawbah. Cleansing by fire, on the other hand, takes place in Hell. Anyone in their right mind would not prefer this as a way of being cleansed.

The Cure For These Afflictions

Books on Islamic moral values have widely expounded on the cure for afflictions of the heart. For instance, the renowned title known as Ihyau Ulumi’d-Din by Imam Ghazali (rahmatullahi alayh) comes at the forefront of these books. The cause for each affliction, the diagnoses, the treatments, and the results have been detailed in this work.

Our civilization is one of humanity. In our understanding, objects serve the people and the people serve Allah (subhanahu wa taala). The ummah of the Prophet of Mercy (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) is an ummah brought forth for the good of the world. What is expected of it is to propagate mercy and eliminate hardships.

The Arifan, also called al-Insan al-Kamil (the people of perfection), have acted as the architects of our civilization and used their experience to show us the ways of treating those who have been stricken by these spiritual ailments. This is true to such an extent that many who have gone to their dargahs—hospitals of spiritual healing—as vile villains and grave sinners have become, under their care, beloved servants of Allah, namely awliya. Within the walls of these schools of adab (refinement of the heart, behaviors, and manners), the shameless learned to feel shame for their wrongdoings, and many thieves and scoundrels found that the ashq (divine love) they felt in the end touched their hearts and caused them to eventually become men of refined manners and noble character. Many nonbelievers became steadfast men of faith under the blessed gaze of the awliya. Many a miser and wealth-hoarder unwilling to spare a single penny for another became so generous that they were willing to give their very lives, that they may give it to please Allah. Those with no room for love in their hardened hearts came to embrace and love everyone as their brothers. Tyrants, oppressors, and countless cruel villains became beacons of justice. Traitors, backstabbers, and the unfaithful in general were shown a more honorable way of life. Those infatuated with this world and its lowly baubles and pleasures gave their hearts fully to Allah out of their love for Him. The proud stripped away their mantles of pride and donned the garbs of modesty to be in selfless service of others, akin to a bridge that carries and serves the people simply by being tread upon. The drunkard sobered up, the oblivious hearkened. They all underwent drastic reformations in these dargahs and they all took their places as servants of Allah before the time came to breathe their last.

These ‘hospitals’ serve as places where the metaphorical viruses in people’s hearts are found with the help of the light of ilm (Islamic knowledge) and irfan. The stains on the heart are wiped out with cleansing tears of remorse and divine love is instilled within. These patients, who are also the seekers of their Lord, first bathe in the metaphorical waters of tawbah warmed by remorse and regret, then they are laid to rest within the embrace of dua, strengthened by the light of taat, nourished by dhikr, and finally, they are discharged as reformed people, as if they were born anew.

These individuals are also warned against people and places that spread these illnesses. At the top of this list are the shaytan, people who have become as shaytan, friends who are a bad influence, people practicing and spreading bid’at, and close circles that are made up of people with bad influences.

The treated patients are urged to keep away from consuming haram and engaging in activities that harden the heart such as gossiping, backbiting, foul language, and idle and useless pastimes, words, and actions.

The heart contracts diseases in two different ways. One is the eye and the other is the word. He who keeps his eyes, his tongue and his ears free of wickedness—in a manner not too dissimilar from the proverbial principles of “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” before their original meaning of wisdom and caution was eroded and replaced with blind ignorance—keeps his essence pure and his heart at peace.

If we can work together both at the individual and the broader, national and global levels to rid ourselves of these diseases, using the remedies prescribed for such ailments, giving our support to these “hospitals of irshad”, consulting these doctors of heart and disposing of all our wrong thoughts, ideas and actions, then we can fully experience the honor of being a human being and a Muslim. Then our land becomes “Daru’s-Salam.” In other words, this amounts to making tawbah (repentance), being nurtured and educated to become better individuals, and finding salvation en masse.

Our forefathers achieved this. Once, certain lands and countries were hailed as “Daru’s-Salam.” Because the people living in those lands had dedicated themselves to becoming beloved servants of Allah, served as mirrors by gazing upon which others could reflect upon their own nature and the true, intended nature of humanity, and preserved the honor that befits a servant of Allah; thus they were blessed with divine grace. The time has come for us to follow in their example. Even if we can’t manage to realize every single one of these accomplishments, that means in no way that we shouldn’t try to fulfill as many as we can. Let us not lose hope. Our Exalted Rabb (Lord) Allah (subhanahu wa taala) says in the Qur’an:

“And turn to Allah in repentance, all of you, O believers, that you might succeed.” (An-Nur, 31)

We pray that Allah grants us peace in this world and the afterlife.