Polishing the Heart

Thursday 9th April 2009

Zikr Lesson for the week

Polishing the heart
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Prophet Muhammad (saw) is reported to have said; “Behold ! there is a piece of flesh in the body. When it is sound, the whole body is sound, and when it is unsound, the whole body becomes unsound. Behold ! it is the heart.” (Bukhari & Muslim)

The main organ in our personality is our heart and the most important matter of our personality is our intention. Your intention comes from your heart. Prophet Muhammad (saw) is reported to have said; “Actions are judged by motives (niyyah), so each man will have what he intended. Thus, he whose migration (hijrah) was to Allah and His Messenger, his migration is to Allah and His Messenger; but he whose migration was for some worldly thing he might gain, or for a wife he might marry, his migration is to that for which he migrated.” (Bukhari & Muslim)

Allah (swt) speaks of the intentions of the true believers in Surah Al-Insan;

“And they feed, for the love of Allah, the indigent, the orphan, and the captive, - (Saying),"We feed you for the sake of Allah alone: no reward do we desire from you, nor thanks.”
(Chapter 76, verse 8-9)

As long as your intention is Allah (swt), He will reward you. Our intention comes from the heart. This is why Satan whispers to the hearts of man. He wants to change your intention because the heart will influence the other organs. This is why we must keep our heart clean and pure. Everything centers around the heart. As long as your intention is good, Allah (swt) will take care of you, even though you may sometimes perceive the outcome as being unfortunate.

Allah (swt) says in His Holy Words;

“He moves between a man’s heart and chest”. (8:24)

What does this mean? The purpose of zikir is to try and polish your heart and make it God conscious. There is a special gem in our hearts called the ruh. This is made of extremely refined light. And, if properly nurtured it will grow inside of us and become bright.

We would all want this gem to be clean and shinning. But when we do wrong, our nafs puts a dark stain on it Allah (swt) says:

By no means, but on their hearts is the stain of the (ill) which they do. Verily, from (the Light of) their Lord, that Day will they be veiled. Further, they will enter the Fire of Hell. (83:14-16)

Let us therefore keep our hearts clean and shinning and Inshaa Allah the light that shines in our heart will penetrate the other cells of the body. By achieving this we would be able to reflect the Light of Allah (swt) in our bodies and when it is time to depart from this world the grave would not be dark and scary, instead it will become enlightened.

Rasulullah (saw) said that the heart gets rusted as iron gets rust. The Sahaabas asked him what could cleanse this and Rasulullah (saw) replied, “Frequent recitation of the Qur’an and Dhikr (remembrance) of Allah (swt).”

If we can keep our hearts bright and shining, it will have the capacity to reflect the light of Allah (swt). Then, wherever we may be, we will be reflecting something of the beauty and grandeur of Allah. We will then be a true Vicegerent of Him and will be able to be on the earth when every thing but His Nur will be on it. About this He says in Qur’an, the following:

“And He will cause the earth to shine with the glory of its Lord. The Record (of Deeds) will be placed (open), the prophets and the witnesses will be brought forward; and a just decision pronounced between them; and they will not be wronged. (39:69).

One of the missions of Prophet Muhammad (saw) is to reflect the light of Allah (swt) into the hearts of his followers. This special mission was given to him on the night of Miraj, when he was alone with his Lord, and at that time, received from the Merciful One, a true reflection of Tawheed on his heart.

What we have to do is to be a recipient of this light by cleaning and polishing our heart, so that there will be no hindrance to prevent the light from reaching it. If we can do this the light from the heart will thereafter permeate through the entire body and our intentions will become refined.

Try and make your motive solely for the pleasure of Allah (swt). Use the assets and skills He has bestowed upon you for His sake and pleasure, and insha Allah He would take care of your affairs; put you with those on whom He will favor on that Day.