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| Alchemy of the Heart Shaykh Muhammad Maulud Translated into English by Shaykh Hamza Yusuf This is an edited transcription of the
audio tapes of the course Shaykh Hamza gave based on his translation of
Shaykh Muhammad Maulud's Matharatul Qulub: The Diseases of the Heart. This
class took place in Hayward, California in 1999. Part 1: Shaykh Hamza's Preview to the Course The Heart Allah subhanahu wa t'ala says, "On
that day nothing will benefit the human being, neither wealth nor
children, only the one who brings Allah a sound heart." A sound heart
is one that is free of defects and spiritual blemishes. Though the
spiritual heart is centered in the physical heart, the heart being
referred to here is the spiritual heart, not the physical heart. In
ancient Chinese medicine, the heart houses what is known as "chen"
which is "a spirit." The Chinese character for
"thinking," "thought," "love,"
"virtue," and "intending to listen" all contain the
ideogram for the heart. In fact, in every culture in the world, people use
metaphors that deal with the heart; in English, we call people who are
cruel, "hard-hearted people." There is also the idea of having
"a cold heart" and "a warm heart." People who do not
hide their emotions well "wear their hearts on their sleeves."
When deeply affected, we say, "he affected me in my heart" or
"in my core." In fact, the English word "core" means
"inner most," and in Arabic, the equivalent "lub"
comes from the Latin word, meaning "heart." Thus, the core of
the human being is indeed the heart. The word "courage" also
comes from the same root word as for "heart" because courage is
centered in the heart. The most ancient Indo-European word for heart means
"that which leaps." The heart leaps or beats in the breast of
man. For example, people say, "my heart skipped a beat" in
reaction to seeing somebody. Many such metaphors are used for the heart. Three Types of People The Heart and the Brain The heart is the center of the human being.
Many people think the brain is the center of consciousness, yet the Quran
clearly states, "They have hearts that they are not able to
understand with." According to the Muslims, the
center of human consciousness is the heart and not the brain
itself, and it is only recently that human beings have learned there are
over 40,000 neurons in the heart; in other words, there are cells in the
heart that are communicating. Now, it is understood that there is two-way
communication between the brain and the heart: the brain sends messages to
the heart, but the heart also sends messages to the brain. The brain
receives these messages from the heart, which reach the amygdala and the
thalamus. The cortex receives input from the amygdala and thalamus that it
processes to produce emotion; the new cortex relates to learning and
reasoning. These processes are recent discoveries, and although we do not
fully understand them, we do know that the heart is an extremely
sophisticated organ. According to the hadith, the heart is a
source of knowledge. The Prophet, sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam, said that wrong
action is what irritates the heart. Thus, the heart actually knows
wrong actions, and this is one of the reasons why people can do terrible
things, but, ultimately, they are affected negatively. In Crime and
Punishment, the brilliant Russian author Dostoevsky's indicates that crime
itself is the perpetrator's punishment because human beings have to live
with the result of their actions: their souls are affected. When
people do something against the heart, they act against the soul, and that
actually affects human beings to the degree that they will go into a state
of spiritual agitation, and people will use many ways to cover this up.
This is what kufur is: "kufur" means "covering up." To
hide their agitation, people use alcohol, drugs, and sexual
experimentation; they also seek power, wealth, and fame, taking themselves
into a state of heedlessness, submerging themselves into the ephemeral
world which causes them to forget their essential nature and to forget
their hearts. Thus, people become cut off from their hearts. Wrong Actions Sicken the Heart Shubahat and Shahawat: Two Types of
Diseases When we are born, we enter the world in a
state of fitra: the original inherent nature of the human being; then we
learn to be anxious. We learn anxiety from our mothers, fathers, and
society. Thus, the Quran says that the human being is created in a state
of anxiety (hala'), and the one group of people who are removed from this
state of anxiety are the musallin: the people of prayer. This
"prayer" is not the five daily obligatory prayers; rather, it is
the prayer of people who are always in a state of prayer (dhikr); they are
always in a state of connection with Allah subhanahu wa t'ala, and this is
the highest station. This is the station of people who are not diverted
from the remembrance of Allah subhanahu wa t'ala by buying, commerce, or
anything else. They are the ones who remember Allah subhanahu wa t'ala, as
the Quran states, "standing, sitting, and reclining on their
sides." These are the people who are not the people of heedlessness (ghafla). The second type of the diseases of the
heart is called shahawat, and these are the base
desires of the self. For instance, food and sex are shahawat; they
are appetites. These become diseases when they grow out of proportion from
their natural states. In Islam, we have a method or a means by which our
hearts can be remedied and return to their sound state again. The dhikr
that the Prophet sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam did more than any other
dhikr was "Oh Turner-Overer of the hearts, make my heart firm on your
deen," and it is important that Muslims be reminded of this. The Text: Mathartul Qulub In Arabic, "Mat-hara" is ‘ism
makaan’ (a noun of place), and it means "a tool of tahara
(purification)," and that is what Mat-hartul Qulub is. This text is
the alchemy of the heart: it explains how to transform the heart. Mat-hartul
Qulub was written by a great scholar, Shaykh Muhammad Maulud al-Musawir
al-Ya'qubi from Mauritania. He was a brilliant scholar of West Africa who
mastered all of the Islamic sciences as well as the inward sciences of
Islam. He wrote this didactic poem in order to teach people the means to
purify their hearts because he looked around and realized that everybody
he saw had a diseased heart. Though he recognized the benefit in learning
the abstract sciences of Islam, such as grammar, rhetoric, and logic, he
felt that people may not have a great deal of need for that knowledge
given the fact that on the Day of Judgment, the heart is the only thing
about which we will be asked. The state of our
hearts is the only thing that may benefit us because "actions are by
intentions" as the hadith states. Since all our actions are rooted in
intentions, and the place of intention is the heart, every action we do is
rooted in our hearts. Thus, in reality when we are asked about our
actions, we are asked about the intentions behind the actions, and given
the fact that intentions emanate from the heart, what we are actually
being asked about is the human heart. When Shaykh Muhammad Maulud
realized this, he said that suddenly Allah subhanahu wa t'ala inspired him
to write this text, and he based it upon many of the previous texts that
had gone before, such as the last book of the Ihya 'Ulumudin by Imam Abu
Hamid al-Ghazzali. Rectification Begins with the Self In reality,
everything that we see outside of us comes from the unseen world. The
phenomenal world emerges from the unseen world, and all actions emerge
from the unseen realm of our hearts.
Thus, if we want to rectify our actions, we must first rectify our hearts.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the famous American preacher and civil rights
activist, said that in order for people to condemn injustice, they have to
follow four stages: the first stage is that they
must ascertain that injustices are indeed being perpetrated. People
must point out the injustices, and in his case, it was injustices against
the African-American people in the United States. The
second stage is to negotiate: people must go to the oppressors and demand
justice. If the oppressors refuse, then Dr. King said that the
third stage is self-purification. He said that we must ask
ourselves, are we ourselves wrongdoers? Are we ourselves oppressors? The
final stage is to take action once we have looked into ourselves. One of the things the Muslims of the modern
world fail to recognize is that when we look at
all of the terrible things that are happening to us, we often refuse to
look at ourselves and ask ourselves, why are these things happening to us?
If we ask that in all sincerity, the answer will come back in no uncertain
terms that this is all from our own selves. We have brought all of
the suffering upon ourselves. This is the only empowering position that we
can take, and this is the Quranic position. Allah subhanahu wa t'ala says
quite clearly that He places some of the oppressors over other oppressors
because of what their hands were earning. According to Fakharudin ar-Razi's
explanation, radi Allahu 'anhu, this verse means that whenever there is
oppression in the earth, it is a result of other people's oppression.
Thus, those people who are being aggressed upon
are being oppressed because of their own oppression. However, this
is obviously with the exception of tribulation. There are definitely times
when the mu'minun are tried, but if they respond accordingly with patience
and perseverance, Allah subhanahu wa t'ala always gives them victory. The Impure Oppress and the Pure Elevate Medicine for the Diseased Heart Part 2: Introduction and the Disease of Miserliness Praise is due to the One who has clarified
what is needed to purify the heart and adorn it. Praise and peace be upon Muhammad and his family as long as he is the means by which it is achieved and grant him safety. The lights of the pearls of tasawwuf in relation to other lights is like the pearl in relation to the oyster shell. Or like the ninety-nine lines written in
gold next to the one line written in ink. Having said this, the condition of people, in this time of preoccupation and movement, seems to seek from me a book about the rectification of the hearts. Suddenly, I find a down-pouring of the bounty of Allah. I responded by bringing forth a clarifying poem that fulfills the most important needs. It draws the distant close even for one of
slow comprehension, and with it the illiterate becomes literate. Courtesy with Allah I began by starting with the heart of beginnings [which is courtesy spelled backwards] Since this is the highest and noblest of
beginnings. Thus, have courtesy with Allah, the High, and the Majestic by practicing incessantly modesty and humility, Dejected out of shame, humbled, imploring
Him. Shaykh Muhammad Maulud says in this poem,
"Fa qultu badian bi qalbi al-bada'," and this line has two
meanings. The first, more literal meaning is "I begin with the heart
of beginnings." The word "al-bada'," has to do with
"beginning," and the word "qalb" has two meanings:
"heart" and "to turn over." Thus, this is a play on
words, and so the author is also saying, "I am beginning by flipping
the beginning over." If you flip over the word
"bada'" (beginning), you get "adab"
(courtesy). Hence, the author says he begins with adab because
courtesy is the highest and noblest of beginnings, and Muslims should have
adab with Allah. The word "adab" has many meanings
in Arabic. A person who is erudite is called "adib," because,
generally, with learning comes manners. Thus, the root meaning of the word
"adab" is related to "courtesy." In addition, a
mu’addib is a teacher of children, and the word literally means
"the one who is causing somebody to have adab." An educator of
children is someone who teaches the students how to behave properly, and
proper behavior is at the heart of this science. Thus, the shaykh
emphasizes the extreme importance of having proper adab with Allah and of
behaving properly with Him before anyone else. Shame and Humility Although this is no longer the case, there
was once a time when if you had grown up in this culture, you most
probably would have heard the phrase "shame on you" as a child.
In modern American culture however, "shame" has become a bad
word. We are told that shaming a child is a bad thing to do because it
will harm the child's self-esteem. Therefore, everything a child does is
okay, and we must make him feel good about himself, no matter what he
does. If he just slit his brother's throat, they say, "well, he has
had a trying childhood, so we have to make allowances for him." This
is an extreme this culture has reached. Anthropologists have divided traditional
cultures into shame and guilt cultures where guilt is an inward mechanism,
and shame is an outward mechanism. The word "guilt" comes from a
German word that has to do with debt. When indebted, you feel an
obligation to the person to whom you are indebted. The idea with guilt is
that if you have done something wrong, there is an internal mechanism that
caused you to feel guilty about your actions and thus you want to relieve
that guilt by rectifying your wrongdoing. Most primitive
cultures are not guilt-based cultures but shame-based.
For them, the reason why you refrain from doing something wrong is because
you loathe being shamed by other people and do not desire others to say
such things as, "how could you?" "how dare you!" or
"shame on you!" Furthermore, you do not want to bring shame upon
your family, your tribe, and the like due to your own actions. While this
culture has almost entirely lost and even dishonors this concept, Islam
not only honors the idea of feeling shame for your wrong actions, it takes
it to another level by instructing you to have shame before Allah and the
unseen world. Thus, you recognize that even if people cannot see you,
Allah and the angels always see you, so you have shame before Him and the
angels. Hence, Muslims have a shame-based culture; however, that shame
transcends the cultural sense of feeling shame towards one’s elders or
towards one’s parents and takes it to another level which has an
interior mechanism that is not akin to guilt. "Haya" is
having shame before Allah, and the author of this poem says that is part
of having proper adab with Allah.
Thus, if you want to have correct behavior (adab) with Allah, then have a
sense that Allah is always watching you so that you feel shameful to do
something that is displeasing to Him. This is similar to the way most
healthy people do not desire to act in a manner that displeases their
parents because their parents are the means by which they came into
existence. Their parents supported them; the mother cleaned the child when
he was young and spent nights awake for him. By having this shame with his
parents, the child honors them. In addition to haya, Shaykh Muhammad Maulud
says to have dhul. A dhalil person is someone who is lowly, abject, and
humble. Although this is a negative quality when displayed towards others,
it is a noble quality when shown toward Allah. The Quran mentions that
people who incur the anger of Allah get dhul thrust upon them. The shaykh advises
being dhalil before Allah alone. Al-dhalil is someone such as a slave who
is afraid to do anything in the presence of his master; there is a type of
humility before God contained in this idea. Thus, according to the shaykh, a
person with adab is one who possesses haya and dhul. Furthermore,
he says that not only should you feel this haya and dhul, but you should
also feel dejected out of shame before Allah. That is, you should feel you
are munkasir, broken. You become broken in
the presence of Allah when you recognize that you are bringing to Him
nothing but yourself and your wrong actions. When you seriously ponder
upon all that Allah has given you and then reflect over what you have
given to Him in return, you really feel this breaking (inkisar) out of
shame; you become humbled before Allah in awe, and you realize you can
only implore Him to change your state. Taqwa The Prophet sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam is
reported to have said "none of you truly believes until his desires
are in accordance with the very thing that I brought." Muru'ah
(virtuous merit) is what the Prophet sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam
brought, and that is what Allah wants from us. Thus, the shaykh says that
adab with Allah is to give up your designs for what Allah desires for you
to be emptied of desire, having no tam'a. Tam'a is
greed, avarice, desire, wanting something out of situations, and having
ulterior motives behind your actions. Al-tama'a is one who desires
to know what he may gain out of all situations, asking himself,
"what's in it for me?" According to the shaykh, we must rid
ourselves of this attitude. We should desire nothing from the servants of
Allah; rather, all of our desires should be sought from Allah because He
is the One who possesses everything. Furthermore, the shaykh says that you
should be quick to fulfill Allah's commands and constantly be aware of the
hidden fault of having bad adab with Him. The subtlety of bad adab is
illustrated by the hadith, "A man amongst you will say a word giving
it no consideration at all, and it will drag him 70 seasons in the hell
fire." Thus, as this hadith demonstrates, if you do not learn the
commands of Allah, you will not know when you are breaking them. For
example, if you do not know what is a stop sign, you just pass right
through it, unaware of having done something wrong. The problem is that
accidents tend to occur when people, whether knowingly or unknowingly, do
not follow the rules. Similarly, when we breach adab with Allah, bad
things happen: we bring harm upon ourselves, and this should be a serious
fear of ours. Once, a Mauritanian shaykh and I saw a
mouse coming out of its hole, and we noticed that every time the mouse
heard a sound, it would stop and shoot back into the hole. "That's
taqwa," the shaykh explained. Taqwa is worrying about being eaten
alive by your own mistakes. Having this kind of fear of Allah ultimately
turns into love, and that is the highest maqam (spiritual station). We do
not fear Allah because we think Allah is horrible—the contrary is true:
Allah is the Merciful, the Compassionate, the Forgiving. However, at the
same time, we wish not to incur the wrath of Allah because Allah does have
wrath. Similarly, our parents will sometimes do painful things to us out
of love, and often, we are not aware of the reason. Servitude to Allah Shaykh Muhammad Maulud then explains that if you realize the qualities of haya (shame), dhul (humility), and
faqar (poverty) in yourself and empty yourself of all of their opposites,
such as shameless behavior and arrogance, then you will gain dignity and
wealth from Allah. Thus, by realizing your 'ubudia (servitude) to Allah,
you truly gain freedom. Freedom is gained
because in completing your servitude to Allah, you are no longer a slave
to yourself, and such a person is in actuality the only free human being.
If you cannot control yourself, you are a slave to yourself.
Someone may claim to be free, but when the food shows up, he cannot resist
and stop himself. Such behavior does not indicate freedom as far as
Muslims are concerned. Another person may also claim freedom, but when an
opportunity to have an illicit relation emerges, he cannot control
himself, even if he is the president of the United States. One former
president of the United States of America was a Rhodes scholar who went to
Cambridge and received the highest level of education, yet he was a slave
to the lowest aspects of himself. He is unable to control himself. Such a
person is not free; he is 'abd al-hawa, a slave of
his passions. On the contrary, when such a situation
arises for a person who is 'abd Allah, he has taqwa of Allah. Thus, even
though the temptation might be there, as it is natural for human beings to
have shahwa (desire), he can control it because he is not an ‘abd
(slave) to his desire; rather, he is a sayyid (master) of it. If one has
desire for one's spouse, then the shahwa is mubah (permissible). However,
if the desire is for someone with whom such a relationship would be
illicit, then the 'abd Allah does not even consider it, and such a person
is a truly free person. The same applies to any other shahwa because the 'abd
Allah is not a slave to any of his desires. They serve him, and he does
not serve them. The stronger your
taqwa is, the more control you have over your desires.
According to Imam al-Ghazzali, the stomach and the genitals are the two
most dominant desires, and if you can control these two, then the other
ones become easy. In addition, the desire of using the tongue is something
that also causes people trouble. There are people who cannot stop
backbiting no matter how much they are admonished to stop. I have seen
this occur a great deal. In fact, I once pointed out to a person that he
was saying something wrong, and in less than three or four minutes, he
began to say the same thing and was not even aware of what he was doing.
This inability to control the tongue is a major problem for most of us. We
speak badly about others, complain, and say other things that we should
not be saying. Learning to control the tongue is an important matter. Another problem with human beings is that
we perceive these qualities that the shaykh mentions, of being
impoverished and being humble, as abject qualities. We do not wish to be
poor, yet the Prophet sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam chose poverty over
wealth. He had no money or jewelry in his house; he slept on the ground on
a "bed" made of leather and palm fibers; he had only two pillows
in his room for his guests to sit upon. He lived in total poverty. In this
culture, if people lived like that, they would most likely be in a state
of total humiliation and degradation, being concerned about what other
people think, not about what is best for them. On the contrary, the shaykh
says that if you realize your true state of 'ubudia
to Allah, you will have dignity with Allah; that is, you will be mu'azaz
with Allah no matter what your living conditions are in this world. In Surat Yasin, we are told about the two
people who came to warn the town's people of Allah's punishment, yet the
town's people threatened them in return. Then Allah says, "'Azazna
bithalithin: We gave them ‘iza with a third." Allah gives 'iza to
whomever He wants. He says, "Ya'izu man yasha'u wa yudhilu man
yasha'u. Tu'izu man tasha'u wa tadhilu man tasha'u: You give iza to
whomever You want, and You humble whomever You want." Amazingly,
there are people in the world today who are out on the streets begging
while their ancestors were people who used to rule the world. Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala can do so to any people He wants. A secret of
creation is that if you realize the true attribute in yourself before
Allah, Allah gives you its opposite. For example, if you realize humility
before Allah, Allah will make you 'aziz before other people, giving you
dignity because of your realization of your true state of humility with
Him. If you are arrogant with Allah, He may let it go for a while, but
when He takes you to account, He completely humbles you before everyone.
This is a big secret that the shaykh gives us in this poem. The Tongue: the Heart's Articulator Here, the shaykh reminds us that there
is no salvation like the salvation of the heart because every limb answers
to the heart. Thus, if your heart is saved, your limbs are saved
whereas if your heart is not saved, your limbs are not saved. In relation
to this, a hadith says, "the heart lies under the tongue" which
means that the tongue is the interpreter of the heart as it tells you what
is in the heart. A munafiq (hypocrite) is wretched for this very reason:
he says with his tongue what is not in his heart. This is in opposition to
the purpose of the creation of the tongue as the tongue was created to
express what is in the heart. Thus, the hypocrite is in fact oppressing
his tongue as well as his heart. A hadith warns us that the tongue is what
takes people to the hell fire. If the heart is rectified, then the tongue
becomes sound as the tongue is the heart's articulator. For this reason,
Allah says, "Ya ayuhallathina amanuttaqu Allah wa qulu qawlan sadida.
Yuslih lakum a'amalakum…" (33:70-71). Allah tells you to be upright
in the way you speak because when the tongue serves to translate what is
in the heart, this is an indication that the heart is upright. Thus, if
your tongue is upright, this means that your heart is upright. According
to a hadith, all the limbs shake every morning when they wake up in the
spiritual world and say to the tongue, "Itaqi Allah fina ini
istakamta istakmina wa ini'wajajta i'wajajna: fear Allah with us because
if you are straight, we are all straight, and if you go crooked, we are
all crooked." Thus, the significance of the tongue is clear from this
hadith, and therefore a good deal of spiritual
work should be performed upon the tongue, such as practicing much dhikr
(remembrance) of Allah. We should replace empty chatter with
remembrance of Allah, using the tongue for what it was created for, and
not wasting time with it. The tongue is second in its importance only to
the heart and is connected strongly to the heart. Stages to Allah According to the shaykh, the beginning
foundation of this science is realizing what adab is and that the
whole point of existence in this world is to have adab with Allah and with
His creation. That is, you were created simply to have adab with
Allah and to have adab with the creation of Allah. According to a hadith,
the Quran is called, "madabatu Allah: the place you learn adab with
Allah" because the Quran was revealed to teach us adab. The shaykh says that after you have a firm
grasp of this foundational understanding of adab, then a mastery of the
heart’s infirmities is the second stage. Your ultimate goal, the highest
station, is to be with Allah, and you cannot reach the higher maqamat
(spiritual stations) without having mastered the primary stations. You
want to raise yourself in degrees, and you cannot get to the level you
wish to reach without going up the stages (darajat). Allah says that He
raises people in degrees. The first degree is recognizing that you want
adab, and then you have to recognize that what is preventing you from
getting it is a diseased heart. The Obligation of a Pure Heart Knowledge of the diseases of the heart,
what causes them, and how to remove them is an obligation incumbent upon
every human being: it is a binding obligation on every adult Muslim.
According to the scholars of Islam, you must have some knowledge of the
diseases in order to be able to free yourself from them. This ruling is
based on the Quranic verse: "Qad aflaha man zakaha wa qad khaba man
dasaha": the one who nurtures his soul is the
one who has success, and the one who stunts its growth is destroyed"
(91:9-10). Thus, the Quran is talking about tazkiya of the nafs.
Allah also says, "Yawma la yanfa'u malun wa la banuna illa man ata
Allaha bi qalban salim: on that day, neither wealth nor children will
benefit, only the one who comes to Allah with a pure heart"
(26:88-89). Thus, according to the Quran, the only people saved on the Day
of Judgment are people with qulub salima (sound hearts). "Salim"
(sound) is related to the word "aslama" because
"Islam" is moving towards that state of soundness. The Inherent Nature of Man: Good or
Evil? Al-Ghazâlî reckoned the heart's illnesses
inherently part of a human being. Other scholars deemed them predominant
in man but not necessarily qualities inherent to his nature. In agreement with Imam al-Ghazâlî's
ruling, the shaykh states that purification of the heart is an obligation
upon every individual. Imam al-Ghazâlî is really the master of this
science, and this poem is an abridgement of al-Ghazâlî's fourth volume
of the Ihya, the section on munjiat wal muhlikat. Not only is al-Ghazâlî
radi Allahu 'anhu a master of this science, he is also the mujadid
(reviver of Islam) of the fifth century according to the consensus of the
‘ulama who came after him. Al-Ghazâlî considers knowledge
of the diseases of the heart fard 'ayn, incumbent upon every individual
Muslim, because he considers the diseases of the heart to be
instinctual, something that is inherent to the human condition and part of
the Adamic nature (kharaiz). Some other scholars disagree: they maintain
that while these diseases are predominant in man, nevertheless, there are
some people who are born with a completely pure heart having none of the
diseases, and therefore knowledge of this science is not obligatory upon
those people. For example, there are altruistic children
who have no problem with sharing: they are not greedy about toys. Although
this is not the norm, they do exist. Some hearts, for some reason and
whatever secret, do not suffer from diseases of the heart, but most do.
Children manifest diseases such as greed, avarice, and hatred. Little
children will say, "I hate you." They have learned the concept
of hate, and at that brief moment of uttering those words, hatred is what
they feel. Thus, these diseases begin to show up even in children, and we
believe that all children are born into fitra (a natural, inherent state).
Hence, if these diseases are in fact inherent, do Muslims then believe in
the Christian concept of original sin, that people are corrupt by nature? The difference between the Muslims and
Christians on this issue is that according to the Muslims, there is an
inclination to these diseases that is instinctual. Muslims do not
believe in any way that this inclination is a result of the wrong action
of Adam 'alayhi salaam because we do not believe that Prophet Adam 'alayhis
salaam did anything to bring the wrath of Allah upon himself; we do not
believe that he fell from Grace. Such ideas are Christian. According to
the Quran, Adam 'alayhis salaam is a prophet who made tawbâh to Allah,
and Allah accepted his tawbâh, and therefore, he has no blemish. His
offspring do not suffer because of anything he did. What, then, do we mean by the fact that
there is an instinctual inclination that manifests in the erring of human
beings? This relates to the black area of the
heart. The heart is a spiritual organ, and inside the heart, there is a
black dot, a seed that has the potential of spreading like cancer
and overwhelming the heart. For example, although most people are unaware
of this, many people in the world have tuberculosis. They have a bacillus
in their lungs, but it is dormant. If they were in a situation where they
began to get ill or starve and their immune system shut down, then the
tuberculosis would emerge. Similarly, there is a dormant element in the
human heart that, if nurtured, will destroy the human being. For this
reason, a hadith says that if the son of Adam does something wrong, a
black spot appears on his heart. If a person makes tawbâh, the black spot
gets erased, but if he does not, the black spot continues to grow until
the whole heart becomes pitch black. This is when one loses his humanity.
We often refer to this as hard-heartedness. This idea of the heart's ability to become
corrupt, lose its light, and turn black is found in many cultures. For
example, a Hausa man in Africa once explained to me that Hausas refer to
someone who has a really bad heart with a word which meant
"black-hearted." Hausas are dark skinned people, and there is no
racist connotation attached to this phrase. "Black" and
"white" are used similarly in the Quran. Allah says, "Their
faces become bright, and their faces become black." This
"white" does not refer to white skin but refers to light. There
is a light, and the absence of that light is darkness. For this reason, a
black person can have light in his face while a white person can have a
completely dark face and visa-versa. We are speaking here about spiritual
entities and not about skin colors. Understand that complete obliteration of
these diseases until there is no trace is simply not in the capacity of
human beings. While knowledge of the diseases and their
removal is obligatory, keep in mind that to remove these diseases until
nothing is left is not in the human capacity. The Quran says, "Wa man
yuka shuha nafsihi fa ulayka humulmuflihun: the one who has protection
from the evil of his soul is from the people of success." Allah does
not say "the one who removes that shuh (evil) or the one the shuh is
removed from." Rather, Allah says, "the one who is protected
from it." This is similar to that bacillus sitting in the lungs: if
you are protected from it, it never becomes tuberculosis; it only remains
dormant. According to a hadith, every child is born
on fitrah. Many Muslims think this hadith means that every child is born a
Muslim. However, the hadith does not say that. The Quran refers to Islam
as "din al-fitrah," so Islam is fitra,
and this means that we are naturally inclined to Islam. "Fitrah"
is the inherent nature that human beings incline towards naturally, and
what the human being is naturally inclined to is goodness. When human
beings are raised and nurtured correctly, they usually incline towards the
truth. However, they also have the susceptibility to go astray. Obviously, there are various factors that
affect the fitrah state; one of them is legitimacy. According to the sharî`ah',
there is no fault on the child, but there is an effect that illegitimacy
has in the unseen realm, and this is confirmed by several ahâdîth. Thus,
it is important for people to choose righteous mates before having
children. If there were no reality to the parents, there would be no
meaning to choosing righteous people as mates. When choosing a husband, a woman should
look for his taqwâh, and when choosing a wife, a man should look for her
din. One of the salaf said, "Don't marry your daughter except to a
taqy (a man of taqwâh) because if he loves her, he will show her ihsân
(goodness), and if he doesn't like her, he will not oppress her."
When marrying, you should think of future generations and want your
children to be raised properly. The parents are important, and the effects
they have on a child are extraordinary, so you want parents who have taqwâh
and din. Be as it may, here I am giving you what you
need to know of their definitions, their etiology, and their cures. The shaykh says he is going to give us the
definitions of the diseases of the heart from their root, explaining how
the diseases are caused and how to cure them. He begins with bukhl, not
because it is the worst disease but because he is going in alphabetical
order. The Diseases and their Cures Miserliness (bukhl) A bakhil is a miser. Bukhlun is
miserliness. According to the shaykh, the refusal to give what is
necessary either by sacred law or by virtuous merit is at the essence of
miserliness. Thus, there are two aspects to bukhl, one that relates to the
sacred law (shari'a) and the other to muru’ah (virtuous merit).
Muru’ah is an important concept in Arabic, and it comes from the word
for "man." Its meaning has connotations of chivalry, manhood,
and virtue. As for the necessities of sacred law, they
are such things at zakat, support of one's dependents, and similar rights
due to others, such as relieving one in distress. An example of the first aspect of bukhl
that is related to shari'a is failure to give zakat. If you are not giving
zakat, you are bakhil by shari'a, and that bukhl is haram (forbidden). The
same is true for a man who is not giving support (nafaqat) for his wife
and children because men are maintainers and caretakers of women and
children. If a man gets divorced, he must pay child support because that
is a shari'a right of the mother of his children. Similarly, the shari'a
demands that you fulfill the rights of other people and spend on others
where the need exists if you have been given the capacity to do so. Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala says, "In their wealth there's a haq (right) to
the beggar and to the one who doesn't have money and so his needs are not
taken care of." The miser is the one who does not take care of people
even though he is able to do so. These examples are related to shari'a. Examples of meritorious character are not
giving people a hard time over some paltry matter or abandoning nitpicking
over trivialities. Avoiding such things is even more important
for a neighbor, a relative, or a wealthy person or when hosting guests or
concerning something in which such behavior is simply inappropriate, such
as purchasing a shroud. The same is true for one buying a sacrificial
animal or purchasing something one wants to donate to the needy. Not being bakhil by standards of muru’ah
(virtuous merit) has to do with not constricting people or making matters
difficult for them. The shaykh's example of this is not giving people a
hard time over some paltry, insignificant, trivial matter. For instance,
if someone owes you ten dollars, and you give him a hard time over it even
though you have plenty of money and have no need for it, then you are
considered bakhil by the standards of muru’ah, not by shari'a. You have
a right to that money by shari'a, but by muru'ah, such an attitude is
despicable. The shaykh points out that refraining from such an attitude is
even more important when dealing with a neighbor or a relative. Furthermore, it is even worse to lack
virtuous merit if you are wealthy because a wealthy person should have a
type of magnanimity, a generosity that allows one to say, "don't
worry about it" to others. According to a hadith, there was a wealthy
man who had no good actions to his record except that he used to say to
his servant when he went to collect money, "If they don't have it,
tell them they don't have to worry about it." On the Day of Judgment,
Allah says to the angels, "this man was forgiving of people's
transgressions against him, and I am more worthy of forgiving
transgressions." Thus, Allah says, "if he is going to forgive
people for the debts that were owed to him, then I'll forgive him for the
debts he owes Me." Having this kind of muru'ah is not insignificant:
wealthy people are encouraged to let go of debts they really do not need
paid off. If the wealthy see the indebted are having a hard time, they
should just say "Bismillah. Don't worry about it;" such an
attitude is encouraged by the shari'a also. Similarly, if you are hosting a guest, and
your guest spills something on the carpet, you should not say, "Can't
you watch yourself a little bit? That's a brand new carpet I have;"
saying such a thing is not showing muru'ah. On the contrary, you should
try to keep them from feeling bad, saying such things as, "Don't
worry about it. I love tea on my carpet. In fact, I heard a proverb that
says, 'The best thing for a carpet is spilt tea.'" Obviously, this
proverb makes the guest feel good when he spills tea. The point is that
you do not show more concern for you carpet than for your guest. The shaykh also gives the example of buying
a funeral shroud. Haggling over the price is inappropriate because the
funeral shroud should remind you of death, and you should put things into
perspective, forgetting about the ephemeral world. The same advice applies
to buying a sacrificial animal. Since you are sacrificing an animal for
Allah, you should want to get a good animal and not say, "No, no;
that’s too much." In addition, when purchasing something you wish
to donate to needy people, you should desire to get something that is good
and not cheap or else bukhl is exhibited in that act. Similarly, trying to
get a bargain for something you are going to give as sadaqah for the sake
of Allah is bukhl. E.J. Cullen wrote a brilliant short story
about a rummage sale for the church, "How Some People Feel about
Jesus." In it, Cullen pointed out that people cared so much about the
church that they were going to sell their worst junk to support it with
their rummage sales. Muslims may learn from this important idea: it is
shocking that some Muslim mosques are also having these rummage sales. You
should give the masjid the best things you have, not the worst things or
the garbage you wish to get rid of. Thus, one who makes matters difficult for
one whose rights make it clearly inappropriate to do so has indeed torn
away the veils of dignity. This is as the majestic and wise guides have
stated. The same goes for one who fulfills his
obligations without good cheer or spending from the least of what he
possesses. If you owe someone, such as your neighbor,
a right and go to fulfill that right to him but are an unpleasant with him
in doing so, then that is inappropriate. Furthermore, the shaykh says that
by being unpleasant, you have torn away the veils of your dignity and of
your muru’ah, and this is according to the "majestic and wise
guides" who are the ‘ulama. Thus, someone who fulfills his
obligations without good cheer falls into this category, such as a man who
frowningly or proudly says, "Here's your zakat" to the receiver.
The proper way to give zakat is to actually put your hand down, allowing
the recipients to take it with their hands above yours. You should give it
to them with a smiling face feeling honored to pay your zakat. Indeed, the
recipients of your zakat truly are honoring you by helping you to fulfill
the haq of Allah. Thus, by the standards of both shari'a as
well as muru'ah, bukhl is considered low in Islam as karam (generosity) is
one of the highest qualities of our Messenger sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam.
In fact, it could be said that his karam follows immediately after his
rahmah (mercy). "Inna akramakum ‘inda Allah atqakum: indeed, the
most karim of you in the sight of Allah is he who has the most taqwa"
(49:13). The Prophet sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam was the most atqa
(person with taqwa) of us, so he was the most generous, the noblest.
"Karim" means generous and noble, so the Arabs view generosity
as nobility. Allah is al-Karim, the Generous. Therefore, it is important
to recognize that doing just what the shari'a states is not enough: you
should go above and beyond that by showing generosity to Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala. Its root is love of this world for its own
sake or just so the self can acquire some of its fleeting pleasures. The origin of this disease is love of dunya
(this ephemeral world). You are bakhil because you love the stuff with
which you are bakhil. If you did not love it, then giving it up would be
easy: you would just say "bismillah" and give it up. However,
when you love something, you want to hold on to it. In Mexican culture,
they say kudah, meaning he has no hand to give out; he got cut off at the
elbow; he is cheap. Similarly, another word for bakhil is mumsik. "Mumsik"
means "constipated"; the idea is that the mumsik is unable to
let go of what is actually of beneficial to let go. Thus, if you do not
give out from your wealth, it will poison and kill you. You must let it
go. For this reason, imsak is miserliness. Furthermore, the root word for pure gold ('ikyan)
is 'iky which is the meconium stool of an infant. Thus, gold is related to
feces. In a hadith in the musnad of Imam Ahmad, the Prophet sallallahu 'alayhi
wa sallam said, "Allah has made what comes out of the son of Adam a
metaphor for the dunya." Ultimately, the dunya is like that: it is
beautiful while it lasts, but in the end, it is what it is. The height of dunya is gold, and the desire
to hold on to it is like someone who cannot let go of his waste matter.
Zakat is considered the waste matter of your wealth; it purifies your
wealth. For this reason, bani Hashim, the family of the Prophet sallallahu
'alayhi wa sallam cannot take zakat. It is the filth of your wealth
because everyone who earns money will always have doubtful (shubahat) or
prohibited matters (muharramat) in their wealth acquisition: there are
always doubtful matters concerning financial transactions, and by giving
zakat, you are purifying your wealth. Similarly, when you eat food, there
is benefit and harm in your food. Hopefully, the body absorbs the benefit
and removes the harm. The Prophet sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam said a
du'ah after coming out of the bathroom: "Praise be to the One who has
provided me with its delight [the taste of the food] and retained in me !
its benefit [its strength, the energy derived from food] and removed from
me its harm." The idea here is much like the idea behind zakat: with
it, Allah allows you to remove what is harmful from your wealth. When the
bakhil holds on to his wealth, it harms him in the end. According to Imam Ali, the worst person is
the bakhil because in dunya, he is mahrum (deprived), and in akhira, he is
mu'adhab (punished). In dunya, he does not even benefit from his wealth.
There are several hidden millionaires in America who live middle class
lives and have millions of dollars in the bank. These millionaires do not
want to spend their money because they want to save it. Such is the nature
of a bakhil: he does not benefit from his wealth in the dunya, and then,
in the akhira, he is punished for hoarding it. Once, the Prophet
sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam asked who was the sayyid of a certain tribe.
The tribe's people replied, Jad ibn Qays "illa nastbakhilahu: except
he's a little bit of a miser" to which the Prophet sallallahu 'alayhi
wa sallam replied, "he cannot be your sayyid" because the sayyid
cannot be a miser. He then asked rhetorically, "! ;Is there any
disease you know that is worse than miserliness?" The point is that
one cannot be a sayyid and a bakhil at the same time. Hence, the origin of this disease is either
love of dunya for its own sake, simply because it is dunya, or because the
self wants some benefit from the dunya. However, ibn Hazam would probably
say that one of the benefits that the self is trying to secure by hoarding
wealth is to alleviate the fear of poverty. The fact that the bakhil has
millions in the bank makes him feel good even though he is not benefiting
from it. This feeling is assuaging his hala' (anxiety). The amazing thing
is that such people never feel good because they are always worried about
such things as the stock index, NASDAQ. They pace up and down when the
prices are falling, exclaiming, "Oh look at that! What's going to
happen? I am only worth six billion now; I was worth 12 billion."
There is such a man, and he is 70 years old; even if he set out to spend
one million dollars every day for the rest of his life, he would be unable
to finish the amount of money he h! as. Bukhl is a deep disease;
ultimately, it is a type of worshiping of money. How wretched is the
servant of the dinar and the dirham, "trusting in the almighty
dollar," as they say. One day, when the stock market crashes, it is
gone; and it may be sooner than when we think. The Cure to Bukhl Bukhl's cure is realizing that those who
achieved dunya did so by exhausting themselves over a long period of time.
Thus, ask yourself how bad you want dunya. If you want it really bad, you
have to work for it, and working for it means working day and night while
life passes you by. Many people spend a tremendous amount of time at work;
they never have time for their families because of dunya. They possess
that "I have to keep working and making more and more"
mentality. It becomes an obsession. Actual life passes them by, and the
experiences of life are lost. People are obsessively searching for wealth
and security, and in the end, their lives are over. The shaykh is telling
us to look at those people and how they exhausted themselves chasing after
the dunya. Meanwhile, just as they are approaching the
heights of its splendor, suddenly, without their permission, death assails
them. Just as they are beginning to get
everything they want, suddenly, without their permission, death assails
them. Dodi and Diana are good examples of that. People in England were
devastated by Diana’s death. They thought, "No, no! She can't
die." Her life was the life people wanted: fame, beauty, lineage, and
wealth. She "had it all" as the saying goes. She was right at
the prime of her life, only 38 years old. Death is not invited in; it
comes without invitation. It simply arrives when it is time to go, and it
takes the person. All those wealthy people have to die too. [Treat it also by recognizing] the disdain
shown to misers and the hatred people have for them even amongst
themselves. Nobody likes a miser. Even misers do not
like each other. With the same treatment, treat the one
whose heart's ailment is love of wealth. The disease of hub al dunya (love of the ephemeral world) is treated as you treat bukhl. The two diseases are related as we have already seen. Source: |