The Disease of the Spiritual Heart - Hazrat Maulana Yunus Patel (Rahmatullahi 'alayh)

[amaturrahmaan]

Bismihi Ta'ala

Allah Ta’ala has stated in the Qur`aan Shareef :

 

                “Verily the most honoured of you in the sight of Allah is                       

(he who is) the most righteous of you...” .

[surah Hujurat 49 : 13]

 

Rasulullah (Sallallaahu ‘alayhi wasallam) also said : “Verily Allah does not look towards your physical appearances, or towards your riches; but He sees (the sincerity of) your hearts, and (the nature of) your deeds.”[1]

 

Allah Ta’ala does not look at our bank balances, our properties, our beauty, the colour of our skin, our physique, our lineage, our language, our gender, or the chain of degrees we may have obtained. Allah Ta’ala looks at the heart. The discrimination is only on Taqwa^[2].

 

Rasulullah (Sallallaahu ‘alayhi wasallam) said : “Nearest and dearest to me are those who possess the virtue of piety (no matter what colour, race or nationality).”[3]

 

Hazrat Abu Zarr (RA) narrated that Rasulullah (Sallallaahu ‘alayhi wasallam) had said to him: “Verily you are not better than a fair-skinned person or a dark-skinned person except that you excel him by Taqwa (piety and fear of Allah).”[4]

 

…There are so many of us who very foolishly and ignorantly pride ourselves over our wealth, family name, beauty – sometimes even our knowledge of Deen or the services we are rendering of Deen; considering these as the criteria for establishing our superiority over others.

 

Whenever the nafs asserts itself with : ‘I am better… than him (or her)’, we should understand that we are on the same footing as shaytaan.

 

When Allah Ta’ala commanded the angels to bow down to Hazrat Aadam (AS), shaytaan refused to do so. When asked as to why, he asserted :

 

 ‘I am better than he. You created me from fire,

and him from clay.’

[surah A’raaf 7 :12]

 

This opinion of : ‘I am better…’ is reason enough for serious concern, since this attitude is what is termed as pride (takabbur), arrogance and conceit (ujub), the cancer of the spiritual heart. This is such an ailment which also leads to the evil of boasting.

 

Allah Ta’ala states :

 

“Verily Allah does not like the one who has pride

and is boastful.”

[surah An-Nisaa 4 : 36]

 

 

 “And swell not your cheek (for pride) at men, nor walk in insolence through the earth; for Allah loves not any arrogant boaster.”

[surah Luqman 31 : 18]

 

Allah Ta’ala makes evident His abhorrence by humiliating and abasing such a person and reducing the person’s esteem in the eyes of people. It has been related from Rasulullah (Sallallaahu ‘alayhi wasallam): “…he who is proud will be abased by Allah, for though he considers himself great, he is lowly in the eyes of men to such an extent that he is of less value in their estimation than a dog or a pig.”[5]

 

To cure and purify the heart of these diseases one will have to submit to the scalpel of the surgeon of the spiritual heart - a Muhaqqiq[6] Shaykh. Tazkiyah (purification) of the heart and Islaah (reformation) of the nafs is not achieved by just the reading of kitaabs.

 

Furthermore, no matter by what titles people may address us in this world, we still have to await the Day of Qiyaamah to know our worth by Allah. It will only be on the Day of Qiyaamah that we will find out as to who was Afdhal (most virtuous).

 

Maulana Sayyid Sulayman Nadvi (RA) used to say:

 

Whether we live like this or live like that,

What is left to be seen is how our stay there will be

(i.e. the Hereafter).

 

 

 

 

 

[1] Muslim

[2] Taqwa : piety / abstention from all sins.

[3] Ahmad

[4] Ahmad

[5] Abu Dawood

[6] Muhaqqiq  : meticulous