Wonders Of The Human Heart.

[Abu Hafsat]

As-Salaam alaikum,

As observed by Sayyadi Muhyi al-Deen Muhammad Ibn Ali Ibn al-Arabi (d. 1240),  may Allah be Merciful to him, in his famous Futuhat al- Makkiyya, when Allah Ta'ala created "your body, He placed within it a Ka'aba, which is your heart. He made this temple of the heart the noblest of houses in the person of faith (mu'min). He informed us that the Heavens, in which there is the Frequented House (al-bayt al-ma'mur), and the earth, in which there is the [physical] Ka'aba, do not encompass Him and are too confined for Him, but He is encompassed by this heart in the constitution of the believing human. What is meant here by 'encompassing' is knowledge of God."

Here, Ibn Arabi is of course referring to the famous hadith qudsi, the words of God upon the tongue of the Prophet Muhammad, which he often quotes: 'Neither My heavens nor My earth encompass Me- but the heart of My believing servant does encompass Me.'  This indicates some of the most essential teaching(s) on the nature of the heart: that nothing in the external world-- high or low- can contain True Divinity, that is to say, nothing which we can experience through our senses (which is the earth), and nothing which we can imagine in our minds, however lofty, elevated and glorious (which is heaven) can begin to measure up to that which is unlimited Reality, Being itself. God is only known (and loved) within, in the heart of the one who has faith (imaan)..