Purifying The Heart..

[Abu Hafsat]

As-Salaam alaikum,

   Says 'Ayn al-Qudat Hamadani (d. 1131), the Iranian philosopher, theologian and judge:--

                    "So long as your heart is not cleansed of attachments, it will not be

                            full of knowledge, light and gnosis."  

This goes to show that we have to rid ourselves of the things that keep us busy and attached to the world at the expense of being attached to Allah, Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. If these attachments are not severed from the soul and from a person's psyche, purity of heart and true knowledge will not come about.

Another way 'Ayn al-Qudat speaks of purifying the heart of all alterity is by drawing attention to what it is and where it is to be found: 'The heart of the believer is at once Allah's intimate, His lover and the locus of His mysteries'.  And then he quotes the hadith: "The heart of the believer is the throne of the All-Merciful."

Indeed, the heart is the object of Divine gaze and is worthy of this, just as was/is testified in the hadith: "Verily Allah does not look at your appearances and your wealth, He looks at your hearts and your deeds." (Muslim)

For further reading, see:

'Ayn al-Qudat, 'Tamhidat, ed. Afif Osayran (Tehran: Asatir, 1988).