INTRO

this is about WHY we should talk about the Heart.

Heart is more important aspect of this life that we should focus on, if we neglect heart we lose beauty of this world and ultimate happiness in the next life

In everyday language, when we talk about the core of the matter- the bottom line, we say “that’s the heart of the matter” using this in everyday language – the heart is most important, central aspect of the thing we are talking about.

The heart of city – the alive, vibrant part of city when everything happen
The heart of the matter – what we need to focus on
Anything when we talk about the most important thing in it, we talk about the “heart” of it. That’s the reality of things; so the heart of human beings is the point of focus of our existence in this world.

The majority of us don’t understand the heart as we should, and do not realize the significance of it.

The heart plays a major role in human behavior, who we are, what we chose to do, we conduct ourselves, the way we react, the way we see things. – generally speaking it affects everything we do.

AnNu’man ibn Basheer – reported by bukhary and muslim. The prophet (pbuh) said: “ indeed in the body there is a piece of flesh, if it sound and intact then the whole body will be sound and intact. But if it is corrupt then the rest of the body will be corrupt/spoilt. Indeed this piece of flesh is the heart.”

If you want to rectify yourself, improve spiritually, the main focus should be the heart – once you get the heart right, all the actions will follow suit. Many people pay too much attention on actions and trying to fix actions but neglect the heart. You should find the root of the matter and the root is in the heart. Because everything follow the heart – if you have sound heart then everything you do, say, the way you look at things, the way you think will be sound. Everything will be rectified and will be set right inshaaAllah.

A wise statement - “the heart is the king, the leader of the whole human being. So if the king is righteous, the limbs (the soldiers of the commander) will also be righteous. But if the king is corrupt then the whole army will also be corrupt.”

If your heart is pure/honest then your actions will be honest/pure. Hence why we should focus on the heart – not the actions. Actions are mirrors, replication of what is in the heart.

Another reason why we should focus on the heart: Allah is concern with our heart. He weighs our status based on our heart

Prophet (pbuh) “Allah indeed is not concern with your look and your wealth, but what He looks at is your heart and your actions.”

That’s what life is about – the heart. Allah is the all wise, all knowing, he knows what really matters – so from this knowledge we can arive at the conclusion that if we want to be better muslims, better human beings then we must focus on our heart.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfECGxJAQZc&feature=relmfu

EPISODE 1

we spend too much time on body, when the leader of the body is the HEART and this is what we need to focus on.
the body will always go wrong as long as the heart is neglected

how to get the heart in a good state?

the heart has two forces/powers/abilities:
-comprehension/knowledge all intellectual faculties <<< about what the heart can contain/possess
-love/inclination <<< about the impact the heart has on other things.

if theses two forces used wrongly - lead to misery, sadness, frustrated heart. this is the inevitable outcome.

if we do not use the heart for ITS PURPOSE - we will destroy it.

e.g: using a small car to carry heavy loads - in long run it will cause you more trouble than good
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the heart has being created for a purpose hence why its always questioning, searching.

when we listen to our heart in times of emptiness,when you have no commitment in life, when we are not so preocupied - when we lose someone or when something we've been longing for doesnt happen, we start to question our purpose, life in general.

These questions lead to happiness, to the truth. we should listen to our heart. and try and find the answers
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the correct way of using the two forces/abilities -

1st faculty (of knowledge): the heart is designed to search for knowledge and comprehend it - this isnt physics/chemistry/sociology knowledge. this isnt the Obligatory knowledge, busying ourselves with this knowledge can actually make the heart suffer
obligatory knowledge that the heart seeks - reality of this world, about our Creator, about the meaning of this life and the next, and about the names and attributes of Allah.

2nd faculty of loving/being inclined towards: heart tends to materialize what it believes in (aka the heart wants to put it into actions

Heart is MEANT to love THE PERFECT, the one who has control/power over everyhting, the Creator, the All_Seeing. Only Allah can fulfil this, we are MEANT to love Allah, this is our purpose; people will disapoint you, people will turn away from you when you love them, things you love you will not be able to have, the heart will be disappointed. So heart is inclined and will only feel fulfilled if loving Allah alone, not things and people above Allah)
In Surah Fatiha, we ask Allah for these two types of love - love of knowledge and love of inclination

[qs:1:5-7]

the Jews had the force knowledge but they were not inclined towards Allah because they did not have the RIGHT force of inclination

The Christians were inclined towards Allah but did not have the force of knowledge used correctly.

InshaaAllah the Muslim will have the force of knowledge used correctly with the force of inclination towards Allah subhanahou wata'ala = healthy, happy, strong and intact heart.

We ask Allah to grant us this and help us achieve such a high level. Ameen.

Lecture By Shaykh Mu'tassim Al-HameediEPISODE 2

http://www.youtube.com/user/truepath20#p/c/CB3CE511E3A9316A/4/pcC0t9Xcf8I
http://www.youtube.com/user/truepath20#p/c/CB3CE511E3A9316A/5/ZTurU7drxn8

reminder: the heart is the most important aspect of the human being. If someone cultivates it, looks after it, nurtures it then they will fulfill the objective of this world and inshaaAllah they will gain the ultimate success in the hereafter, Jannah.

This episode is about explaining why this series is about the heart - why we must focus on our heart, all the time, whatever we do, whatever we say we must keep our heart on our mind.

1. Allah is concerns with our hearts, He looks at our heart and judges us and weights up our progress, achivement, goodness, purity by means of our heart because the heart is the essense.

2. the ultimate success can only be achieved by purifying and cultivating the heart -this is a condition, a perequisite to entering paradize.

3.a. However much achievement we have in this life, whatever kind, be it healping people, contributing to advancement of humanity or supporting humanity if it does not emanate from a good situation of our heart - then it will be to no avail.
3.b. Allah says about the the day of standing - "offspring, wealth will not benefit you ... except for those who come with a sound heart Surah the poets ayah 85 or something...

3.c. This is just like an exam - the teachers will tell you what you need to focus on for the exam,there will be some things you will learn for your own benefit but it will not come up in the exam and will somewhat pointless during the exam - so we do not need to focus on these things for the exam.

(summarizing 3): this urges us to understand that what really matters inb this life is a sound heart - this is the formula for sucess, the key to paradize
understanding heart help us to understand why we are here (in this world) common misconception spreading all over humanity - approaching knowledge with a materialist point of view.

"they have hearts with which they cannot understand/comprehend"
we think this abilities of functions of the brain. but the Quran says it is from the heart.
the facultiy of judgement, decision making, understanding - functions of the heart - according to Quran and Sunnah.
people who object - are those distant from Quran, Sunnah, or read Quran/ study Sunnah without contemplating. "indeed in these signs, there are great reminders - for those who have a sound heart"

how to reconcile this with science? science has not reached its ultimate level/limits. But what is From Allah is definitely true

"the knowledge that you have being given is only little" Quran.

EPISODE 3

Recap: intellect in general - belief, understanding, comprehension. They take place in the heart - the heart in charge of all these faculties.

science indicates that heart has much more to do with intellect - decision making, the way we look at things etc.. - than we thought. strong connection between brain and heart - but science has not reached ability to uncover this connection but we know this is true because the One who created the heart told us. (about the disbelievers)
" they had heart with which they could no comprehend" so comprenhension is function of heart.

Ibn Uthaymeen tried to explain this connection - heart is in charge - understanding, comprenhension, decision making etc.. and the brain is the assistant - help execute commands, communicate between heart annd rest of body.

Imaam Ibn Qayyim - the heart is like a mirror - if clean, it will reflect exactly what it sees.
but if tarnished with sins, doubts, misconceptions - it will see a distorted image of things.

hence why its so important to uncover the secrets of the heart - so we will have the tools to purify, cultivate our hearts so that it can see everything without any distortions, any blurred vision - with perfect accuracy.

Quran - "Real blindness is not that of the eyes, but it is the blindness of the heart"

this is where we lose track of the reality, the truth and we get derailed from the right trak (and might end up in hellfire)

Surah muttafiffeen mentions another type of people who will end up in fire, why do you think they are unable to see the reality of life? Quran says - "their sins/misconceptions/evil intention has created a veil over their heart" so their hearts cannot see the truth.
we see it everyday, from people we love, we show them everything from Quran, Sunnah, logical point of view but they dont see it, and you're disappointed, sad. the reason? "there is a screen/veil over their hearts" preventing them from seeing clearly.

this (above) is another evidence that faculty of comprehension is a faculty of the heart.
with the heart being dead, life means nothing.
a sound heart is the only thing that will get us into paradize, we need to see the reality of this world through our heart, so we must clean and purify our heart from the inside to be able to see the reality of this life clearly

this is why the people of Imaan had such a strong sense of intuition, Imaam As-Shafi'i - he would see someone walking in the street and he would be able to see where he came from, how long he's been in the city and why he was in the city.

why do you think this is the case?

prophet Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him- "be careful/be aware of the intuition of the believer"
inshaaAllah, through this series we will be able to get the key to paradize (sorry about the dead conclusion, just wanted to listen to part 4! (see below))

EPISODE 4

This episode is about understanding the characteristics of the heart. About approaching the heart as if it was a living thing, like human beings, a separate entity.

arabic word for heart is qalb - from the meaning of flipping/fluctuation.
prophet Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him"the heart is between tw of the fingers of Allah subhanahu wata'ala - He flips it as He wishes." - according to knowledge, wisdom, justice of Allah

Side note: we believe in this description as being real, we do not question it. Allah has fingers in a way that befits His majesty. He do not twist the meaning of the words of the prophet Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him
the heart has being designed by Allah - and Allah has put a need in the heart to know Him (description/attributes) and the heart needs that feeling (of knowing about the fingers etc..) it gives it a sense of contentment, happiness, security. Everything Allah told us about Himself in Quran and Sunnah is something that the heart NEEDS to be able to find tranquility, real happiness, real success
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heart is not so stable, we must remember that heart keeps moving/changing. we must remember and understand this fact. InshaaAllah we will learn to make heart more stable by putting our trust in Allah
same way we have life, the heart has life, with own characteristics, own traits - a special kind of life. what does it mean to have life in the heart? to have an alive heard, a dead heart? a prosperous heart? we will try to understand this as it is one of most important thing that will help us make it to paradize.
The Scholars have derived from their understanding of Quran and Sunnah that the heart has a life just like human beings have a life, and the REAL life in this world is the life of the heart. hence why the people who have no knowledge of Allah have no real life. majority of people focus of life of human being and heart dies.
life of body and life of heart are on two different level
the lower one - life of the body - because animals have it
and a higher form of life - the heart - spiritual life. animals dont know about it - and most humans neither.
real happiness is not achieved through life of the body. real happiness (a sense of profound contentment) is only given to people of Imaan, of true faith (By Allah Subhanahu wata'ala. the people who chases their desires (of this life) do have moment of happiness, but it is not REAL happiness.
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anything that has life HAS to suffer from diseases. heart has life so suffer from diseases.
scholars have classified the hearts in 3 categories. (mentioned in Quran)
1. qalbun saleem - sound and intact heart - life of tranquility, peace and happiness - has highest form of REAL life.
two diseases of the heart - a. asshahawaat - the desires. b. asshoubouhaat - the doubts = if we understand these and know how to fight these we will to take good care of our heart inshaaAllah
2. ill heart - weakened by illnesses.
3. dead heart - neglected for so long that lost all trace of life.
inshaaAllah we will discuss these hearts in more details and the characteristics and outcomes for each type.

links of episodes are on the "episode [number]". If you do watch the vid you'll notice that the numbering isnt the same as the ones i have, this isnt me, its the uploaders of the videos that seem to have gotten their episode mixed up or something. I personally prefer the uploader with the two parts because they are better quality but this blog has just being a big mess so i couldnt be bothered anymore, for the next parts inshaaAllah I'll be more patient and link properly.

Please forgive me for the typos.