The Dead Hearts

[Salafi_Online]

As-Salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa baarakatu

 

 

The Shaytaan has misled most people by beautifying for them the performance of certain voluntary acts of worship such as voluntary prayers and voluntary fasting while neglecting other obligatory acts of worship such as enjoining the good and eradicating the evil, to the extent that they do not even make the intention of performing them whenever they are able. Such people are considered by the scholars to be on the bottom of the scale of religion: for the essence of our religion is to perform what Allaah ordered us to do.

 

The one who does not perform the obligations is actually worse than the one who performs sins. Anyone having knowledge about the revelation of Allaah, the guidance of the Prophet (sallAllaahu alayhi wa sallam) and the life of the Companions would conclude that those who are pointed at today as the most pious people are in fact the least pious. Indeed, what kind of piety is there in a person who witnesses Allaah’s sanctities being violated, His religion abandoned, the Sunnah of His Messenger shunned, and yet remains still with a cold heart and a shut mouth?

 

Such a person is like a dumb Shaytaan! In the same way the one who speaks falsehood is a speaking Shaytaan. Is not the misfortune of Islaam due only to those who whenever their life and food are secure, would not care about what happens to the religion? The best among them would offer a sorry face. But if they were challenged in one of the things their heart is attached to such as their money, they would spare no effort to get it back.

 

These people, besides deserving the Anger of Allaah, are afflicted with the greatest calamity without even knowing it: They have a dead heart. Indeed the more alive a person’s heart is, the stronger its anger for the sake of Allaah and the more complete its support to Islaam and the Muslims.

 

IbnulQayyim[i‘laamul-Muwaqi‘een (2/176)]

 

Second point of benefit:

 

It is necessary to know that performing sins is detrimental and harmful to the servant. The harm that sins cause to the heart is comparable to the differing levels of harm that various types of poison cause to the body. Indeed is there a single evil that occurs in the world or will occur in the Hereafter (i.e. entering Hell) except that its cause is sin?

 

What caused our parents to be ejected from Paradise – the land of delight, felicity and joy, to the land of pain, misery and affliction?

 

What caused Iblees to be ejected from enjoying the company of the Angels to being debased and cursed? What caused his outward and inward form to be disfigured such that he took on the most vile of features and his inner features even worse? What caused him to become distant (from Allaah) after being close, being under the Mercy (of Allaah) to being under His curse, from being beautiful to being ugly, from being in Paradise to being in the blazing Fire, from being a believer to being a disbeliever, from being the friend of Allaah to being His greatest enemy, from being a person devoted to the glorification of his Lord to being a person of kufr, shirk, lies and shameful deeds, from wearing the raiment of faith to wearing the raiment

 

of disbelief, sin and disobedience such that he became completely worthless and insignificant in the Sight of Allaah? O Allaah we seek refuge with You from opposing Your Command and taking on board Your Prohibition!

 

What caused the inhabitants of the earth to be drowned to such an extent that the water rose above the highest peaks?

 

What caused the wind to rage over the people of Aad until the men could be seen lying dead as if they were hollow trunks of palm trees? Their land, homes and animals were destroyed and they remain a lesson for all who follow until the Day of Judgement.

 

What caused the people of Thamud to be destroyed by the awful cry such that their very hearts stopped beating and they were killed to the last of them?

 

What was it that caused the city of Lut to be raised so high that the Angels could hear the whining of their dogs and then its being turned upside down and everything being destroyed? Then He followed this up by

 

raining stones upon them from the sky and hence combined for them a punishment that had not been meted out to any before them, and their brothers shall get a similar punishment and that is not far off.

 

What was it that caused the cloud to come upon the people of Shu`ayb and rain down upon them blazing fire?

 

What was it that caused Pharaoh and his people to be drowned and their souls to be presented with Fire day and night, so the bodies were drowned and the souls burnt?

 

What was it that caused Qaaroon, his family, wealth and property to be swallowed by the earth?

 

What was it that caused the nations that succeeded Nuh to be destroyed?

[Haddad]

JazakAllah for contributing this piece of insightful work. May Allah help us lead ourselves towards His Righteous path.