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Acts of Worship

How To Diagnose Your Heart | Khutbah

November 30, 2022Dr. Omar Suleiman

Is your heart sick or dead? Full or empty? What are the signs you should be looking for, and how do you maintain a healthy spiritual heart? Dr. Omar Suleiman discusses in this khutbah.

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Transcript

This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings.
We begin by praising Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala and bearing witness that none has the right to be worshipped or unconditionally obeyed except for him. And we bear witness that Muhammad salallahu alayhi wasalam is his final messenger. We ask Allah to send his peace and blessings upon him, the prophets and messengers that came before him, his family and companions that served alongside him, and those that follow in his blessed path until the day of judgment. And we ask Allah to make us amongst them. Allahumma ameen. Dear brothers and sisters, if I was to tell you right now, perform a check on your heart. And do you feel like your heart is alive? Do you feel like you have chest pain? Do you feel like you're having a heart attack? You know, subhanallah, we live in the era of Google where suddenly if you start to feel something inside that's a little bit wrong, you go online and you search. What is the root cause? Why am I feeling this way? What's happening? And when you think about this from a spiritual perspective, one of the beautiful features of the sunnah of Rasulullah salallahu alayhi wasalam is that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam is very specific in telling us how to diagnose amradul qulub, the diseases of the heart, and then how to cure those very specific diseases. But there's a general check that indicates where you stand and then you go into the specifics of the amrad, of the various diseases and we all struggle and just like our physical heart, we have to cater to it every single day to make sure that we keep it healthy or else we can lose it. And I wanted to start with a narration that is attributed to the messenger salallahu alayhi wasalam by Abu Sa'id al-Khudri radiallahu ta'ala anhu, but more authentically narrated to Hudhayfa radiallahu ta'ala anhu. He says,
القلوب أربعة The hearts are of four types. قال قلب أجرد فيه مثل السراج يزهر وقلب أغلف مربوط على غلافه وقلب منكوس وقلب مصفح. He describes radiallahu ta'ala anhu four types of hearts. The first one is a heart that is ajrad, it is full, يتجرد لله عز وجل, completely focused on Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And this is a heart that shines like a radiating lamp. قلب أجرد, it's full of something beautiful and it radiates light. You know when you see something that's so beautiful you can't contain it behind anything. Subhanallah, the heart is so beautiful and the heart shines with that light. And then he said salallahu alayhi wasalam, a heart that is sealed, a heart that is sealed and it has a knot tied around its seal. And then he said قلب منكوس, a heart that is upside down. And he said salallahu alayhi wasalam, and a heart that is that is wrapped, that is covered with something. Then he went on to say radiallahu ta'ala anhu that as for القلب الأجرد, the heart that is like a polished radiating lamp. قال فقلب المؤمن, he said that is the heart of the believer. سراجه فيه نوره, and what is causing it to radiate is the light of faith. And then he goes on to say وَأَمَّا القَلْبُ الأَغْلَفَ فَقَلْبُ الْكَافِرُ as for the heart that is sealed, that is the heart of the disbeliever. وَأَمَّا القَلْبُ الْمَنكُوسُ as for the heart that is turned upside down. فَقَلْبُ الْمُنَافِقُ عَرَفَ ثُمَّ أَنْكَبْ That's the heart of a hypocrite. It knew and then it dumped it.
Belief came to it and then it dumped it out like a container is turned upside down and it dumps out all of the contents that could have cured that heart. وَأَمَّا الْقَلْبُ الْمُصْفَحُ فَقَلْبٌ فِيهِ إِمَانٌ وَنِفَاقٌ And this is the most interesting one. He said as for this heart that is wrapped up, it's not sealed, but it's wrapped up. It's a heart that has both Iman and Nifaq. It's fed by two sources, belief and hypocrisy. فَمَثَلُ الْإِمَانِ فِيهِ كَمَثَلِ الْبَقْلَةِ يَمُدُّهَا الْمَاءُ قَيِّبٌ As for the faith that is inside of it, the source of faith, it's like you have a stream of pure water that is going inside of it. So you have one stream that's giving it life. You know when you have blockages in the heart, depending on how many blockages you have, that's going to determine the health of its pulse. Here you have the healthy stream, that stream of pure water that is going inside of it. وَمَثَلُ النِّفَاقِ فِيهِ كَمَثَلِ الْقُرْحَةِ As for the source of hypocrisy that is inside of it, it's like an ulcer. And he goes on to say, يَمُدُّهَا الْقَيْحُ وَالْدَّمُ That it is fed by pus and blood. And he said, فَأَيُّ الْمَدَّتَيْنِ غَلَبَتْ عَلَى الْأُخْرَى غَلَبَتْ عَلَيْهِ So whichever of the two streams is stronger at the moment, that is going to be the feature of the heart. So you have a heart that has some blockage, but it still has iman inside of it. And this is the majority of people. The majority of people feed their hearts with contradicting sources. And so the heart never really stabilizes. So where is my heart health spiritually? I'm gonna start off with what it is not.
Because we live in a day and age where faith is about emotion only. How do I feel? How much do I weep? The intensity of the emotion is what determines the intensity of faith. And that is not an Islamic concept. And in fact, Aisha radiallahu ta'ala anha, she saw some people from the next generation, and she saw them collapsing in their salah. Collapsing in their prayer. And she said the sahaba of the Prophet ﷺ, they didn't use to collapse in their prayer, but they had more iman in their hearts. So if you judge by the intensity of emotion, you'd say these people who read and then they shake and collapse, are better than the companions of the Prophet ﷺ. But the hearts of the sahaba of Rasulullah ﷺ, wa radiallahu ta'ala anhum ajma'een, were far more connected to Allah ﷻ. So it's not the intensity of the emotion. Allah ﷻ says, innama almu'minuna alladhina idha dhukirallahu wajilat quloobuhum Verily the believers are those who when Allah is mentioned, wajilat quloobuhum, their hearts tremble. There's something deep inside that moves the heart. Rasulullah ﷺ was like a kettle, a boiling pot of water when he would read the Qur'an. You could hear the buka, the crying from deep in his heart ﷺ. It wasn't the loud wailing that we might think of when we think of someone who's really crying. But it was something deep in the heart of the messenger ﷺ. innama almu'minuna alladhina idha dhukirallahu wajilat quloobuhum wa idha tuliat alayhim ayatuhu zadatuhum imana wa ala rabbihim yatawakkaloon
Allah ﷻ says, the believers are those who when Allah is mentioned, something happens to their hearts. Their hearts tremble on the inside. And then when they hear the Qur'an being recited, their faith is immediately increased. Their iman is immediately increased. That's the pure water that comes into the heart. And they depend fully on their Lord. So how do I judge where my heart is? I need to feel two things in order to have a healthy beating heart. And realize the healthy heart is not the one that gives you paralyzing pain. That you always feel pain, you always feel something so harsh inside of you that you can't function. It's a heart that beats that you're aware of, and that allows you to keep moving towards your journey, towards that which is good for you. And so the believer's heart feels two things. The pulse of the believer's heart is two things. Number one, the pain of regret, the pain of regret when it sins. Number two, the pleasure of worship, when it worships Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. I'm going to start with the two basic fundamentals of a heart that is healthy, when you want to check your heart health. The pain I feel of regret when I commit a sin, and the pleasure I taste when I worship Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And what influences those two things, Allah azawajal says, فَلَمَّا زَاغُوا أَزَاغَ اللَّهُ قُلُوبَهُ When they turned away, Allah turned their hearts away. Allah doesn't strike your heart with something that is sudden, that ruins you. But a person who consistently turns in a direction will find that their heart follows it naturally.
فَلَمَّا زَاغُوا أَزَاغَ اللَّهُ قُلُوبَهُ The worst situation are those who turn away and they commit spiritual suicide. They destroy their heart spiritually. And the opposite of that is, وَالَّذِينَ جَاهَدُوا فِينَا لَنَهْدِيَنَّهُمْ سُهُلَنَا Those who strive in our path, we guide them, we open pathways, clear the blockage of the heart. Now here's the thing, it has to come back to صدق الطلب What the ulema call صدق الطلب, the sincerity of your pursuit. Imam al-Muzani rahimahullah ta'ala, he describes Abu Bakr as-Siddiq radiallahu ta'ala anhu with a very beautiful description. He says, مَا سَبَقَ الصَّحَابَ بِكَفْرَةِ صِيَامٍ وَصَلَابٍ Now, Abu Bakr radiallahu anhu did not necessarily surpass the companions because he prayed more than them and he fasted more than them. وَلَكَن بِشَيْءٍ أَوْ بِسِرٍ وَقَرَ فِي قَلْبِهِ But there was something in his heart that unlocked. قَلْبٌ أَجْرَت Something that just unlocked in the heart of Abu Bakr radiallahu anhu that the pulse of the heart of Abu Bakr was that when he heard the Prophet ﷺ say anything, his heart directed towards it like no other human being on the face of the planet. From the generation of the Sahaba until the last person that breathes on this earth, no person's heart had that orientation of Sidq, that orientation of truthfulness that when it hears Allah or the Messenger ﷺ say,
أَقْبِلْ, come forth, like the heart of Abu Bakr as-Siddiq radiallahu anhu. And so did he surpass many with the quantity of his prayer? Absolutely. The gate of Salah will be calling Abu Bakr on the day of judgment. And the gate of Siyam, the fasting, will be calling Abu Bakr on the day of judgment. And the gate of Sadaqah will be calling Abu Bakr on the day of judgment. Come here, come here. And the gate of Jihad will be calling Abu Bakr on the day of judgment. And the Bab al-Rayan will be calling Abu Bakr on the day of judgment. All the gates will be calling Abu Bakr on the day of judgment. But that's because his heart was towards every one of those gates constantly. And that's something about them. Umar ibn Abdul Aziz rahimahu Allah ta'ala, his murabbi, Salih al-Qaysan rahimahu Allah ta'ala, Imam al-Haram, when he saw the father of Umar ibn Abdul Aziz, Abdul Aziz ibn Marwan, he told him, listen, I want to tell you something about your son. Qala wallahi ma ra'aytu ahadan, Allahu a'adhamu fee qalbihi aw fee sadrihi min hadhal ghulam. So I want to tell you about your son. I've never met anyone who Allah occupied a greater part of his heart than your son Umar. His heart is radiating. It's looking for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. You don't even have to remind it. It's there, always, present. It's not lahiya, it's not distracted. It's focused on Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Now here's the thing. What it comes down to at the end of the day is where Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, ma ja'alallahu li rajulim min qalbain fee jawfi. Allah did not put two hearts in a single chamber. Allah did not give you two hearts. He only gave you one. And if your heart, one of the benefits of this ayah, if your heart seeks laddha, if it seeks sweetness from ma'siya, from sin,
if it seeks sweetness from sin, Allah will not let that heart find sweetness in ibadah. It's not gonna find sweetness in worship. Because the heart is seeking its sweetness, its joy from binge-watching Netflix, from the gaze looking around, from listening to all sorts of things, from constantly nourishment. Other than that which is pleasing to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, your heart has another master. It has another source. You're causing blockage in your own heart. And Allah only gave you one heart to feed. And we, you know, the munafiq wears two faces, dhul wajhain, wadhul qalbain aydhan. A person who has two faces has two hearts. Or so he thinks he has two hearts. Right? I can feed this heart today, then I'll go to the masjid and read Quran, and then everything will be okay. I'll listen to the khutbah, and my heart will naturally awake. No, you only have one heart. You only have one heart. And where you seek the pleasure of that heart is where you're going to get it from. And it takes time. It takes time to taste halawatul iman, to taste the sweetness of faith. That sweetness, that sweetness of ibadah, of worship, it takes time to get there. It doesn't come that quick. But at the bare minimum, you start with what? Good deeds make me happy, bad deeds make me sad. Sounds very simple, right? Qala alaihi salatu wassalam, or rawa'a Abu Umamah radiallahu ta'ala anhu, Umamah says that a man asked the Prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam, mal iman, what is faith? Faqala alaihi salatu wassalam, idha sarratka hasanatuka wasa'atka sayyiatuka fa anta mu'min. If your good deeds make you happy, and your bad deeds make you sad,
you're a mu'min, you're a believer. Qala ya rasulallah, wa mal-ithn, and what is sin? Listen to the answer of the Prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam. Haram, we have boundaries. But he said, idha haaka fee nafsika shayt, fa da'ahu. Something doesn't feel right inside of you, leave it. Da'ma yuribuk ila maara yuribuk. Leave that which causes you doubt for that which doesn't cause you doubt. You have a fitrah, you have something inside of you, a natural orientation, a healthy heart. This doesn't feel right, doesn't sound right. It's not resonating with me. So the Prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam said, fa da'ahu. Leave it at that moment. So you start with this. An-nadnu tawba, regret is repentance. I don't like sinning. And I will perform al-fara'a, the obligations. Idha sarratka hasanatuka wasa'atka sayyiatuka fa ansa mu'min. You start with that. Good deeds give you a bare minimum of happiness. Bad deeds make you uncomfortable at the very least. And the single most effective way to diagnose your heart at that point is to look at your relationship with the Qur'an. Qala Usman radiallahu ta'ala anhu, law tahurat quloobuna lama shari'at min kalamillahi azza wa jalla. If the hearts were pure, they never become full of the words of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. They never become full of the words of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Now I want you to think about the physical heart. How do you know that your heart is not healthy? When you start jogging, what happens? You run out of breath. And here, spiritually, you run out of breath when you read the Qur'an. You read a couple of pages and you get tired and bored and you want to put it away. If the heart is pure, lama shari'at min kalamillahi, it doesn't become full. It has more breath.
And what do you do when you physically want to increase your heart rate and be able to run longer? First you run half a mile until your heart becomes adjusted. Then you can run a mile, then you can run two miles, then you can run three miles. The same thing is true with the Qur'an. That's why Ramadan is unnatural for the one who just picks up the Qur'an and tries to read it in Ramadan. It doesn't feel right. You run out of breath quickly. Because you're not jogging on a daily basis with your heart and keeping your heart towards Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Wa qala alaihi salatu was salam, inna alladhi laysa fee jibheehi shay'un minal qur'an kal bayti alkharib That the one who doesn't have anything of the Qur'an in their hearts is like a destroyed house. Allahumma inna na'udhu bika minal ajli wal kasab Oh Allah, we seek refuge in you from al ajl, which is incapacity and kasab and laziness. That starts with the Qur'an and du'a and your relationship with ibadah. And Dhunun al-Masri rahimahullah, he said, just like if you're sick and you can't enjoy the taste of food, the same thing is true with ibadah. If you're sick, it doesn't taste good. You don't taste the sweetness of your ibadah. And so you have to remove the sickness and then increase the spiritual exercise. The good news is what? The good news is what? Qala ibn al-Jawzi rahimahullah ta'ala, idha wajatta fee qalbika dhulmatan ba'dil maasiyah fa'alam anna fee qalbika noora Beautiful saying. Someone asked me, is my heart dead or is it sick? Ibn al-Jawzi said, if you feel a darkness in your heart after you commit a sin, then that's a sign that you have a light in your heart. Because, law laahu ma wajatta tilka dhulmah Had it not been for that light in your heart, you wouldn't have felt the darkness of sin. So you still have a pulse, alhamdulillah.
But you have to work on it quickly and treat your sin with regret and recourse. With regret and recourse, turn your heart back to Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala. Because Allah says, athana yatadabbaruna alqur'an amma ala qulubin aqfaluham? Do they not find sweetness and reflection in the Qur'an or do they have locks on their hearts? You've got to unlock the heart first. So treat your sin with regret and recourse. Treat your worship, your ibadah, the nourishment of the heart after you unlock it, with repentance on a consistent basis and a regimen, a habit. If I were to ask you, what's your daily spiritual jog? What's your heart's jog every single day? What's your heart's exercise every single day? You tell me, adhkar al sabah, the morning remembrance. You tell me, I read this much Qur'an a day. You tell me, I pray my sunnah when I can with my fara'id. You tell me how much ibadah you perform on a day and that's to take a good pulse. But what do you pair that off with? Your brothers and sisters, you can't feed your heart junk food, spiritual junk food. And the spiritual junk food on our phones and on our computers is a lot. You can't feed your heart spiritual junk food and then expect good exercise to do away with it. What's the source that you're putting in? What's the exercise that you're putting out? Subhanallah, you find every book of taskiya, between ridding yourself of destructing flaws and taking advantage of the means of salvation. Between tahdheeb an-nafs and riyadat an-nafs, disciplining the self and then exercising the self. And the Prophet ﷺ taught,
اللهم إني أعوذ بك من قلب لا يخشع ومن دعاء لا يسمع ومن نفس لا تشبع ومن علم لا ينفع كان ﷺ يستغل الله من دعاء لا يخشع ومن نفس لا تشبع ومن علم لا ينفع To cure our hearts, to connect our hearts to the Qur'an, to connect our hearts to divine revelation and to bring out of them that which resembles the practice and the way of our Messenger ﷺ and his family and his companions. اللهم أمين أقولك بهذا واستغفروا الله ورساله المسلمين فاستغفروه إنه الرسول الرحيم الحمد لله والصلاة والسلام على رسول الله وعلى آله وصحبه ومن ولاه اللهم اغفر للمؤمنين والمؤمنات والمسلمين والمسلمات الأحياء منهم والأموات إنك سميع قريب مجيب الدعوات اللهم اغفر لنا وارحمنا واعفو عنا ولا تعذبنا ربنا ظلمنا أنفسنا وإن لم تغفر لنا وترحمنا لنكوننا من الخاسرين اللهم إنك عفو كريم تحب العفو فاعفو عنا اللهم اغفر لوالدين رب ارحمهما كما ربونا صغارا ربنا هبلنا من أزواجنا وذرياتنا قرة أعين وجعلنا للمتقين إماما ربنا لا تزغ قلوبنا بعد إذ هديتنا وهبلنا من لدنك رحمة إنك أنت الوهاب ربنا اغفر للمؤمنين والمؤمنات اللهم انصر إخواننا المستضعفين في مشارك الأرض ومغاربها
اللهم أهلك الظالمين بالظالمين وأخرجنا إخواننا من بينهم سالمين عباد الله اللهم يمر بالعدل والإحسان ويتاء ذي القربى ويمهى عن الفحشاء والمنكر والبهي يعظكم لعلكم تذكرون فاذكروا الله يذكركم واشكروه على النعماء يزد لكم ولذكر الله أكبر والله يعنونا تصنعون وقمصنا
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