Reflect on the State of your Heart - Ustaadh Mohammed al Jazairi

We seek forgiveness and we seek forgiveness. We seek refuge with Allah from the evil of our souls and from the bad deeds of our deeds. Whoever guides him, he will not be astray. And whoever misguides, he will not be guided. I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, and there is no partner in his way. I bear witness that Muhammad is his servant and his messenger. O you who believe, fear Allah, the Truth of his fight. And you will not die except when you are Muslims. O you who fear Allah, the One who created you from your soul, and created your wife from it, and made many men and women from them, and fear Allah, who are asking for him and the mercy of Allah. Surely Allah is the most merciful for you. O you who believe, fear Allah and say a word in a sincere manner that will help you do your deeds and forgive your sins. And whoever obeys Allah and His messenger, he has already achieved great success. As for the next, the most honest of the Hadith in the Book of Allah is the Hadim of Muhammad, and the worst of the things, and all the things that are in the Fire. We begin by praising Allah, as we seek His aid and forgiveness, and we seek refuge with Him from the evils of our souls and the consequences of our actions. Whosoever Allah guides, the none can set astray, and whosoever Allah sets astray, the none can guide. And I testify that there is no god worthy of worship, except Allah, with no partners. As the messenger may Allah raise his rank and grant him peace, as for what proceeds in the best of speeches, the speech of Allah, and the best of guidance is the guidance of Muhammad, and the worst of affairs are those that are newly invented into this religion, and every newly invented matter is an innovation, and every innovation is going astray, and every going astray is deserving of the Fire. I remind myself first, and those that are listening with the fear of Allah, the one who hears all, and sees all, and is with us at all times with his knowledge, Inna Allaha Kana Aalaykum R'qiba Verily Allah, He watches over everything we do. And indeed this taqwa, that we are commanded to have, it emanates from the heart, as the Prophet Muhammad SAW said, Al Muslim, Al Muslim, La Ya Zulimuhu, La Ya Kuduluhu, La Ya Kutiruhu, Attaqwa Ha Ha Huna, Attaqwa Ha Ha Huna, That a Muslim is a brother of the Muslim, he does not oppress him, he does not forsake him, he does not belittle him. And then the Prophet SAW pointed to his chest and said, Attaqwa is here, Attaqwa is here, Attaqwa is here. What prevents a Muslim from oppressing his brother, from belittling his brother, from forsaking his brother, is the Attaqwa that is in his chest. And all of the actions that are produced by the limbs, they emanate from the chest, that was within the heart, because if your heart was rectified and it had the mindfulness of Allah's religion, then it would prevent it from acting upon anything going against the religion of Allah, the hearts are those that control our limbs. And if the limbs are corrupted and the speech is corrupted, then we know that this is evidence of a heart that is corrupted. As the Prophet SAW said in the Hadith of the Prophet SAW, In the Sahihain Alawa inna fil jasadi mudra Iza salahat salahal jasadu kulluh Wa Iza fesadat fesadal jasadu kulluh Alawa hi al qalb Indeed in the body there is a more sort of flesh, if it is rectified, then all of the body is rectified. And if it is corrupted, all of the body is corrupted. Indeed it is the heart. The heart is that which controls the limbs. Allah Azza wa Jalla made the heart, the king of the body. And the limbs are its soldiers, they only act according to this king. This heart, it controls the limbs completely. From the Quran and the sunnah we understand this. Even some of the Mufassirun they said regarding the ayah in surah al-Aadiyyat wa husli lamafi al-sudoor Afa la ya'lamum idha bu'athiramafil quboor wa husli lamafi al-sudoor Some of the Mufassirun they said, this ayah which says, does he not know, do they not know that when the people will be resurrected from their graves and that what is in the chest will be brought forth. What is in the chest will be brought forth? Allah Azza wa Jalla is referring to the hearts. Even though everything will be brought forth, the actions and the statements and everything, but Allah is sufficed by saying wa husli lamafi al-sudoor and what is in the chest will be brought forth because some of them, this is the origin of all our actions. What is in the chest? What is in the chest is the origin of the actions so Allah sufficed with saying wa husli lamafi al-sudoor because indeed if our chest, what is in the chest is corrupted, everything will follow suit. So it is incumbent upon us to rectify that is which is inside the chest, the heart and the Quran and the sunnah and this religion came to heal and cure what is in the chest. Do we not know that the Quran is a healing? Is it a cure? When we are sent down, what is in the Quran from healing and curing and mercy for the believers? For those who believe in the Quran, say it is for the believers. Guidance, the Quran and the Shifa. This Shifa though, this healing that is in the Quran, it is not only physical healing that it is read as a ruqya but also more importantly a healing for what is in the chest. As Allah says in Surah Yunus, qad jaatkum ma wawizatum mi rabbikum wa shifa'un lima fsudoor It has come to you an admonition from your Lord and a healing and a cure for what is in your chest. So this Quran and its explanation in the sunnah and all of the religion has been revealed to cure what is in our chest. And if we don't use this Quran and sunnah to rectify what is in the chest, do not expect the limbs and the statements to be rectified. Do not expect to see purification if you have not used the Quran and the sunnah to rectify yourself, to rectify your heart and your understanding what is in your heart that needs to be rectified. Your love for Allah Azza wa Jal, your fear of Allah Azza wa Jal, your dependence upon Allah Azza wa Jal, your hope for Allah's mercy, all of this it fluctuates in the heart. This is haraqat al qalb, this is the movements of the heart. They fluctuate throughout the day. If we give precedence to the love of something over the love of Allah, our love of Allah has decreased. If we fear something more than we fear Allah, our fear of Allah has decreased. The fear of Allah, the love of Allah, the dependence upon Allah, it is something you are in constant battle with. You have to correct those affairs. Keep them for Allah Azza wa Jal, keep the love of Allah greater than the love of anything. The fear of Allah greater than the fear of anything. The dependence upon Allah, truly upon Allah Azza wa Jal, wholeheartedly, not depending upon the creation. This is what needs to be rectified. And the Quran and the sunnah and its knowledge, the knowledge and the guidance that is contained in the Quran and the sunnah, rectifies all of that. It shows us that only Allah Azza wa Jal should truly be loved with all of our hearts. Because all good is from Him. How can you give love something more than Allah when Allah has given you everything? How can you fear one greater than Allah when Allah Azza wa Jal is in control of everything? And His punishment is greater than anything? And His harm is greater than anything? How can you depend upon anyone besides Allah when all good and provisions are only from Allah Azza wa Jal? When your knowledge becomes absent from the heart, your heart becomes corrupted. And this is why it becomes sick. And you still have to have other elements in the heart such as riyat showing off with your actions. Or you have hasad, envy, and you have love of the dunya. All of these are elements of the heart that start to oppose the religion of Allah Azza wa Jal. As Ibn al-Qayyim says, al-Qalb al-Saleem, the healthy heart is that which is free, salima min al-shirk, al-ghil, al-hasad, al-higd, al-shuh, al-kibr, al-hubd dunya, al-riyasa. The healthy heart is that which is free of firstly shirk, associating any partners with Allah Azza wa Jal. And it is free from ghil, haining, and holding grudges against one another. What Minul, what does Allah say about them? They say, They make dua, do not put any hate, rancor in our hearts for the believers. This is what the believers, the Ansar, this is what they said. Don't put any rancor in our chest for any other believer. Because that rancor and that hate is from the ailments of your heart. It's from the sickness of your heart. wa-saleem min al-hasad, and it is free from envy. It is free from arrogance. The healthy heart is not arrogant. If it knows Allah Azza wa Jal is above all and has created all, is in control of all, does not become arrogant and haughty. And the love of the dunya and position that makes a person transgress. This is also from the sicknesses and the ailments of the heart that the heart must free itself from in order to become healthy. We ask Allah Azza wa Jal to benefit us with the Quran and made it cure for our hearts. When Allah Azza wa Jal describes this religion as giving us life, it is indeed the life of the heart that Allah is referring to. As Allah Azza wa Jal says, Ya ayyuhal ladina, Aamanustajibu li-Llahi walir Rasooli Iza da'aakum lima yuhiikum O you who believe, answer Allah and His Messenger when they call you to that which give you life. Which life is this? This is the life of the heart. The kufar, the hypocrites, they also breathing, but their hearts are either sickened or dead. This is what Allah Azza wa Jal also says about the one He has guided. O you who are dead, we revive him and made him a light that walks in people like him in darkness, not outside of them. He is the one who was dead and we gave him life. What was that life? Quran and Sunnah and made him a light that was given to him to reverse upon. Guidance, because his heart was dead and he received light from Allah Azza wa Jal. He was the one who was still living in darkness. He cannot remove himself. Know that this religion is our true life. True joy, true tranquility and serenity is found in the religion, in the Quran and the Sunnah. Your hearts won't feel alive until you truly follow the religion. And this is noticed by any one of us. When we sin, when we go away from the religion, when we go away from Allah, we feel it in the chest. That's where we feel it. Because that is the sickening of the heart. That is the ailments in the heart. You don't feel it anywhere else, but you feel it in the chest. Because the heart is what gets sick. The heart is what dies. And the heart is what needs life. And this life and this joy, it reaches a level when it becomes bliss. That Allah Azza wa Jal has said, Inna Al-Abrara La Fee Na'eem. Verily the righteous, they are in bliss. Ibn Al-Qayyim, he says, do not think that this bliss is only in the Jannah, in the hereafter. Rather, this bliss that the heart feels, it is in all three abodes, in the dunya, and in the barzakh, in the grave, and in the Akhirah. That the righteous, they feel this bliss and this tranquility and this joy, even in the dunya. This is why some of the salaf, they said, if the kings knew what we feel, they will fight us over this. Because the salaf that were righteous, they had this, they felt this. They felt this joy of the religion, this bliss and tranquility. Al-Abi Dikr-il-Laahi Tatma-in-Nul-Qulub. Verily with the remembrance of Allah, the hearts become tranquil. But this is only by way of the religion. Only by way of learning your religion and implementing your religion, which gives you a tranquil heart, which gives you a heart that is fearful and in all of Allah, and this becomes serene, that is not bothered by the calamities of the dunya. It is not bothered by the loss of dunya. It is not bothered by anything that happens in the dunya because it's concern is the Akhirah. He knows this life will perish. This is a short period of time compared to the Akhirah. We ask Allah, Az-Zawajal, to grant us beneficial knowledge and fearful hearts. Allahumma, innana awudu bikka min ilmin la yanfaa wa qalbin la yakhshaa wa nafsin la tashbaa wa daawatin la istujabu lahaa rabbana aatina fi dduniya hasana wa fi al-akhirati hasana wa qin'a aadab al-naar wa sallallahu wa sallam ala nabiyinah Muhammad wa ala alihi wa ashabi yajma'in.