The Sound Heart - Surah Ash-Shu’ara 26:88-89

Explanation:

When Allah talks about the heart in the Qur’an, he is talking about the metaphysical heart, i.e. the place of emotion, thoughts and feelings. The importance of checking one’s heart can’t be underestimated in Islam.

Numerous Hadith indicate the importance of having a sound heart, like the statement of the prophet (peace be upon him), “Taqwa is here” (pointing to his heart) or his statement, “There is a piece of flesh in the body if it is corrupt, the whole body is corrupt and if it is sound, the whole body is sound, it is the heart,”

According to the Qur’an, hearts are of three types:

1. The dead heart – that which does not think about Allah at all and feels no guilt in sin. Allah describes those who have rejected faith as having dead hearts.
2. The sick heart – A heart which is mixed, it contains some love of Allah but at the same time it desires certain sins. It is continuously wavering between obedience and disobedience.
3. The sound heart (also translated as the healthy heart) – a heart which is full of the love of Allah, attached to the Afterlife and detached from this world. A person with a sound heart gets upset when he/she sins, feels bad at missing any habitual extra acts of worship and is content with the decree of Allah.

May Allah grant us all sound hearts. Ameen

For more details, I recommend reading the book “Ibn Taymiyyah’s Essay on the Heart” by Dr Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips or “Psychology from an Islamic Perspective” by Dr Aisha Utz



Source: Verse of the Day Collection by Abu Muawiyah Ismail Kamdar