2.10 Al-Baqarah — The Roots of Heart Diseases and the Light of Fitrah

السلام عليكم و رحمة الله و بركاته !

All praise is due to Allah, the Most High, the Most Great. May endless blessings be upon our Seal-Prophet Muḥammadﷺ, and may Allah be pleased with all the noble Companions.

Today we share a topic: to gain a modest understanding of why “disease of the heart” arises in a person.

In the Qur’an, many verses tell us that Allah informs us: many people have sickness in their hearts, and some hearts are sound. We seek a sound heart. The heart can become tranquil through the remembrance of our Lord, but we still need to recognize the root causes from which heart-disease arises.

1) The Standard of a Sound Heart

First, we must know the standard of a sound heart. In Sūrat al-Aʿrāf (The Heights), verses 42 and 43, our Lord tells us:

{وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ وَعَمِلُواْ الصَّالِحَاتِ لاَ نُكَلِّفُ نَفْسًا إِلاَّ وُسْعَهَا أُوْلَـئِكَ أَصْحَابُ الْجَنَّةِ هُمْ فِيهَا خَالِدُون}[الأعراف:42]

7:42 As for those who believe and do good—We never require of any soul more than what it can afford—it is they who will be the residents of Paradise. They will be there forever.

{وَنَزَعْنَا مَا فِي صُدُورِهِم مِّنْ غِلٍّ تَجْرِي مِن تَحْتِهِمُ الأَنْهَارُ وَقَالُواْ الْحَمْدُ لِلّهِ الَّذِي هَدَانَا لِهَـذَا وَمَا كُنَّا لِنَهْتَدِيَ لَوْلا أَنْ هَدَانَا اللّهُ لَقَدْ جَاءتْ رُسُلُ رَبِّنَا بِالْحَقِّ وَنُودُواْ أَن تِلْكُمُ الْجَنَّةُ أُورِثْتُمُوهَا بِمَا كُنتُمْ تَعْمَلُون}[الأعراف:43]

7:43 We will remove whatever bitterness they had in their hearts.1 Rivers will flow under their feet. And they will say, “Praise be to Allah for guiding us to this. We would have never been guided if Allah had not guided us. The messengers of our Lord had certainly come with the truth.” It will be announced to them, “This is Paradise awarded to you for what you used to do.”

Those who believe and do righteous deeds are the people of Paradise, living there forever. Our Lord will remove the resentment within their hearts. The hearts of those believers who do good and enter Paradise are sound hearts.

In Sūrat al-Ḥijr (The Rocky Tract), verses 45 to 47, our Lord says that He has purified the hearts of the people of taqwā who enter Paradise from resentment, and in Paradise they are brothers, facing one another on lofty couches:

{إِنَّ الْمُتَّقِينَ فِي جَنَّاتٍ وَعُيُون}[الحجر:45]

15:45 Indeed, the righteous will be amid Gardens and springs.

{ادْخُلُوهَا بِسَلاَمٍ آمِنِين}[الحجر:46]

15:46 ˹It will be said to them,˺ “Enter in peace and security.”

{وَنَزَعْنَا مَا فِي صُدُورِهِم مِّنْ غِلٍّ إِخْوَانًا عَلَى سُرُرٍ مُّتَقَابِلِين}[الحجر:47]

15:47 We will remove whatever bitterness they had in their hearts.1 In a friendly manner, they will be on thrones, facing one another.

Combining these verses, we know: in Paradise, those whose resentment is removed by our Lord call one another “brothers.” We know the believers are the people of Paradise, inheritors of al-Firdaws, and in this world they are brothers—so they carry these qualities. Therefore, the foremost feature of a sound heart is to be among the people of taqwā, and among those who believe and do righteous deeds—overall, they are called believers.

2) The People of Taqwā, the Primordial Truth, and the Nafs

First, we analyze the people of taqwā. A person of taqwā must safeguard themselves and keep away from the punishments our Lord has set for mankind—humiliation in this world and punishment in the Hereafter—so we must guard against and keep away from them.

Wrongdoers in this world, and those who oppose the truth and obstruct the path of the prophets and messengers, will receive humiliation in this world. And some people face various reckonings in the grave and after resurrection, even the final abode of the Fire. Whoever does not guard against such punishments cannot be a person of taqwā. So, at the most basic level, a person of taqwā should be someone who possesses the truth.

What is the meaning of the earliest truth that a person possesses? After our Lord created Ādam (peace be upon him), He touched his back, and his descendants fell forth from his back. Our Lord made a spiritual covenant with the souls of Ādam’s descendants, so that mankind—the descendants of Ādam—would bear witness by their innate nature, their fiṭrah (فطر): to witness that He is the Creator; that He has the attributes that make Him alone worthy of worship; and that no partner is to be associated with Him. This is the first truth and recognition that mankind possessed in the soul.

This recognition—the light of truth—was originally possessed even before the soul was placed into the body. Once our Lord created a body for us and breathed the soul into it, a person has human nature. If this human nature—the nafs (نفس)—does not accept guidance, and instead follows its desires, then a person who inclines toward the material body will develop an ego-self: it commands evil; and the one who inclines toward the “spiritual” may fall into arrogance and the pursuit of falsehood. At this point, because the nafs has not accepted guidance, it extinguishes that original light of correct recognition of truth.

Anyone whose nafs carries the traits of wrongdoing is certainly not among the people of taqwā. Naturally, the light of truth that the soul originally carried—affirming Allah’s Oneness, not associating partners, and the covenant made with our Lord—gets extinguished. So we must ask our Lord to guide us; and of course, our own conduct must be such that we become people of taqwā, restraining our nafs. For only when the nafs becomes a tranquil soul-state can one be a servant of our Lord; and only the servants of our Lord enter Paradise. Such a person’s heart in this world must also be sound.

When, due to the nafs, that original light of truth is lost, then arise the heart-diseases of arrogance, selfishness, and self-righteousness. Then, from arrogance comes envy; from selfishness and self-righteousness come all kinds of suspicion and conjecture. At that point, every bad inner state connected to the nafs shows itself as “disease of the heart.” And whoever loses that heart that originally carried innate spiritual light will, under the control of the nafs, develop heart-disease.

3) Incomplete or Wrong Cognition and the “Deviated Heart” (زَيْغٌ)

Second, our Lord says that in Paradise, those who believe and do righteous deeds will have the resentment removed from their chests—this is a feature of the sound heart.

We all know that in this world we must do good. And in doing good, we must perform both kinds of good: the worldly and otherworldly good tied to Allah’s general mercy and special mercy.

Allah’s general mercy is something everyone can seek, and its worldly forms are very real: to live, we seek material wealth and spiritual wealth. In the process of seeking wealth, mankind can do good; the development of human science and society produced so many empirical disciplines and sciences, and many noble personalities and virtues—this shows people can find blessings and have traits of goodness. Because our Lord is the Most Merciful, the Most Kind, the Most Good; He created mankind so that mankind would have the capacity to do good, to bear witness to Him as His signs.

From this, three kinds of people appear:

The first kind bears witness that there is indeed a Lord of general mercy, and that He has no partner, that He is the Lord who nurtures all worlds, and that He alone has the right to be worshipped. This person attains special mercy; their heart is sound; they preserved the innate testimony that a human being is meant to carry—the light of truth.
Another kind never bears witness to a Lord of general mercy at all. In this world they do much good and obtain material and spiritual wealth; but no matter how they do good, they never make the testimony that there is a Lord of general mercy who enabled them to do good. Their innate light—the light deep within the heart—is extinguished. Why? Because they are consumed by the dunya.
Another kind bears witness that, while seeking the blessings of general mercy, many mysteries are unveiled; so they testify there must be a Lord who created the world. But their testimony stops there—they do not go deeper to testify that this Lord is One and alone worthy of worship. In that case, their testimony is incomplete, and the innate light is still extinguished.

These two kinds then lead to another outcome: their descendants. Those descendants are also born with that deep spiritual light—the light of fiṭrah—and could have obtained a sound heart, but because the parents teach them such “cognition,” the original light of truth is again extinguished by the parents’ doctrines.

So, the second cause that makes the heart sick is incomplete cognition, even wrong cognition—leading to a deviated heart. Because the innate light within absolute truth has been extinguished, deviant cognition is injected into the heart, and the heart becomes deviated. From deviation come short-sightedness, stubbornness, a narrow chest, blockage, depression, and many other heart-diseases. In the Qur’an, the sickness of a deviated heart caused by incomplete cognition is called زَيْغٌ (zaygh). It often also shows itself as choosing what is light and avoiding what is heavy, turning things upside down, becoming biased and extreme in the face of ideas; even when the truth comes, it cannot enter; and one forces their own ideas upon others—these are heart-disease traits that appear.

4) The Believer and the Hypocrite: The Heart-Disease of Doubt

There is another type: our Lord says that those in Paradise whose resentment has been removed, who call each other “brothers,” show a trait in this world called “believers.” Everyone called a believer has firm conviction—firm belief in the unseen—and our Lord requires that in human dealings, the path to Allah, and personal refinement, the good that must be perfected is indeed fulfilled: in personal refinement, in the trials of blessings and hardships, they pursue goodness; on the path to Allah, they fulfill what Allah has prescribed and commanded; and in facing creation, their acts of worship are perfected—only by pursuing goodness can one become a believer. In the opening verses of Sūrat al-Mu’minūn (The Believers), these inner meanings—human conduct, the path to Allah, perfection of personal spiritual work, and firm conviction—are described. Whoever can be called a believer, with these qualities, is firm in belief in the unseen and perfected in human conduct, the path to Allah, and personal refinement; and of course, such a person is far—completely opposite—from the hypocrite.

Our Lord says that the hypocrites have sickness in their hearts. In Sūrat al-Baqarah, verse 10, our Lord says their hearts have disease, and Allah increases their disease:

{فِي قُلُوبِهِم مَّرَضٌ فَزَادَهُمُ اللّهُ مَرَضاً وَلَهُم عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ بِمَا كَانُوا يَكْذِبُون}[البقرة:10]

2:10 There is sickness in their hearts, and Allah ˹only˺ lets their sickness increase. They will suffer a painful punishment for their lies.

Scholars explain that the sickness in the hypocrites’ hearts refers to doubt. They doubt the truth our Lord has given us—especially Islam, the religion through which our Lord grants mankind blessing. They doubt it completely.

A heart with the hypocrite’s trait of doubt often produces, because of doubt itself, malicious suspicion, constant conjecture, and inner instability. And because hypocrisy exists both in belief (cognition) and in behavior, what appears outwardly and what is inside do not match. So there is often a fearful mindset—always afraid that the real face will be exposed—so the heart stays in a state of worry and tension. These are heart-diseases, and they arise from the traits of hypocrisy.

5) A Metaphor: Light, Darkness, Fear, and Sorrow

We use a metaphor to make a small summary: we liken the truth within our innate nature—the truth our Lord granted us and that bears witness—to light. This comes from the depths of the human soul; it is something our Lord granted us; even before the body was formed it already existed. So we call it “the light deep within the soul.” That light enables a person to recognize absolute truth: that our Lord is the Creator; that He exists; that He alone is to be worshipped and has no partner; that He is One.

If this truth is lost, then that deep light is extinguished. What causes it? It is caused by the nafs (نفس): the selfish ego, the arrogant “I,” the self-righteous “I.” And it is also caused by one’s own wrong cognition and deviant cognition; and also by many wrong teachings and “guidance” from parents.

A third cause is hypocrisy: hypocrisy in belief and hypocrisy in behavior, which extinguish that deep light—so it becomes dark. Once it turns dark, anyone who remains in darkness will be afraid; fear arises; many unseen and invisible matters lead a person to fear. Because the most basic light has been lost, a person is no longer illuminated; the whole person feels unsafe and unprotected. Because the true Protector is the Creator of all worlds—the True God. When firm belief and testimony toward Him are lost, a person becomes uneasy toward the created world and creation: fear before nature, fear before human society; thus the deep fear of the soul appears, and heart-disease takes root.

Regarding the unseen: for example, some people, without correct understanding of the world of souls, tell ghost stories; and some even know there is an unseen world and unseen jinn, but because of hypocrisy, they also develop fear toward these unseen things.

A person also develops fear of death; some show very obvious phobias. Of course, those who truly reach a state of having no fear of death—take the Companions as an example—when they struggled in the path to Allah, they said: they loved death more than life. This shows there is a kind of person who truly has no fear of death: they not only preserved the fiṭrah Allah granted mankind—the deep light of the heart, the light of knowing the Lord, the light of testimony. They also accepted the prophets and messengers Allah sent, who taught them how to worship Allah in detail. They drew close to Allah through many good deeds; Allah is with them; so naturally there is no fear.

Second: when the evil of human nature, deviant cognition, and the traits of hypocrisy cause that deep light to be erased, one remains in darkness with fear and a fearful heart. And because it is dark, one cannot find direction; one feels lost, not knowing what the final outcome will be—so sorrow forms in the chest. Some people obtain worldly blessings of general mercy—money, material satisfaction, spiritual satisfaction, power, fame, honor, children, emotional fulfillment—and for a time, briefly, for a period, for a year or two, it seems there is no sorrow; but it cannot be stable. Such a heart cannot remain permanently without sorrow; it is impossible to sustain continuous happiness and satisfaction—sorrow appears intermittently.

So, whose heart does not have those heart-diseases mentioned earlier, and can truly reach “no fear and no sorrow”? Just as in the verses our Lord speaks of His friends, أَوْلِيَاء. And also, when angels take the soul, they say to a certain kind of people: today you will have no sorrow and no fear, because we are your friends. Of course, those who can become friends of our Lord are those who attain His pleasure; those who can become friends of the angels are the people of taqwā.

We give another metaphor: because such a person preserved the original innate light granted by our Lord—granted to the soul before the human was even formed—whoever preserves it must be a person of taqwā. And they also accept the revelation and scripture brought by the prophets and messengers Allah sent; they worship Allah; they do good through their actions; they do good through their character; they do good through the knowledge and certainty they have attained. This character, ability, actions, and intellect then produce a further “light of doing good.” Such a person is certainly one who believes and does righteous deeds.

These two: one is the original innate light our Lord gave us; the other is the light produced by accepting guidance and doing good—light upon light. This is the metaphor of the believer’s heart. With a heart that is “light upon light,” can there still be heart-disease? Of course it is the most sound heart—sound in this world, and in the Hereafter, in Paradise, it is naturally sound.

Closing

We ask our Lord to have mercy on us and grant us sound hearts. That is all for today. If I misspoke, or explained something unclearly, I ask the Most High, the Most Great Allah to forgive me. I ask the group members to excuse me. Thank you all for sharing.

السلام عليكم و رحمة الله و بركاته !

Qur’an translation source: The Clear Qur’an — Dr. Mustafa Khattab.

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