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Purification of the Heart: Signs, Symptoms and Cures of the Spiritual Diseases of the Heart

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Hamza Yusuf
Hamza Yusuf

Hamza Yusuf, born in 1958, is a renowned scholar, writer, and speaker. His areas of expertise include Islam, religious philosophy, and cross-cultural communication. Hamza Yusuf is highly respected in the academic and religious communities for his in-depth research and dissemination of Islamic teachings. more

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“On the Day of Judgment no one is safe save the one who returns to God with a pure heart. (Quran) Surely in the breasts of humanity is a lump of flesh, if sound then the whole body is sound, and if corrupt then the whole body is corrupt. Is it not the heart? (Prophet Muhammad ) Blessed are the pure at heart, for they shall see God. (Jesus )”

IslamSufismSufi WisdomHamza YusufPurification Of The HeartWisdom Of The Heart
Book:Purification of the Heart: Signs, Symptoms and Cures of the Spiritual Diseases of the Heart
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“The believers are described as people whose hearts are alive and full of light, while the scoffers are in darkness: Is one who was dead and then We revived [with faith] and made for him a light by which to walk among the people like one who is in darkness from which he cannot exit? (QURAN, 6:122). According to commentators of the Quran, the one who was dead refers to having a dead heart, which God revived with the light of guidance that one may walk straight and honorably among human beings. Also, the prophet Muhammad said, “The difference between the one who remembers God and one who does not is like the difference between the living and the dead.” In essence, the believer is someone whose heart is alive, while the disbeliever is someone whose heart is spiritually dead.”

IslamSufismSufi WisdomHamza YusufRemembrance Of GodPurification Of The Heart
Book:Purification of the Heart: Signs, Symptoms and Cures of the Spiritual Diseases of the Heart
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“Many in the West have long proffered that the brain is the center of consciousness. But in traditional Islamic thought – as in other traditions – the heart is viewed as the center of our being. The Quran, for example, speaks of wayward people who have hearts with which they do not understand (7:179). Also the Quran mentions people who mocked the prophet and were entirely insincere in listening to his message, so God placed over their hearts a covering that they may not understand it and in their ears [He placed] acute deafness (6:25). Their inability to understand is a deviation from the spiritual function of a sound heart, just as their ears have been afflicted with a spiritual deafness. So we understand from this that the center of the intellect, the center of human consciousness and conscience, is actually the heart and not the brain. Only recently have we discovered that there are over 40,000 neurons in the heart. In other words, there are cells in the heart that are communicating with the brain. While the brain sends messages to the heart, the heart also sends messages to the brain.”

IslamSufismSufi WisdomHamza YusufPurification Of The HeartWisdom Of The Heart
Book:Purification of the Heart: Signs, Symptoms and Cures of the Spiritual Diseases of the Heart
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“Islam provides the method by which our hearts can become sound and safe again. This method has been the subject of brilliant and insightful scholarship for centuries in the Islamic tradition. One can say that Islam in essence is a program to restore purity and calm to the heart through the remembrance of God. This present text is based on the poem known as Maṭharat al-Qulūb (literally, Purification of the Hearts), which offers the means by which purification can be achieved. It is a treatise on the “alchemy of the hearts,” namely, a manual on how to transform the heart. It was written by a great scholar and saint, Shaykh Muhammad Mawlud al Ya’qubi al-Musawi al-Muratani, As his name indicates, he was from Mauritania in West Africa. He was a master of all the Islamic sciences, including the inward sciences of the heart. He stated that he wrote this poem because he observed the prevalence of diseased hearts. He saw students of religion spending their time learning abstract sciences that people were not really in need of, to the neglect of those sciences that pertain to what people are accountable for in the next life, namely, the spiritual condition of the heart, In one of his most cited statements, the Prophet said, “Actions are based upon intentions.” All deeds are thus valued according to the intentions behind them, and intentions emanate from the heart. So every action a person intends or performs is rooted in the heart. Imam Mawlud realized that the weakness of society was a matter of weakness of character in the heart, Imam Mawlud based his text on many previous illustrious works, especially Imam al-Ghazali’s great Ihya’ Ulum alDin (The Revivification of the Sciences of the Religion). Each of the 40 books of Ihya‘ Ulum al-Din is basically about rectifying the human heart. If we examine the trials and tribulations, wars and other conflicts, every act of injustice all over earth, we’ll find they are rooted in human hearts.”

IslamSufi WisdomHamza YusufPurification Of The Heart
Book:Purification of the Heart: Signs, Symptoms and Cures of the Spiritual Diseases of the Heart
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