By Dr. Muna Bilgrami
A space to reflect on facets of being – drawing from the Qur’an and heritage of the Ahl ul-Bayt
What drum beats 100,000 times a day without a drummer? What pump can push 2000 gallons of liquid every day without electricity? It is, of course – you guessed it – the physical heart. This fist sized organ moves blood throughout the body making sure it delivers oxygen to each cell and removes metabolic waste. As the powerhouse of the body the human heart is a miraculous source of wonderment.
A beating heart is also far more than what keeps us alive in this world. The symbolism and metaphorical meanings ascribed to the heart reveal it to be crucial to our wellbeing. In this article we cast a brief look at the heart and what our wisdom heritage teaches us about its significance.
Just a glance at how we use the word ‘heart’ in the English language gives a sense of the meanings and emotions associated with it. Words and phrases like heartache, heartbreak, hard-hearted, whole-heartedly, heart of gold, close to my heart, sacred heart, take heart, speak from the heart, heart of the matter – the list is long and reveals that we associate the heart with much more than simply a functional organ. The idea of ‘heart’ evokes emotions of love, courage, and authenticity, and also, when unheeded and untended, ill-health, insensitivity and spiritual blindness.
The heart lies at the core of our being. The Prophet (S) said, ‘If a man’s heart is sound, then his whole body is sound; if his heart is sick, then his whole body is sick.’ A similar saying is also attributed to Imam ‘Ali (A): ‘There is a lump of flesh in the chest of man which, if it is sound, the whole person is sound.’
The ancients in many civilizations understood the heart to be not only the seat of emotions but also of cognition and perception. Before the mind got separated from the soul in post-Cartesian theorisations, the heart was ‘literally and figuratively’ at the heart of man’s existence. Often set in juxtaposition to the mind or head, in West-centric thinking the heart’s symbolic association has become limited usually to emotions and feelings – often considered of secondary importance, if at all, to the intellectual logic of the ‘mind’. Above all the heart is associated with love, not just romantic love but the deep bonds of feeling and attachment to people and to the Creator and Originator of this miraculous existence we call Life. Love is the spiritual substrate of creation, for why else would the Creator create? Allah tells us He created us to worship Him. And how can one worship anything one does not love, as Imam ‘Ali (A) observed? Allah is al-Habib (the Loving) and the Prophet (S) is known throughout the Islamic world as Habibu’llah (beloved of Allah).
In the Qur’an and our Islamic traditions, we find many references to the heart, its condition, role, and influence that centre it as the primary apparatus of perception and cognition. ‘Have they not travelled throughout the land so their hearts may reason, and their ears may listen? Indeed, it is not the eyes that are blind, but it is the hearts in the chests that grow blind’ (22:46). Imam ‘Ali (as) said, ‘The vision of the eye is limited; the vision of the heart transcends all barriers of time and space.’ The heart calibrates information: ‘Most surely there is a reminder in this for him who has a heart’ (50:37). Having a heart gives us the ability to make sense and understand the ‘reminder’, filtering the guidance through cognition to our actions. Furthermore, the heart is a repository of goodness, virtue, and noble conduct:
‘And We have put in the hearts of those who followed him [Jesus] kindness and mercy’ (57:27).
Among the Prophets, Sayyidna ‘Isa is the embodiment of mercy and compassion, as well as a sign of God in and of himself, according to the Qur’an (19:21).
A healthy heart then enables us to perceive truth. If the heart is unencumbered by the weight of wrongdoing, the heart is able to channel the guidance and inspiration we need. In fact, it is predisposed to do that. Imam Ja‘far al-Sadiq said, ‘Surely the heart is constantly murmuring in the recess of the body, demanding the Truth; if the Truth reaches it, then it finds ease and rest.’ Immediately after these words he recited the verse: ‘Whomever Allah desires to guide, He spreads open his heart to Islam; and whomever He desires to misguide, He makes his heart narrow, constricted, as though he were climbing up the sky. Allah thus lays defilement [rijs] upon those who do not believe’ (6:125).
This soft and supple heart can also be rendered rigid and insensitive: ‘Then your hearts hardened after that, so that they were like rocks.’ (2:74). Our traditions tell us that repeated sins harden the heart. Imam ‘Ali said, ‘Tears dry up when the heart hardens, and the heart only hardens because of the number of one’s wrong actions.’ Persistent intentional errors in behaviour affect the heart by toughening it, making it insensitive to the flow of guidance which Allah continuously makes available.
Turning to Light
In Arabic, the language of the Qur’an, the heart is most often referred to as qalb. There are other terms, such as sadr (chest or breast), fu’ad (heart, intellect) and lubb (core, kernel, intelligence), but for this article we shall stay with qalb.
We can infer much about the heart from the ways derivatives of the word ‘qalb’, or its root verb qalaba, are used. We have already alluded to the ideal state of the heart being ‘qalbun salim’ – a sound, wholesome heart. This is contrasted to the other ways the word heart is mentioned – such as hardened, veiled, or locked. The qalbun salim by contrast reflects wisdom, faith and humility.
The root verb qalaba – and many of its verbal forms – means to turn or revolve. We can immediately make a connection that the healthy heart is one that ‘turns’. Naturally the organ is fixed and perhaps the ‘turning’ here relates to the turnover of blood pumping through it. We know that if anything interferes with its rhythmic action the heart can stop and life will leave the body. But let us consider what turning may mean for the metaphorical heart. For anything to turn it must have an axis that is fixed. For the Muslim that axis is the foundation of reality encapsulated in the kalima: la ilaha illa’llah (There is no god but God). The inference is tawhīd (unity). The myriad forms and shapes of life in this existence are all connected. Outwardly when we pray, we orient our bodies towards Qiblah. Inwardly we orient ourselves towards Allah, Whom we cannot see, hear or touch. The heart can ‘turn’ as long as it is anchored in that truth. Rather like a radar, its sensory sweep can pick up on items surrounding it, and that reading helps us to filter out the useful from the useless or harmful, the good from the bad, the true from the false, and so on. But if the radar is not centred, the perspectives become skewed, making it hard to exercise sufficient furqān (discrimination) to be able to discern eternal values. Thus, the challenge for the heart to avoid being overcome by other influences is immense.
The importance of turning extends into other areas of our spiritual cosmology. The most obvious of course being tawbah, which we understand as repentance, preceded or accompanied by seeking forgiveness (istighfar). The turning of tawbah is a turning away from, which implies turning to something else: in this case from error and misguidance to correct action and guidance. The idea of turning is also invoked in the word inqilāb (revolution), both the literal and metaphorical kinds.
Changing Heart
The heart is also acted upon by our actions. The famous du‘a taken from Surah Ale Imran indicates this clearly: ‘Our Lord, do not cause our hearts to swerve after You have guided us, and bestow on us mercy from Your presence; You are the Giver’ (3:8). This supplication implies a deep awareness that not only do we have access to guidance on the right path, but also that we need Divine Grace to keep us aligned in that direction.
“It is better to speak the same language of the heart than to speak the same tongue.” ( Rumi )
Imam ‘Ali (A) indicated the importance of the heart in guiding our faculties of perception, discernment and action when he said: ‘The tongue of the wise man is behind his heart and the heart of a fool is behind his tongue.’
When we contest the guidance sent to us the Qur’an tells us that hearts close up: ‘Those who argue against God’s revelations, without any proof having come to them—a heinous sin in the sight of God, and of those who believe. Thus God seals the heart of every proud bully’ (40:35) and elsewhere, ‘…a seal is set on their hearts so they do not understand’ (9:87).
Whilst we are capable of bringing upon ourselves hardheartedness, equally we can by the remembrance of Allah and all it entails find peace and tranquillity: ‘Those who believe, and whose hearts find comfort in the remembrance of God. Surely, it is in the remembrance of God that hearts find comfort’ (13:28).
“I am amazed at the heart of man: It possesses the substance of wisdom as well as the opposites contrary to it … for if hope arises in it, it is brought low by covetousness: and if covetousness is aroused in it, greed destroys it. If despair possesses it, self piety kills it: and if it is seized by anger, this is intensified by rage. If it is blessed with contentment, then it forgets to be careful; and if it is filled with fear, then it becomes preoccupied with being cautious. If it feels secure, then it is overcome by vain hopes; and if it is given wealth, then its independence makes it extravagant. If want strikes it, then it is smitten by anxiety. If it is weakened by hunger, then it gives way to exhaustion; and if it goes too far in satisfying its appetites, then its inner becomes clogged up. So all its shortcomings are harmful to it, and all its excesses corrupt it.” Imam ‘Ali (A)
The sound heart is one that is rooted in the knowledge and certainty that our Source is One, we are governed by the laws of the One, and we abide in this world as an exercise in discovering and affirming this Oneness. And indubitably we shall all be gathered back to the One. For such is the decree, mercy, and love of Allah.
Assault and Antidote
With the heart as the locus of our connection and perception we are endowed with a consciousness that shows us the beauty and the majesty of our existence. But in our contemporary world, forces that fill us with fear and judgement abound. If unchecked, they make us dehumanize other created souls. None of us are immune to the effects of what the worldwide web of news and social media propagate, which would have us react in anger and hatred, or retreat into despair and hopelessness. The current unipolar world system thrives on separation and would have us perpetuate enmity that can justify genocidal destruction. Allah tells us He created us all from One Self, and yet, when we look upon our enemies, we demonize them and dehumanize them because we fail to see they have souls like us – the same soul, in fact (4:1, 49:13). Each soul has a body and each body has a heart. The potential of each one of us is equal in the eyes of Allah; what we choose to do or are led to do creates harmony or discord. We are all subject to the same laws governing this universe.
It may seem hard to counteract the powerful forces that distract us and let doubt and despair creep into our hearts. What then is the antidote? Simply: to empty the heart of all idols. Let it do its job of freely turning in praise and affirmation that all creation comes from One Source and is accountable to that Oneness. Easier said than done, as the phrase goes. However, there is no choice but to try to empty the heart out of all false attachments or at least reduce them, as we will continue to suffer from them until we learn to regularly let go, purify our hearts, turn away from error in thought, word and deed, and turn towards Allah, the infinitely Merciful, Compassionate, Loving and Accepting of those who turn to Him. Fortunately, we have the Qur’an to guide us, the life pattern of the Prophet (S), and the exemplars of embodied faith, the Imams and Ahl ul-Bayt (A) to inspire us.
By Dr. Muna Bilgrami
A lifelong student of Islamic sciences, Dr. Muna Bilgrami’s principal areas of research focus on the traditions of Islamic Psychology and spiritual well-being, ‘irfan and tasawwuf. Of Danish and Iraqi/Iranian origin, her academic pathway includes a BA in Arabic with a minor in Persian from the University of Texas at Austin and a Master’s degree in Islamic Societies and Cultures from SOAS. She wrote her doctoral thesis at the University of Johannesburg, investigating the relationship between master and student in a contemporary spiritual Islamic movement. Dr. Bilgrami enriches her research with over three decades of experience in editing and publishing on Islamic topics.