Identifying The Signs Of A Spiritually Dead Heart

Jumu'ah Khutbah — Signs of a Dead Heart

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ

الحمدُ لله ربِّ العالمين، وعلى عاقبةٍ للمتقين، ولا عُدوانَ إلا على الظالمين، وأشهدُ أن لا إله إلا الله وحده لا شريك له ربِّ العالمين، وأشهدُ أن سيدنا ونبيَّنا محمداً عبدُه ورسولُه المبعوثُ رحمةً للعالمين، صلى الله تعالى عليه وعلى آله وصحبه أجمعين. أما بعد.

Insha'Allah, today I would like to share a few of the Hikam of Ibn Ata'illah al-Iskandari. These are words of wisdom that are very deep and profound and have been studied by the mashayekh and ulama for the past centuries — a widely accepted book. In the chapter on repentance and seeking forgiveness from Allah, the Shaykh mentions:

(Ibn Ata'illah al-Iskandari, Al-Hikam al-Ata'iyyah)

The First Sign: Absence of Sadness Over Neglected Acts of Obedience

Among the signs that a person's heart — his spiritual heart — has died: adam al-huzni ala ma fataka minal muwafaqat — that a person does not have sadness, the absence of feeling sad and regret over the acts of obedience that a person may have neglected.

If a person neglects an act of obedience — he misses his Fajr salah, he does not get an opportunity like the Hajj went by and he is in such a state where the Hajj may be fard on the individual. A person has savings, a person has physical health, and a person through his own laziness was not able to go for Hajj, and a couple of years went by. A person may be traveling for work, traveling for leisure, traveling with the family in different places, but the one place he has not traveled is the House of Allah.

And the warnings regarding this are so severe. Rasulullah ﷺ said: the one who has the ability to go for Hajj and does not do so —

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 812; also reported by al-Darimi)

"He may die as a Christian or a Jew — I do not care." And this is an obligation. Allah says:

"And it is an obligation of Allah upon the people to perform the Hajj of the Baytullah — whoever has the ability to do so." So it is of course contingent upon having the ability, but once a person does have the ability it is an obligation, it is a fard, it is a rukn of Islam, it is one of the pillars of our deen.

So if a person misses the Hajj — and the hujjaj have now alhamdulillah started to come back, may Allah accept their Hajj — what we should see is: do we have any sadness or not? "Oh, it is fard on me and I never did it." Or: "It is fard on me to perform the salah and I missed it." "It is fard upon me to fast in the month of Ramadan and I missed it."

So one of the signs that a person's heart is dead is if he has absence of sadness — he does not have sadness over the acts of obedience that he has neglected. This is an opportunity for us to reflect: how many acts of obedience are we neglecting, and upon neglecting those acts of obedience, do we truly find sadness in our heart or not?

So there is an act of obedience, then there is neglecting the act of obedience, then the question is: is there sadness over that, or absence of the sadness? If you find absence of sadness, then this is one of the indicators that the heart is dead — the spiritual heart — and the spiritual heart must be revived as soon as possible. Otherwise, on the Day of Judgment, a person will be in a very sorrowful state. As Allah says: that day — on the Day of Judgment — neither wealth nor riches nor children or sons, nothing will come to anyone's aid, except for the one who comes to the court of Allah with a sound heart:

Except for the one who comes with a sound, living heart. So we have to ensure that this heart is salim. And this is a very, very dangerous sign — the absence of sadness upon missing out on the acts of obedience.

The Second Sign: Absence of Regret Over Sins Committed

The second sign he mentions is that if a person does not have regret over the mistakes that a person has committed. So there are two types of sins he is referring to. One is missing out on an act of obedience — when a person misses out on an act of obedience, then he should have sadness; the absence of sadness is a sign of the heart being dead. And the second is when a person commits mistakes and sins — if a person commits a sin, then he should have regret, and the absence of regret again is a sign of the heart being dead.

So there are acts of omission and there are acts of commission. Things that a person omitted, left out — he did not perform the Hajj, he did not perform the Fajr, he did not perform the salah — these are acts of omission, and when there are acts of omission there should be sadness. And then there are acts of commission — when a person committed something, did an act of disobedience.

For example, doing an act of disobedience: if a person ended up getting involved in riba and is having to pay interest — he got his credit card with the intention that he will fully watch his spending and he will ensure that he will only charge so much every month that he will pay before the interest hits him. "I do not want to get involved in riba." Allah has declared that to be a major sin in the Quran:

"O you who believe, fear Allah and leave all interest-bearing transactions if you are true believers. And if you choose not to leave it, then prepare for war against Allah and His Rasool."

So this person is aware of that, he acknowledges it, and he enters into this agreement and signs the application form for the credit card — his intention is: "I'm going to definitely pay it back every month, I will not charge more than what I have." But then — na'udhu billah — he makes a mistake and ends up charging more than he can afford to pay, or he can afford to pay but he forgets to pay, whatever the case is. Now the interest hits him and he ends up getting involved in riba. So when this mistake happens, when he committed this sin, then he should have nadama. And if he has tarku al-nadama — not having the nadama — this is a sign that the heart is dead.

The Spiritual Heart: Symptoms of Death and the Need for Revival

Just as with the physical heart — or any physical organ of the body, whether it's the pancreas, the liver, the kidney, the heart, the lungs, the brain — there are different sicknesses that can affect it, and then there are different alamat, symptoms, that the physician would see and say: "Based on these symptoms, this indicates that this particular organ is not functioning. Your fasting blood sugar is so high, your A1c is so high — your pancreas is not functioning, it is not secreting the required insulin, so treatment needs to be done."

Likewise, the spiritual doctors — the doctors of the heart, the ruhani tabib of the qalb, those who are involved in suluk, tazkiyah, and ihsan — they have shown us these are the symptoms that the heart is dead:

(Ibn Ata'illah al-Iskandari, Al-Hikam al-Ata'iyyah)

This is an opportunity for all of us, when we hear these symptoms, to make muhasaba of our own selves — to stop and look into the condition of our own hearts. How many acts of omission and commission are we engaged in? Omitting many obligations and good deeds, committing many sins and acts of disobedience. Do we have sadness when we miss out on a good deed? Do we have regret when we commit a sin? That is the question. If not, then our heart is sick.

And what did Rasulullah ﷺ say about the heart? Ala — this is harfu tanbih, to attract our attention — beware, pay attention:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 52; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1599)

"Beware — verily in the body there is a piece of flesh. If it is sound, the whole body is sound. And if it is corrupted, the whole body is corrupted. Beware — it is the heart."

There is a physical piece of flesh which is our physical heart, and then there is our spiritual heart as well. If it is rectified, if it is correct, the rest of the body will be fine. And if it is sick — he doesn't speak about death there, but he speaks about just being sick — but the statement of Ibn Ata'illah is not a sign of the heart only being sick; he said min alamati mawti al-qalb — the heart is now, unfortunately, dead. Flat line on the EKG, na'udhu billah — it has stopped beating.

The Nabi ﷺ first started off by telling us ala — warning us, attracting our attention, tanbih, harfu tanbih — ala, beware. And then he told us: "Wow, this is such an important part of your body, part of your existence." You have the physical body and you have the spiritual existence. So what is your reality? You are:

Murakkabun bayn al-ruh wal-jasad — your composition is a composite hybrid of two components: one is the ruh, the spiritual component, and one is the jasad, the physical component. The metaphysical and the physical. The metaphysical component — the ruh — is the rakib, it is riding, and the markab, the conveyance, is the body. So the ruh exists from before in the alam al-arwah, then it comes into the fetus of the mother when the baby is developing at four months, and then it is attached with this body through this worldly life. And then it separates — the infisal of ruh minal jasad, the separation of the ruh from the body, is the definition of death. This is the Islamic ta'rif and definition of death — whereas medical ethics has all these different concepts: is it brain death, or when the heart stops beating, or when cellular function ceases? The Islamic perspective is: when the ruh separates from the body.

So this ruh has a heart, just like the body has a heart. And Rasulullah ﷺ, after building up the suspense, at the end repeats the harf once again — he says ala at the beginning of the hadith and ala again at the end: beware, listen, pay attention — it is the heart. And this heart may be dead and literally needs to be revived. Just as a shock is given to bring a heart which has stopped beating back to life, likewise our hearts need to be shocked, brought back to life.

The Sign of a Living Heart: Happiness at Good Deeds, Sadness at Sins

When the heart has iman and is living, we see the opposite condition. Rasulullah ﷺ mentioned it as an alamah and a sign of iman — the exact opposite of what this statement mentions. What is that hadith of Rasulullah? He said:

(Musnad Ahmad, Hadith 22162; also reported in Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2165)

When your good deed makes you very, very happy — upon completing a good deed, finishing a good deed, accomplishment of any good deed no matter how otherwise insignificant it may seem, but after doing it you actually feel genuine happiness — and if you end up committing a sin, that makes you truly sad and you feel genuine regret and nadama, then know: you are a true believer.

So good deeds should create happiness in our heart. Whenever we have an opportunity to do a good deed, subhanAllah, our heart should be filled with happiness and thankfulness to Allah — gratefulness that: "O Allah, You gave me the tawfiq to do this good deed." That is why all our moments of celebration — our Eids — are tied up with good deeds. The Eid al-Fitr: the happiness of Eid al-Fitr is that we were able to fast in the month of Ramadan, we were able to make the qiyam in the night, we were able to give our zakat and sadaqah — so we are celebrating the good deeds by having the Eid al-Fitr. The Eid al-Adha: we are celebrating the fact that we made the qurbani or we will be doing the qurbani, that Allah has accepted the Hajj of the hujjaj. So it is tied up with the good deeds.

In fact, at a daily level — in Ramadan, as comes in the hadith of Rasulullah ﷺ — a person who is fasting has two occasions when he is overjoyed, overcome with great happiness: one is at the time of his iftar, and one is at the time when he will meet his Lord. When he meets his Lord, he is happy and pleased to see the great reward, subhanAllah.

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 1904; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1151)

And many times we are so literal and so surface-level that when we say "he is happy at the time of iftar," we think it is because he is enjoying the beautiful drink and food. The reality is: the reason he is happy at the time of iftar is that, "Alhamdulillah, O Allah, You allowed me to fast the whole day. You allowed me to make it till the end of the day. What if I had gotten sick during the day and had to break my fast? What if I had become unconscious? What if I had had an accident? What if I had died? Then I would not have had the thawab of this fast." So alhamdulillah — the primary reason he is happy is because he was able to accomplish the good deed.

This should be our condition. And there are so many beautiful examples from the salaf — from the Sahabah and the tabi'in — that whenever they were able to do a good deed they showed gratefulness to Allah, they showed thankfulness to Allah, they were overjoyed. And whenever they committed a sin, as Allah says in the Quran:

The righteous person is not the one who is sinless or innocent — that is impossible. Rather, the righteous person is the one that when they commit a sin — not if they commit a sin, rather when they are going to commit it, because every son of Adam, every daughter of Hawwa is a sinner. As Rasulullah ﷺ said:

(Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith 4251; also reported in Musnad Ahmad and Sunan al-Tirmidhi)

The best of the sinners are those who repent from their sins. So whenever they commit a sin — aw zalamu anfusahum — or they wrong themselves: when they violate the haqq of Allah, they are wronging themselves, and when they violate the haqq of someone else, they are wronging them. So they are either doing dhulm upon themselves or dhulm upon someone else. When this happens, dhakaru Allah — they remember Allah, they show regret, sincere regret over the past, leaving the sin in the present, and firm resolution not to return back towards it in the future — fastaghfaru li dhunubihim — they seek forgiveness from Allah.

And Allah says: wa man yaghfiru al-dhunuba illa Allah — who else is there, who else is there that can forgive the sins besides Allah? No one else can do so.

Worldly Gains vs. Deeni Blessings: Calibrating Our Hearts

May Allah grant us this level of iman — this basic minimum level of iman — that we should be able to express happiness and joy over the blessings of the deen, and we should feel sadness if we make a mistake. A litmus test for us to test our condition is: let us see what is our condition and what is the condition of our happiness and sadness — and the fluctuation of that — when it comes to worldly things.

When it comes to worldly gain, we are very excited, very happy. We got a raise at work, so we are giving a party. We got promoted, we are giving a party. A bonus — we are celebrating. And somebody is laid off, or somebody has been hit with some financial loss — how much pain and sadness there is. And this is our condition about the worldly things, which are coming and going, which are not a sign of the love of Allah and the pleasure of Allah. The receiving of worldly blessing does not necessarily mean a person is beloved to Allah, and losing a worldly blessing does not necessarily mean a person is falling in the eyes of Allah. This could be a test for the believer and it could be a means of drawing the person back to Allah.

Allah gives worldly blessings to those whom He loves and those whom He doesn't love as well. He does not give the blessing of deen except to those whom He loves. But this is how we react — to worldly gains as well as worldly losses. When it comes to worldly gains, expressing extreme happiness was prohibited in the Quran. In Surah al-Qasas, Allah says, remember when Qarun was told: "Do not be so exultant and so overjoyed by these worldly blessings — this doesn't mean you are beloved to Allah."

And in Surah Yunus, Allah speaks about when it comes to deeni blessings, do be happy and celebrate:

"Say: In the fadhl of Allah and the rahmah of Allah — in that let them rejoice. It is better than what they accumulate." The fadhl of Allah is the Quran, the rahmah of Allah is the Nabi ﷺ. And Allah mentions the blessings of the Quran: it is a maw'izah, it is a shifa, it is a cure for the sickness in the heart, it is a source of guidance, it is a rahmah for the believers — four qualities are mentioned. Then Allah says: this is a deeni blessing, this is something you should rejoice over.

So may Allah allow us to rejoice over the deeni blessings He has given us. May Allah allow us to express sadness if we miss out on anything of the deen. And may Allah allow us to understand that the worldly blessings come and go and are not necessarily a sign of His love or His anger.

Du'a

There is a special request for du'a for our brothers and sisters who are being attacked and killed in Palestine. May Allah accept their shahada.

O Allah, O Allah, unite the Muslim Ummah, ya Rabbal Alameen. O Allah, O Allah, elevate us from the pit of disgrace, ya Rabbal Alameen. O Allah, O Allah, guide the Muslim leaders to that which is best for the Muslim Ummah, ya Rabbal Alameen. O Allah, O Allah, allow our hearts to feel pain for one another's losses, ya Rabbal Alameen. O Allah, O Allah, unite our hearts, ya Rabbal Alameen.

O Allah, those that have been killed — O Allah, grant them acceptance of their shuhada, ya Rabbal Alameen. O Allah, those widows and orphans — grant them sabr jameel, ya Rabbal Alameen. O Allah, those whose houses have been destroyed, the innocent people — O Allah, grant them beautiful palaces in Jannah, ya Rabbal Alameen. O Allah, O Allah, protect us in this country and the Muslims throughout the world — O Allah, protect us from such tests and trials, ya Rabbal Alameen.