What Revives the Heart | Shaykh Yasir Fahmy | Guardians of the Heart Conference

Opening Invocation

We thank Allah. It is truly by His grace and His mercy, His kindness and His compassion that we are together as Muslimin in this day and age. Everyone say alhamdulillah.

We're in a very safe and beautiful space, remembering Allah. We are in an opportunity to engage in dhikr and du'a — remembrance, contemplation, supplication. We can pray together in jama'a.

And we're able to do this in utter peace. This is a ni'ma that we should all thank Allah for. By the grace of Allah, for us to be together as believers here, there are no barriers to entry other than our nufoos — our egos, our whims, our desires.

Other than that, we can be around Muslims all the time. Mashallah, New Jersey, you have masajid from north to south. We have so many programs, by the grace of Allah, across the state.

And none of us have any excuses to be alone at home in isolation. So here, this is one of those beautiful opportunities to come together as a community, to be in the good sohbah, good quality people. Everyone here is a good person, alhamdulillah.

However, this is our good opinion. Maybe some of you — I'm not sure — but I'm going to assume we're positive here. But I mean that sincerely. I'm not saying that tongue in cheek. I mean that sincerely. Alhamdulillah for good people.

The Toxicity of the Internet and the Cure of Community

You know, with what's happening in Palestine, and especially the fact that we consume so much toxic sewage on the internet — if you're just anywhere on the internet, it's just a cesspool. And it makes you feel that the world is dark and bleak, and people are this and agendas and propaganda and whatever. And you can get really caught up in a hyped up narrative.

But if you just relax and calm down, and find your local community, and go and spend some time in the halaqa of Quran, a gathering of remembrance, a gathering of learning, pray in jama'ah, spend some quality time with the beautiful people around you, say assalamu alaikum — you will find that the heart immediately experiences tranquility.

Wallahi, immediately — you shake hands. From the sunnah of the Habib ﷺ is to shake your brother's hand, brothers to shake their brother's hand, for sisters to shake each other's hands, literally, to hug each other. And when you shake each other's hands, the sins, all the filth is falling away.

So the sahaba, they would look for every opportunity to shake each other's hands, even if a tree parted their ways. Why? Because they wanted to be in a pure, beautiful state all the time.

The Morning Du'a: Our True Affirmations

They would wake up in the morning, and immediately their hearts were drawn to du'a:

They would wake up in the morning and the first thing they would say, alhamdulillah — praise be to Allah, the One who brought us life after death, literally, وَإِلَيْهِ النُّشُورُ, and to Him we return. That is an expression.

You know, today people stand in front of the mirror and they say things like, "You are special, you are smart, you are this" — they're called affirmations. Come on, they're kalam fadi. Please forgive me if any educators are here, but that stuff — those are not our affirmations, by the way, just so that we're clear. I know people say, "No, but Shaykh, you have to understand, we have to give people confidence and build their confidence" — and I understand that some people have insecurities.

I understand that, but our affirmations are not to double down on our egos and our nafs. No, our affirmations are Allah — praise Allah, know Allah. Alhamdulillah — You brought me back to life after You just took, because there is a minor death that happens. Literally, your nafs elevates above you while you're sleeping.

What's the du'a that you make before you sleep? What do you say? Everyone together, let's do this Sunday school style. Say it out loud:

Bismika rabbi — if you hold my soul, You withhold it, then please have mercy upon it. And if You let it come back to me, then preserve it as You preserve Your righteous servants. Did any of us actually pause to think of how profound that type of affirmation is, that type of proclamation is? That I'm saying, ya rabbi, here, I'm about to lie down on my side, and my nafs is in Your hands, and You're going to take it out of me, You're going to elevate it.

So now, as it is outside of me — if You withhold it, then please have mercy upon me, have mercy upon my nafs. But if You bring it back to me, فَاحْفَظْهَا — preservation — preserve my nafs, subhanAllah.

Imagine what happens to us psychologically, emotionally, philosophically, when we are consciously thinking about what we're saying to Allah, or what we are supposed to be saying to Allah.

The Hadith of the Rusty Heart

Because I was asked to speak about the rusty heart. And this is taken from the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ, where he says:

(Reported by al-Bayhaqi in Shu'ab al-Iman)

The hearts become rusty, just as metal becomes rusty. And the way in which you remove the rust that is upon the heart is through the tilawah of the Quran — the recitation of the book of Allah — and dhikrullah, the remembrance of Allah.

Those two actions, those two states of being — and I'll put it more appropriately that way — it is not just a task. But it's a way of being, it's the way you think. You consciously and thoughtfully remember Allah.

Salawat Upon the Prophet ﷺ and the Intercession

Because I was talking to my son on the way home from Jumu'ah today. I was telling him, today is Yawmul Jumu'ah, and on Yawmul Jumu'ah, we send salawat upon Sayyidina Muhammad ﷺ. The reason being is because the Prophet ﷺ says that today, on the day of Jumu'ah, all of your salawat that you sent upon him throughout the week are presented to him on the day of Jumu'ah. And those who make the most salawat upon Sayyidina Muhammad ﷺ are the ones who will be the closest to him.

So he's following along. I'm saying we go to Sayyidina Adam, and we say, ya Sayyidina Adam, and then Sayyidina Adam says, "No, go to Ibrahim." We go to Sayyidina Musa, Sayyidina Musa says go to Sayyidina Ibrahim — go, go, go, go — Prophet to Prophet. Everyone's saying, "I have my stuff I have to deal with, go to Sayyidina Muhammad ﷺ." And when we go to him, we say, "Please intercede for us with your Lord."

I want to highlight something. I said to my son, do you want the shafa'ah of Sayyidina Muhammad? Do you want him to intercede? Because it's so powerful. There's nothing of more precious value on that day than to have the intercession of Sayyidina Muhammad, for Sayyidina Muhammad now to vie on your behalf. He said, "Of course — how do I get it?" I said, look at how kind Allah and His Messenger are.

(Reported by al-Tabarani in al-Mu'jam al-Awsat)

If you do 10 salawat upon Sayyidina Muhammad in the morning and 10 salawat upon Sayyidina Muhammad in the evening, you will receive the intercession of Sayyidina Muhammad ﷺ. So immediately he's like اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ عَلَى سَيِّدِنَا مُحَمَّد — he did 20. Then, morning and night.

But the idea, the spirit of it, is that it's not just about what you're saying — it is the depth of meaning that is beneath what you're saying, what this means to you, to your soul, to your heart. Because Allah does not look at our images. Allah looks at our hearts and our actions. Who we are is the state of my heart, and my state of being — how I am every day, what am I doing?

Sayyidah Aisha's Prescription for the Dead Heart

People get angry and frustrated and jaded by the fact that maybe their hearts are heavy, their hearts feel dead. And Sayyidah Aisha was asked one day, "I feel that my heart is dead. How do I resolve that? I feel like my heart is just sealed upon it." She said, "Go visit someone who's sick. Go tend to someone's needs."

You know, rather than "I don't have the time," "I'm busy," "this person is annoying," "I'll see if I can, maybe I'll pass by." Does a text message suffice? Can I just say شَفَاكَ اللهُ عَافَاكَ through text? Does that get it done? Because we are in checklist mode. We are not in hal mode. We're not in a state of being.

The Secret of Sayyidina Abu Bakr

That's why Sayyidina Abu Bakr — when the companions were so astonished by him — the Prophet ﷺ sat with them at Fajr: "Who visited someone who was sick?" Sayyidina Abu Bakr. "Who visited this one?" Sayyidina Abu Bakr. "Who did this?" Sayyidina Abu Bakr keeps on raising his hand. And they were so confused by his capacity to give — it was profound.

(Reported by al-Tirmidhi and others, with similar wording in various sources)

The Prophet ﷺ said, "It's not that he prays more than you or that he fasts more than you. But rather he outdid you in something that settles in his heart." And that is his iman, his taqwa. His belief in God, his God-consciousness, is so palpably present that he's in a state of ata' — a state of giving. That's his hal.

His heart is alive, it's beating. And the beating heart makes you be in motion, makes you think — how can I give more? How can I do more? How can I serve more? Did I please Allah enough today? What's on my registry today? Not my wedding registry or baby registry — but my registry in the afterlife. What do I have on it in terms of line items? Go into the Excel sheet of the afterlife. Tell me about the line items of what you have and who you are.

Tell me about the quotient of God-consciousness, the sacred utterances upon my tongue. How many salawat have I made in my lifetime? Let alone today, Jumu'ah or the week.

A Living Example: Dr. Muhammad Chaudhry

May Allah have mercy upon Dr. Abu Zayd's father, Dr. Muhammad Chaudhry. This was a man that I myself grew up with. I remember him from the days of Jersey City. My father came to this country in 1969. Dr. Uncle Muhammad came in 1972.

And my father told me that Dr. Abu Zayd's father, Uncle Muhammad Chaudhry, he was the first man to make i'tikaf in Jersey City Masjid, which is the masjid they established on 17 Park Street. The first one to make i'tikaf — he was just alone thinking, "I want to make i'tikaf in Ramadan." There was no i'tikaf program. There was no pictures, no Instagramming, no food trucks. There was no coffee stations. It wasn't like a bustling scene — not like today, alhamdulillah, i'tikaf across the country.

I'm not mad. Alhamdulillah, Rabbuna Ibarak. I'tikaf is happening. It's a nice place to be at 12 o'clock in the morning. The masjid is packed. All my friends are there. You get FOMO. "I don't want to miss out on i'tikaf." But in 1972, Jersey City, 17 Park Street, one of the most dangerous neighborhoods — and he's doing i'tikaf alone.

My father was saying, "I would see him walking at night to Isha." And my father, as an Egyptian, has to joke — he's like, "At that time, walking during the day was scary, let alone walking at night." And he's walking at night to Isha, walking at night to Fajr.

(Sunan Abi Dawud, Hadith 561; Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 223)

My father said, "Wallahi, every time I read that hadith — give glad tidings to those who walk in the night or in the darkness with a complete light on the Day of Judgment — I think of this blessed man. Because I saw him in the early 70s walking at night to Isha, walking at night to Fajr."

What does that state of being tell you about this man? His heart was awake, it was alive. It was present. It wasn't transactional for him. Being in the masjid for Salatul Isha, for Salatul Fajr, for i'tikaf — this was not some transactional thing. It wasn't a matter of setting the alarm at 4:30, throwing on a prayer mat, and posting it on TikTok for the likes and the BMWs in the background and all that nonsense. That whole superficial image of piety, rather than a lived reality of: my heart needs, my heart wants, my heart yearns to be connected to Allah.

The Quran as the Cure for the Heart

That's why the Prophet ﷺ says, the way you remove the rust of the heart — you recite the book of Allah. And Allah says, you recite the Quran deliberately, with deliberation, with thought, contemplation, word by word — imagine, think, comprehend. You have these apps, you can read the Arabic and the transliteration and the English in one shot. No excuses to deliberate over the words of Allah, so that your heart is being nourished.

Whatever heaviness, whatever death is upon my heart — what have I in my day-to-day disposition acquired that has put a seal over my heart? Because that's what this ayah says. There are things I'm engaged in, I'm acquiring. And we're doing this unknowingly — I'm confused about why I feel the way I feel.

The Disease of Self-Realization

But my life is completely governed by an idea of self-realization. The average Muslim today, the average person today, is governed by the idea of self-realization, public recognition — who I am in the public sphere, how much I'm validated, how much I'm celebrated. I want to feel like I've accomplished something. Where is accomplishment? Out there. I want to be known, I want to be this. It's all nafsani self-realization.

What do you think is going to happen to the heart if that's my driving motivation every day? If every single day I am motivated and driven by realizing something for myself — because when I say this, people say to me, "Well, what's wrong with having something for myself? I don't get the problem." The problem is that myself is not the objective. My soul, that is breathed into me — which is, if you will, spatially speaking behind my heart — my soul is screaming to get connected to its source.

But what is the source of my soul? Allah says:

One of the mashayikh of tafsir was saying that if I say to you, "You mean so much to me, I give you my heart" — we say that colloquially speaking. "Man, you mean so much to me, I give you my whole heart." It's an expression of endearing love and care: what you mean to me, you're special to me. So what does it mean when Allah says, "We breathe into him from Our soul"? That is such an expression of love and care, that Allah loves us so much He gives us from His soul.

That's why the human being is capable of embodying and acting and behaving in ways to تَخَلَّقُوا بِأَخْلَاقِ اللهِ — we are told, act divinely — because from this we are able to be merciful, we're able to be compassionate, we're able to be people of 'ilm, of knowledge. Many of the divine qualities that are jamali — and some of the jalali — we're able to embody them. And that is only for the human being. And the reason we're able to fulfill the command of Sayyidina Muhammad ﷺ is because Allah breathed into us from His soul.

Nur 'Ala Nur: Light Upon Light

So our souls — if you will, behind our hearts — are yearning for Allah: "Get me to my source." And the problem is that we make our hearts like a dam that is impenetrable. And so the soul is screaming on the inside: "Get me to my source."

That's from what Imam al-Razi says, from the understandings of نُورٌ عَلَىٰ نُور — light upon light — is the light of Allah when it connects to the light of your soul. Because the light of your soul is a light from Allah. And so that light just wants to connect to its source.

So when people are really confused — why am I so unsettled and agitated? — that's why Imam al-Harawi in the Manazil al-Sa'ireen says the first station of the seeker on the path of elevation is itirab — discomfort. And that discomfort was the same discomfort that compelled Sayyidina Muhammad ﷺ to go to Ghar Hira. It's the same discomfort that often we experience. It's that: I just don't feel settled. Something is off. I can't pinpoint it. That thing inside is our soul saying, "I want Allah."

So you have to be vigilant and you have to be profoundly aware of the state of your heart. Because your heart is the conduit through which the soul connects to Allah. It's a vessel. If it's purified and beautified — ya salam — the light of the soul shines profoundly. And with the connection with the light of Allah, it connects inside your heart. The heart goes profoundly illuminated.

But if the heart remains sealed, and the heart has rust, and the heart is darkened through sin and through forgetfulness and heedlessness — that's why Allah says:

And when they keep on forgetting and forgetting and forgetting what We remind them of, We open up to them the doors of all things. If what you really want is the dunya — here, take it all. Because there are a lot of people who only go to Allah in the first place because they want dunya-related stuff. So Allah just plays a supporting role in the story of me. I want marriage, I want kids, I want money, I want cars, I want assets. And I go to Allah to support this project. But the reality is, all that is doing is making me increase in my forgetfulness, in my heedlessness.

So Allah says: the fact that you keep on forgetting Me — what happens is, I will give you everything you want of the dunya. And it becomes a punishment, subhanAllah. It becomes a punishment.

Contentment with Allah and the Unleashing of the Dunya

That's why from the athar of old, they say that Allah says: "If you are content with what I have written for you and prescribed for you, if you are content and happy, and you're thankful to Allah and mindful of Allah, I will bring ease and comfort to your body, your mind, and your soul. But if you are not content, I will bring discomfort to your body, your mind, and your soul, and you will be blameworthy in My sight."

And then in this athar, it says that Allah says: and regardless, what will happen to the human being — if the insistence is on not being content with Allah and being forgetful — I will unrestrict the dunya over you. Like when you say the guys who set the dog on the enemy: "Sic him, go get him." Allah will unleash the dunya on you. And you will run in the dunya like a wild beast runs in the open plains.

Think of it — if you watch National Geographic, the animal running, running, running. And that's why people say "rat race," "hamster wheel" — because we do run like rats, we do run like hamsters. That's how we're running. And this is what this athar is saying — that you'll run in the dunya like an animal. And whenever you've seen the National Geographic, an animal running in the savannah or running in the Arctic, you can see this dread on their face: "Does anyone know where a seal is around here? I'm hungry, I need a seal." Just dread on their face, no direction, no purpose.

The dunya can do that to you. And that's the disease. That's the pain of a heart that is rusty, that is darkened. It makes this dunya become a dreadful place.

Closing: The Daily Prescription for a Living Heart

But if your heart becomes alive, then you can live like Dr. Abu Zayd's father, where his life was a connection to the house of Allah, to Muslim organizations, to giving every day — because the heart was connected.

So the number one objective every single one of us has to do, as I close, is we have to connect our hearts to Allah through dhikr, through du'a. I gave you a small taste of how you can do that through our remembrances, our daily litanies. Make sure you're making at least 300 dhikr a day:

100 istighfar, 100 لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللهُ, and 100 salah 'ala al-nabi ﷺ. This is the base of any litany of dhikr, inshallah ta'ala.