Actions of the Heart

Actions of the Heart

Brothers and sisters in Islam, the title of our khutbah today is the actions of the heart. The reason this topic is an important one is that we'll see there are many instances where the actions of the heart are greater in reward than the actions of the limbs. We'll see that if the actions of the heart are missing, it might even nullify or reduce the reward from the actions of the limbs. We'll see people attaining high levels and attaining al-Jannah on the Day of Judgment because of the actions of the heart, whereas on the opposite side, we'll see people attaining the Hellfire because of the lack of the actions of the heart.

The Seven Under the Shade of Allah's Throne

Let's start with the famous hadith — the hadith of the seven types of people who will be under the shade of the Throne of Allah on the Day of Judgment, when there is no shade except for that provided by Allah.

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 660; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1031 — narrated by Abu Hurairah)

As we go through the seven, count them out and see how many of them are actions of the heart versus how many are actually actions of the limbs — meaning physical actions.

The Prophet started with Imam Adil — a just ruler. The scholars said Imam Adil doesn't have to be the ruler of a nation. It could be the mayor of a city; it could be anyone who is in charge. Any Muslim who is in charge of a group of Muslims or has a group of Muslims under their charge, whether it's a company at work and you're just with them — you qualify to be one of the seven.

Then: a young man who grew up in the obedience and in the worship of Allah.

Then: a man whose heart is attached to the masajid, to the houses of Allah. That's an action of the heart.

Then: two men — and it could also be two women — who love each other for the sake of Allah. They unite upon that — meaning what brings them together is their love of Allah — and when they separate, they separate upon that. That's the second action of the heart.

Then: a man who was invited to the haram by a woman of status and beauty, and he said, "Indeed I fear Allah." Where is fear? It's in the heart. The Prophet didn't mention any physical action — he didn't say the man pushed her away or ran away from her. No physical action was mentioned, but the fear of Allah was in his heart. That's three out of the seven.

Then: a man who gave a sadaqah and he hid it so well that his left hand could not see what his right hand did — that is an action here.

And then: a man who mentioned Allah while he was alone — meaning he is sincere, he is not showing off to anyone — so his eyes overflowed with tears.

So four out of the seven types of people who will get shade on a day when there is no shade — four of them were actions of the heart, and only three of them were physical actions or actions of the limbs. So the actions of the heart can be greater in reward and greater in status in Islam.

When the Heart Is Absent, Actions Lose Their Reward

Not only that, but the scholars mentioned that if the heart is not involved, then even the actions of the limbs can be rendered useless or nullified. Look at the example of prayer: if someone is praying and their heart is not there — that's why the Prophet said in the sahih hadith:

(Sunan Abu Dawud, Hadith 796; graded hasan)

Indeed a servant will pray a prayer and nothing — meaning no reward — will be written for him except one-tenth. The hadith continues: a ninth in reward, or an eighth, or a seventh, or a sixth, or a half. So based on how much your heart is present, how much you are focusing, how much you are paying attention — you get the reward of your prayer.

In another sahih hadith, the Prophet said: there is no reward for the person from their salah except what they are conscious of, what they are aware of. And if their mind is drifting somewhere else, they get less and less reward.

Now look at the example of fasting. Let's say someone has to drive to Dallas and needs to be there by Maghrib. He woke up extremely late, jumped in his car, started driving, and never stopped. When he arrived in Dallas it was Maghrib time, and he realized he never ate or drank anything — he was in the car the whole time. So he said, إِنِّي صَائِمٌ. The scholars unanimously agreed: this is not valid. He cannot count that as a fast.

If you look at it physically, through the limbs, his fast was absolutely perfect — not a single flaw. He never consumed anything, never drank anything. As far as the physical dimension goes, he was absolutely fasting. But unanimously the scholars say he wasn't fasting. Why? Because he didn't involve an action of the heart — the intention. And where is the place of the intention? It's in the heart.

So even a physical act of worship can either be nullified or reduced in reward if the heart is not involved. This is just to stress the importance of the actions of the heart.

The First to Be Thrown into the Hellfire

Not only that — from the famous hadith mentioned in Sahih Muslim, the Prophet mentioned that the first three people to be thrown into the Hellfire:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1905 — narrated by Abu Hurairah)

The first of the people to be judged on the Day of Judgment will be a man who was martyred. Allah brings him and mentions His blessings upon him: "Did I not give you good health? Did I not give you courage? Did I not make your situation such that you could go out to jihad?" The man will say yes. Then He will ask: "What did you do with what I gave you?" He will say: قَاتَلْتُ فِيكَ حَتَّى اسْتُشْهِدْتُ — "I fought in Your sake until I was martyred." And Allah will tell him: كَذَبْتَ — "You have lied. You only did that so they would say you are courageous, you are brave, and you only did it so people would say that you were brave. And you got what you wanted — people said you were brave." So he wasn't doing it for the sake of Allah. His heart wasn't in the right place. So the Prophet says the angels were commanded and they dragged him on his face and threw him into the Hellfire.

The righteous for centuries were always afraid of this narration because of the second person: a man who learned, memorized the Qur'an, and was a qari. He was brought forth, and Allah mentioned all His blessings upon that man — how He gave him health, wealth, intelligence, good memory, a good voice, and facilitated everything for him — and asked: "What did you do with it?" He said: "I taught Your religion, I taught the deen, and I recited Your Book." And Allah tells him: كَذَبْتَ — "You lied. You did that so they could say you are knowledgeable, so they could say he is a reciter — and that is what was said. So you got what you wanted, and you have nothing with Us." The angels were commanded and they dragged him on his face and threw him into the Hellfire.

And then the third person: the one whom Allah gave so much wealth — all different kinds, from livestock, animals, land, gold, and silver. Allah mentions His blessings upon him and he confirms them. Then He asks: "What did you do with it?" He says: "I gave for Your sake — I gave this and I gave that." And Allah tells him: كَذَبْتَ — "You have lied. You just wanted to give so that people would say هُوَ جَوَادٌ — that the person is generous and giving — and it was said." The angels were commanded and they dragged him on his face and threw him into the Hellfire.

If there is any lesson there, it would be for us to give great attention to the heart, to our intention, to why we are doing something — instead of giving a lot of attention to how our actions appear externally, or just the actions of the limbs.

The Ailments of the Heart: Hasad

The offenses of the heart are so serious they can consume and even destroy an individual. There are so many ailments of the heart. Let's just look at one: hasad — jealousy and envy.

It is what got Iblis out of his high-ranking position with Allah. It is what caused Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul, the leader of the hypocrites, to always refuse Islam. It is what prevented the Jews of Madinah from accepting Islam. It caused the son of Adam to kill his brother. It caused Yusuf to be thrown into the well as a small child. It separated Yusuf from his father for forty years. It eats up your rewards as fire consumes wood, as the hadith says. It has destroyed many homes and many relationships. How many murders has it led to? How many siblings has it separated so that they no longer speak to each other?

This is just one of the ailments of the heart — just al-hasad, just jealousy and envy.

Abu Jahl: Arrogance Prevents Guidance

Look at Abu Jahl, whom the Prophet referred to as the Fir'aun of this ummah. Someone once asked Abu Jahl — and this man asking him is a non-Muslim — he said: "Ya Abu Jahl, is Muhammad upon the truth or upon falsehood?" And Abu Jahl said — can you believe it — he said: "By Allah, I know that he is upon the truth." So he was asked: "Why wouldn't you become Muslim then? Why wouldn't you follow him?"

And look at the arrogance — a disease of the heart — that prevented him from becoming Muslim. He said: "I am from Banu Makhzoom. We competed with Banu Abdi Manaf — the tribe of the Prophet — to see which one of us would have the higher position, the honor and the dignity. They fed the poor, we fed the poor. They gave, we gave. Until we were like two racehorses tied neck and neck." He said: "After we were almost tied, they said there is a prophet from amongst us who receives revelation from the heavens. How can we ever match that? It's not like we can have a meeting and say, 'One of you be a prophet and receive revelation from the heavens.' They beat us. So as a result of that, we will never believe in him and we will never believe him."

It is the arrogance — the diseases of the heart.

The Pure Heart That Earns Al-Jannah

But it is also the sound heart that will get you to the highest levels of Jannah. This is a hadith narrated by Anas ibn Malik. He says: we were sitting with the Prophet, and then the Prophet said: "In a little while, a man from the people of Jannah is going to enter upon us." Then a man entered. He described him — he wasn't among the well-known of the Companions. His beard was still dripping water and he was holding his slippers in his left hand. Then the next day, the Prophet said the exact same thing, and the exact same man walked in moments later. And then the third day, the Prophet said the exact same thing, and then that same man walked in moments later.

So then Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al-As — a young man — wanted to know: what is this man's secret that the Prophet is saying he is from the people of Jannah? He said: "I went to him and I told him that I had some kind of fight with my father and he's a little angry, so can I stay with you for three nights so he cools down, and then I'll go back home?" He said: "I just wanted to know what his secret was."

So the first night, he just watched him — expecting actions of the limbs, thinking he would pray the entire night and fast the whole day. But he said: "At night I didn't notice anything from him. He didn't get up at all. The only thing I did notice is that he always spoke well, didn't say anything bad, and whenever he turned on his bed he mentioned Allah, and he would do that until Fajr came. Then he got up and just prayed Fajr." He thought: maybe the first night he's tired, maybe tomorrow will be different. The second night: nothing changed. The third night: nothing changed.

So then he admitted to him: "I didn't have any quarrel or anything with my father. But the Prophet said this about you three times, and I wanted to know what your deed was — what is it that you did to earn al-Jannah?"

Look at the purity of this companion: he said he couldn't figure anything out. He said: "What you saw from me — that's all I do." He didn't immediately say: "I'll tell you." He didn't even know what it was. So he left. When he left, then the man remembered something and called him back and said:

"The only thing I do is: I do not deceive any of the believers. And I make sure that in my heart there is nothing against anyone — no envy or jealousy against any of the Muslims for any good that Allah has given them."

So what is his secret? His secret is that he kept his heart absolutely pure. He monitored his heart. He wasn't praying the night prayer. He wasn't fasting every other day or every day. But he kept his heart pure.

And then here is the part that is amazing, brothers and sisters. Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al-As then said to him:

"That's what got you to that level, that's what got you al-Jannah — and that's the one that we can't handle." They can handle qiyam and fasting and jihad, but he said: "This one, we can't handle." The action of the heart — it's serious work. It's being realistic. It's holding yourself accountable. It's monitoring your sayings and your actions at the end of every day. He said: وَهِيَ الَّتِي لَا نُطِيقُ — "That's the one that no one can do. That's the one we can't do." The other stuff, sometimes the physical work is easier. But working on your heart — that requires the bigger effort.

The Example of Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak

So we saw the actions of the heart being among the top things to take you to Paradise. We saw that if the actions of the heart are not in place, they can cancel the actions of the limbs. We saw the actions of the heart will get you amazing statuses like being under the shade of the Throne of Allah on the Day of Judgment. And we saw that the lack of the actions of the heart will cause people to be among the first thrown into the Hellfire.

With that, أَقُولُ قَوْلِي هَذَا وَأَسْتَغْفِرُ اللَّهَ الْعَظِيمَ لِي وَلَكُمْ مِنْ جَمِيعِ الذُّنُوبِ فَاسْتَغْفِرُوهُ فَيَا فَوْزَ الْمُسْتَغْفِرِينَ — ask Allah for His forgiveness. Indeed those who ask for His forgiveness shall prosper.

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ وَالصَّلَاةُ وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَى رَسُولِهِ الْأَمِينِ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ أَجْمَعِينَ، أَمَّا بَعْدُ.

So let's look at an example — and this is from the great scholar Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak, may Allah have mercy on him, who was a contemporary of Imam Ahmad and many other great scholars. Imam Ahmad, may Allah have mercy on him, says about Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak:

He said: "People loved him a lot, but we don't see a lot of action — a lot of worship — from his end." People loved Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak so much, but when they examined his life they didn't see that he fasted too much, or prayed too much, or recited too much — just normal. He said: "And I think that is only due to something hidden — a good deed, a secret hidden deed between him and Allah."

What's interesting is that Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak was so loved by the people that one time during Hajj, the wife of the khalifa — from an elevated area — was looking at the crowds. She noticed a huge mass of people, and then a much larger mass of people. She asked: "What is that larger group?" They said: "That is Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak. He is coming to Hajj, and people love him. They are coming just to shake his hand, ask him to make du'a for them, and give him salam — just crowding around him." She asked about the smaller group. They said: "That is your husband, the khalifa, with his soldiers, his ministers, his advisors, and people who want something from him." She said:

"This — by Allah — is the true honor." What Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak has.

He used to go out of the city twice a year — once for Hajj and once for jihad — and every time he left, the entire city: the schools, the market, all shut down, and everyone walked him out to the outskirts of the city. So the question is: how did he attain all this love? The scholars said they looked at his actions and it was nothing extraordinary — they didn't see an incredible amount of worship.

So what is the secret that caused so many people to love him? One of his students said:

"I traveled with Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak — and when you travel with people, that's when you get to know them better and more intimately. His prayer was just like our prayer, his recitation of the Qur'an was just like how much we read, his fast was like our fast — nothing out of the ordinary, maybe Mondays and Thursdays." He continued to try during the journey to find the difference between him and the rest of them.

He said: "During the trip we entered at night into a dark room and stayed in the dark for a bit while someone went out to fetch some oil to put in the lamp and light it. When they lit the room, we saw that Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak's beard was wet with his tears, and when the light came on he started to quickly dry and wipe his eyes so nobody would know he had been crying."

Afterwards, the student asked him: "I ask you by Allah — why did you cry when we were in the room?" He declined at first. The student pressed him: "I ask you by Allah, what made you cry?" He said:

"I remembered the darkness of the grave. I was afraid that Allah will make me from those whose graves will be dark upon them. So I cried."

Muhammad ibn Wasic, may Allah have mercy on him, said:

"I met some people from the earlier righteous generations — his head would be on the same cushion as his wife, and everything under his cheek was completely wet from his tears, and his wife had no idea what was going on."

Conclusion: Monitor Your Heart

At the end of the day, it's all about the heart. It is upon us to always monitor the conditions of our hearts — to make sure there is no hatred, jealousy, envy, or any ill feeling towards any of the believers, and to make sure we nurture all the positive feelings of the heart: tawakkul, taqwa, patience, truthfulness — all of these. And to monitor ourselves, to monitor our behavior, to look at our actions and our sayings in an unbiased, objective way.

So with that, we ask Allah to make us of those who recognize the truth and follow the best of it, and to make us of those who recognize falsehood as clear falsehood and abstain from it.

وَصَلَّى اللَّهُ وَبَارَكَ عَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ أَجْمَعِينَ. وَقُومُوا إِلَى صَلَاتِكُمْ. وَالْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ.