Purification Of The Heart, Shaykh Hamza Yusuf On Imam Al-Mawlud's Matharat Al-Qulub

One of the most heart-awakening solutions available. My copy already has pencil notes in the margins. Alhamdulillahi rabbil `alameen. A must read book.

Purification of the Heart-Signs, Symptoms & Cures of the Spiritual Diseases of the Heart, translation and commentary by Shaykh Hamza Yusuf.

To quote:

"The Prophet of Islam ﷺ, Allah's peace and blessings be upon him, spoke of the heart as a repository of knowledge and a vessel sensitive to the deeds of the body. He said, for example, that wrongdoing irritates the heart. So the heart actually perceives wrong action. In fact, when people do terrible things, the core of their humanity is injured.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky expresses brilliantly in Crime and Punishment that the crime itself is the punishment because human beings ultimately live with the consequences of their deeds.

When someone commits a crime, he or she does so against the heart, against the soul, which then reflects the whole human being.

One enters a state of spiritual agitation and often tries to cover up this agitation.

The linguistic root meaning of the word "kufr" (disbelief) is to cover something up. As it relates to this discussion, the problems we see in society come down to covering something. The agents of this cover include alcohol, drugs, sexual experimentation and deviance, power grabs, wealth, arrogance, the pursuit of face, just to name a few. These help people submerge themselves into a state of heedlessness concerning their essential nature. People work very hard to cut themselves off from their hearts and the natural feelings found there."

© Dar Al Taqwa Ltd.
Purification of the Heart by Hamza Yusuf, 2012; p.4-5.
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Listen to Sh. Hamza Yusuf's audio read of Purification of the Heart on Youtube, part 1.