You Fool!

"The most foolish of men are those who believe strongly in their own intelligence.

And the men who are most stable in intelligence, are those who are suspicious of themselves, and most ready to ask from the learned." ~ Imaam Al-Ghazzali

The Mirror of the Heart

To understand reality as it truly is.

(Imaam Al-Ghazzali)

Sometimes we want to understand things the way we want to understand it and not as it truly is. And sometimes we want to understand things as they truely are and try to reach a higher state of spirituality to be amongst the pious, but can’t, why is this so?

The Heart is like a mirror, it has the ability to reflects the true nature of things.

As with the mirror, a true reflection will not be shown for the following 5 reasons:

1)      A defect in the iron of the mirror – the mirror is still just a lump of iron, it has not yet been formed and moulded into a mirror. So the entity (or potential) is there but has not yet been shaped or formed yet. (This is the state of the Hearts of children or the youth).

2)      Because of the dirt, rust and dullness. Even if it has been formed perfectly but it cannot reflect because of the dullness and dirt on the surface. (Due to the filth from disobedience and dirt from excessive desires which heap up onto the surface of the Heart causing it to be dull).

3)      Because it is turned away from the direction of the object towards something else. (Perhaps the attention is directed towards outward acts – making wudu/how to pray etc…one does not realise the internal needs to be worked on aswell).

4)      Because of a veil placed before the mirror and the object. (Because one is stuck to certain beliefs, or may even deny the higher states of spirituality).

5)      Because of not knowing how to position the mirror in the desired direction of the object. (Simply one has no knowledge of reaching this state of understanding).

Thus too is the Heart a mirror. Ready to have reflected in it the true nature of reality and all things.

The Pig, The Dog, The Demon and The Wise Man

There are elements of the inner being, which are the traits of Mans nature. Success lies in keeping these elements in balance.

Imaam Al-Ghazzali says:

Know, that there are 4 factors intermixed elements that dwell in a man’s nature that are united against him, the qualities of:

1)      The predatory beast (animalistic)

2)      Demonic (deceitful, cunningness, evil intention)

3)      lordly (God-given wisdom/knowledge - which may lead to good or may lead to arrogance, i.e. to claim lordship – like Pharaoh, notice we use this word with lower case letter “L”)

4)      Brutish qualities (greed)

Every man has a mix of these four qualities, these all gather within a man’s skin as if they were a pig (Brutish), a dog (Predatory beast), a demon (Demonic) and a Wise Man (lordly).

The Pig = appetence, desire, lust, internal greed

The Dog = Anger, enmity, as it is in the nature of this animal to be savage, to slaughter, to be wild

The Demon, it continues to stir up the appetence of the Pig and the enmity of the Wild beast.

And within Man there also lies a “wise man” (akl), who, wards off the Demon, and kills off the gluttony of the Pig by setting the enmity of the Dog onto it. And if he is successful in doing so and maintains the balance then the kingdom is safe. However if he is weak and he fails, then he is constantly searching out new ways to satisfy the Pig and please his Dog. And thus the scary reality of it is that most of mankind are not serving their Lord, but are serving a Dog and a Pig, because their primary concern is their bellies, sexual indulgence and getting even with the enemy.

And so the irony comes, as Imaam Al-Ghazzali says, he whom disapproves of idolatry to a stone, if the veil were surely to be removed, he would actually find himself in prostration to a Pig, serving his appetite and that which he lusts. Or he would find himself in prostration to a Dog, by planning and scheming to become obedient to it. And as it is the Demon that arouses the Pig and the Dog, in effect, Man is worshipping the Demon.

If Man is able to bring all of these elements under the lordly rule of the wise man, then he is able to gain more knowledge, wisdom, understand the real nature of things. By bringing the appetence of the Pig back within limits, he is able to gain so much more honourable qualities, such as chasteness, contentment, happiness, modesty and such. By holding back the anger of the Dog he is able to gain courage, generosity, self-control, patience, gentleness, nobility, dignity and such.

The ways shaytaan enters the Heart.

From Book 21 of Imaam Al-Ghazzali’s Ihya Ulum Al-din

v  Know, that the heart is like a fortress. Shaytaan is an enemy who wishes to enter the fortress and take possession of it.

v  The fortress cannot be kept safe from the enemy except by guarding its doors and entrances.

v  The doors in which shaytaan enters, are the traits of a person

v  He whom does not know his doors cannot guard them.

There are great doors and then there are narrow doors. These great doors are like the large street gates. Once you close the large street gates, it will become easier to close the narrow ones.

One of the great gates is Anger

-          When one gets angry, this anger can overtake a person, the same way one gets intoxicated by alcohol; they lose control.

One must always be conscious of keeping the gates closed. If the army of the intellect grow weak (you are not conscious of it), then the army of shaytaan will take the opportunity to attack.

When one becomes angry, shaytaan will play with that person as a boy plays with a ball (tossing it and kicking it here and there and making it do what he wants).

Of the great doors, includes: Anger, Desire, Greed, Hastiness – man is hasty by nature (Hastiness of anger is a characteristic of Man that is most helpful to shaytaan), love of adornment of furnishing and house, and the greatest door is Envy.

He whom does not know his doors cannot guard them.

So know them, and guard them.

The Special Properties of the Heart of Man cont..

To continue from the last post:

Imaam Al-Ghazzali says that desire, anger, and external/internal senses exists in the youth potentially – (like a seed planted but needs to grow), but in order to attain them (use them fruitfully) the youth must first pass through two stages:

1)      His heart must comprehend the knowledge and its first principles (the knowledge of possibility and impossibility, rationale judgement, for example it is impossible for Zayd to be in two places at one time..)

2)      He shall gain that knowledge which is acquired by experience and thought (the experiences we have, and reflecting upon these experiences – there is no substitute for experience)

A similtude given:

The status of point 1) in relation to knowledge, is like that of a writer whos knowledge of writing only extends as far as knowing the use of a pen which is dipped into the inkwell which is then used to write letters. But they do not know how to join the letters together to make meaningful words and sentences. – such a person is well on their way to writing, but has not yet achieved it.
(In comparison – is like people who have knowledge of Fiqh, who have memorised the quran, who mastered tajweed, but their knowledge does not extend as far as how to implement it into their life in a meaningful way).

And thus if the youth has passed both point 1) and point 2) is like that of a person who knows how to write – able to form words and sentences meaningfully – a writer. (And in comparison – the person who has much knowledge in Fiqh, Quran, Sunnah, is able to implement it meaningfully and able to make perfectly just decisions based on his knowledge in accordance to his experiences and reflection and maturity which has developed over time).

The potential lies within every youth, like a seed planted but needs to grow

(Picture is of the Blessed Tree in Jordan)

The Special Properties of the Heart of Man

Taken from book 21 of Imaam Al-Ghazzali’s Ihya Ulum Al-Din
Title: An Exposition on the Special Properties on the Heart of Man.

Khaasiyah – an attribute which is inseparable to something, which makes it unique and thus has a special property.

There are things in the world where Allah has given them special properties, e.g. there are certain herbs in the world which are used for specific medicinal purposes, animals have their own unique attributes, and so what makes Man so special? It is his Heart.

The special properties of the heart are based on:

-          Knowledge (Ilm)

-          Will (Iraadah)

From Knowledge (Ilm) meaning: special knowledge, the ability to reflect on the past and future (animals cannot reflect on things) – thus is a special attribute gifted to Man related to the Heart.

From Will (Iraadah) meaning: the ability to act on the intellect, to reach a certain desire/benefit.

Knowledge and Will are related because, if someone wants to do something beneficial (i.e. take medicine), but can only do it through a way that is undesirable (through injection), if they are intelligent they will still go ahead with it in order to reach that which benefits them, therefore the Will goes against the desire based on their knowledge. In comparison, an animal will not go against the desire, it Wills what it desires, if its hungry it eats.

Imaam Al-Ghazzali states that the heart of man has the special properties of Knowledge  and Will which separate it:

-          From other animals (as described above)

-          From the youth in his natural disposition, for this comes to him only with maturity

Thus the difference between the Heart of Man and animals, and the heart of the mature man and the youth.

So its interesting to note that one may adopt the special qualities of the heart – but infact it will be of no real use to them until they know how to use it, and they will know how to use it only with maturity and maturity only comes with time and life experience. Hence why we have young people of today whom have the Will to gain and seek out knowledge, however are still not righteous people, or are unable to make right decisions as they lack maturity  and experience which can only come through time.

An example by Imaam Al-Ghazzali

An example of the inner reality of the heart that Imaam Al-Ghazzali gives:

The Body is like a city and the perceptive power - the Mind (Akl) is a King that rules over the city. The perceptive power of the senses (sight, smell, touch, hearing) both external and internal are its armies and helpers.  The members (limbs) are like the people of the city, the soul which commands to evil – appetence and anger (nafs) is like the enemy who opposes the Kingdom and strives to destroy his people. His body thus becomes a frontier outpost, and his soul, is a place in which guards are placed. So if he strives against the enemy (nafs) and conquours him, then his deeds will be praised on the day that he returns to the presence of Allah (swt). But if he loses the control of the frontier and neglects his people, then his deeds will be blamed and vengeance will be taken against him when he meets Allah.

And so on the outside of the city, we have the evil notions (shaytaan) that try to penetrate the heart – the Castle, to take over the city, through different doors/gates. And it is the enemy within (your nafs) which tells the shaytan which doors are open, because your nafs knows you from the inside, it knows your weaknesses. And thus, we need the Akl – the intellect to understand and to keep closing the doors, to try to win the war.

Your Heart is where the battle takes place within the city. There are lesser battles and there are greater battles, the greater battle being that of the nafs – the battle against yourself.

Allow your Intellect (the King) to close the gate to the Heart (the Castle) in order to win the Battle of the Self (the Nafs)