How To Have a Sound Heart

Islamic Principles for Humanity

The heart is that which, if one knows it, they know themself, and if they know themself, they know their Lord.
- Imam al-Ghazali, Ihya Ulum al-Din

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Disclaimer:

Knowledge is a sea without shore.

Yet, it is easy to lose sight of foundational approaches and practicality in the storm of jargon, rulings, debate and propaganda.

Hence, this segmented read is meant to be savoured in bits by introspecting, digested by practicing and then, perhaps, returned to for recalibration and discussion. Throughout Ramadan and beyond.

The aim is to create a very high-level manual, and to appreciate how applicable and translatable the reflection of Quranic principles can be for the most basic yet potent problem in many situations: matters of the heart - maybe the panacea to build religion and mindsets upon. Lastly, this may also highlight that any wisdom crystallised in the absence of mercy turns into icicles.

Everything quoted here is first a reminder to myself as a student of knowledge. All good you receive from this is from God and any inconsistencies or mistakes are on my part.

TL;DR on how to read this: Save this index to delve into each part like a story. Pause, absorb, and embody. Then return for any other chapter. For the sake of your attention, understanding and application.

P.S. May cause an existential crisis due to an overdose of faith and philosophy. It did for me, at least.

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The Locus Of Transformation

If I had a penny for every line of poetry with an ode to someone’s heart, I wouldn’t have to worry about my rent and bills.

The heart is the hallmarked emblem of timeless focus and clout. You wonder sometimes, how can mere cardiac muscles hem our entire soul and the vast world of feelings? If the brain holds the throne of intellect and thinking, how can hearts feel and understand?

Every discourse that mentions ‘being torn between the head and the heart’ refers to the divide between logic and emotion. It makes little sense in a world of nuance though, and is intended as a figure of speech, not of fact.

There are other colossal debates too, with a myriad of possible approaches: on the tension between religion and science (settled as two sides of the same coin, with faith inspiring science instead of the opposite), the existence of God (influenced more by reasoning and personal experience) and why people convert to Islam (an undeniable mountain of intellectual and spiritual alignment, or a marked sense of peace - as examples). I mention these as it may aid to frame the future parts you read.

Most sceptics and agnostics, however, avoid this touchy subject of the heart - because the world of science runs on evidence and the obscure organ provides little answers to evidentialism. That may be why only a few of my words can be hypothesised and proven in the uncelestial court of many.

And, ironically, that is exactly why this is an invitation to those evidentialists (alongside fellow beloved Muslims) to let go once and perceive things from the mind’s eye, gut, intuition, or whatever we have termed it to appear less spiritual, lest we venture into mystical justifications.

For all aforementioned puzzles, I have only found a congruent answer in Islamic Psychology, which acknowledges the immaterial soul: the physiological heart is irrelevant except as a perennial pump and cleanser of blood; the subject is instead the immaterial intellect - how we intuit things. This perception is housed in the heart, or “Qalb” in Arabic, and is what our souls meander through life events with - thinking, feeling and deciding through it.

Sure, the ‘Aql (cognitive reasoning) is a part within the Qalb (a broader tool of awareness and wisdom), and directs our decisions too. If you notice, some verses mentioned may strike you as greater appeals to that rational part within our Qalb.

Others are more reflective of this overall sixth sense or discernment - a locus to understand faith and be open to divine connection with, which is how the Quran and its message seep into someone. So I ask of us to be “mindful-hearted” for this series.

إِنَّ فِى ذَٰلِكَ لَذِكْرَىٰ لِمَن كَانَ لَهُۥ قَلْبٌ أَوْ أَلْقَى ٱلسَّمْعَ وَهُوَ شَهِيدٌۭ
Surely, in this [stories and signs in the Quran] is a reminder for whoever has a ˹mindful˺ heart and listens attentively (or with a present mind). {Quran, 50:37}

Exploring the world and the individual self as we live life raises questions within us, which we ask in the battleground of our Qalb - pulling us in conflicting directions. If this internal lens of perception is inclining to or smudged with sin, ignorance or heedlessness, then the realities of ourselves, our spirituality, even the objective world, become muddied.

This is what Allah calls ‘locked hearts’ that are impenetrable or, interestingly, blinded.

أَفَلَمْ يَسِيرُوا۟ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ فَتَكُونَ لَهُمْ قُلُوبٌۭ يَعْقِلُونَ بِهَآ أَوْ ءَاذَانٌۭ يَسْمَعُونَ بِهَا ۖ فَإِنَّهَا لَا تَعْمَى ٱلْأَبْصَـٰرُ وَلَـٰكِن تَعْمَى ٱلْقُلُوبُ ٱلَّتِى فِى ٱلصُّدُورِ
Have they not travelled throughout the land so their hearts may reason, and their ears may listen? Indeed, it is not the eyes that are blind, but it is the hearts in the chests that grow blind. {Quran, 22:46}

It may manifest as diseases of the heart, your world being tilted on its axis, apathy, a hollow personality, stone hearts unknowingly eating themselves out and just a general sense of being lost into a void you try to feed everything into for relief.

The ‘sound’ concept comes from a verse that hit me growing up (initially only because my dad’s name is Saleem) - a prayer Prophet Ibrahim عَلَيْهِ ٱلسَّلَامُ made:

وَلَا تُخْزِنِى يَوْمَ يُبْعَثُونَ۞ يَوْمَ لَا يَنفَعُ مَالٌۭ وَلَا بَنُونَ۞ إِلَّا مَنْ أَتَى ٱللَّهَ بِقَلْبٍۢ سَلِيمٍ
And do not disgrace me on the Day all will be resurrected— the Day when neither wealth nor children will be of any benefit. But only one who comes to Allah with a sound heart. {Quran, 26:89}

Hence, a big qualifier of success - a prime state, is having a healthy, clean heart. No one is born with a waterproof and smudge-proof one; tarnishes need to be addressed in each.

There are other words in the beautifully deep Arabic language to define different types of hearts. The most common occurrence in the Quran though, is of the Qalb, and its root literally means ‘to constantly turn or transform’.

There are no coincidences of word choices in this divine book, and this ever-turning nature only highlights the importance of keeping our hearts in check; to remember there is no destination it will safely remain in forever, no conclusion it reaches as permanent, no feeling it writes off as ever-lasting.

Therefore, everyone can contemplate upon having a sound heart - right now, not to acquire a permanent stamp. Not just for Ramadan. Not as an after-thought for when you’re breathing your last.

Here are some ways to embark on that life-long voyage.

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1 - The Interior of Palaces

Key themes: A soul void of nourishment, The position of divine love vs all other love, Diseases of the heart, Your spiritual diet, Speech and silence, Seclusion.

2 - The Standard of Awareness

Key themes: Islamic mindfulness, Meditation, Meta-cognition, Proactive self-purification, Islamic psychology, Pondering over the cosmos, Reasoning.

3 - The Point of Having

Key themes: “Why doesn’t God alleviate suffering?”, Privilege → humility → gratitude → servitude, The pitfalls of charity, Bottom-up impact, Embodying mercy, Disappointment by people, The source of returns.

4 - The Tightrope of Sincerity

Key themes: The epidemic of pious perceptions, Cherry-picking and weaponising religion, Arrogance and jealousy, False standards of guidance, Intentions as roots, Reorientating validation, A private connection.

5 - The Purge of Excess

Key themes: The asceticism of a wayfarer, Overstimulation and hustling, Finitude, The sword of time, Greed, Decluttering the palace, Highlight reels and low states, Optimism, Paired tests.

6 - The Act of Revival

Key themes: Letters from Allah, Healing from grief, Active patience, Splitting seas with tawakkul, Prayer’s daily detox, Turning back in prosperity and adversity.

7 - The Hour of Change

Key themes: True supplication, The test of knowledge, Continuing change.

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Terms:

Qalb - The spiritual heart, the centre of consciousness and moral awareness in a person; it’s where God-awareness, intuition, and insight reside and from which reason and behaviour are guided.

‘Aql - The intellect or reasoning faculty inside the Qalb; it processes data, reflects, and makes moral and rational judgments, ideally guided by the pure heart.

Ruh - The immaterial soul or divine spark breathed into a human by God; pure and eternal, it connects humans to the Divine and is distinct from the ego or lower drives.

Nafs - The self or lower soul/ego; the source of desires and drives that can incline toward wrongdoing or discipline, depending on its state (commanding, self-reproaching, tranquil).

Resources that shifted something in me:

• All my amazing teachers when I was younger, one of whom started a YouTube channel

• The Deeper Look series of the Quran and its linguistics by Nouman Ali Khan

• The Firsts - penetrating and relevant stories from the time of the Prophet ﷺ, narrated by Omar Suleiman

• Select people’s work on Substack: imaan, hareem, Rebecca, Mubeen I., Talha Maaz

• Dr. Rania Awad and Dr. Abdallah Rothman on Islamic Psychology

• Yaqeen Institute’s research papers

• Get to Know + Quranic Gems + Women of Paradise series on Quran Weekly

• Maryam Amir, a role model for many