In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate
Assalaamu alaykum
Dear Friends
I pray that you are well.
One of the faculties that Allah gives us is the intellect (aql). The intellect has certain processes like understanding, thinking, reflecting, recognition, realization,and learning. Fundamentally, it grows overtime except in old age if someone become senile.
Another entity that Allah talks about in the Qur'an is the heart (qalb). Certain things are happening in the qalb. The thing Allah mentions the most is remembrance (dhikr), fear, caution, love, hate, all forms of psychological diseases, and taqwa (Godfearingness). Emotions are in the heart. The qalb, unlike the intellect, moves and fluctuates.
Both the aql and the qalb have a part in decision making. Some people are not capable of using the aql because the qalb has become hard.
Allah, the Exalted, makes this association in the Qur'an. Allah Almighty says,
ثُمَّ قَسَتْ قُلُوبُكُم مِّنۢ بَعْدِ ذَٰلِكَ فَهِىَ كَٱلْحِجَارَةِ أَوْ أَشَدُّ قَسْوَةً ۚ وَإِنَّ مِنَ ٱلْحِجَارَةِ لَمَا يَتَفَجَّرُ مِنْهُ ٱلْأَنْهَـٰرُ ۚ وَإِنَّ مِنْهَا لَمَا يَشَّقَّقُ فَيَخْرُجُ مِنْهُ ٱلْمَآءُ ۚ وَإِنَّ مِنْهَا لَمَا يَهْبِطُ مِنْ خَشْيَةِ ٱللَّهِ ۗ وَمَا ٱللَّهُ بِغَـٰفِلٍ عَمَّا تَعْمَلُونَ ﴿٧٤﴾ أَفَتَطْمَعُونَ أَن يُؤْمِنُوا۟ لَكُمْ وَقَدْ كَانَ فَرِيقٌ مِّنْهُمْ يَسْمَعُونَ كَلَـٰمَ ٱللَّهِ ثُمَّ يُحَرِّفُونَهُۥ مِنۢ بَعْدِ مَا عَقَلُوهُ وَهُمْ يَعْلَمُونَ ﴿٧٥﴾ وَإِذَا لَقُوا۟ ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ قَالُوٓا۟ ءَامَنَّا وَإِذَا خَلَا بَعْضُهُمْ إِلَىٰ بَعْضٍ قَالُوٓا۟ أَتُحَدِّثُونَهُم بِمَا فَتَحَ ٱللَّهُ عَلَيْكُمْ لِيُحَآجُّوكُم بِهِۦ عِندَ رَبِّكُمْ ۚ أَفَلَا تَعْقِلُونَ ﴿٧٦[Qur'an, Al-Baqarah 2:76]
Then your hearts became hardened after that, being like stones or even harder. For indeed, there are stones from which rivers burst forth, and there are some of them that split open and water comes out, and there are some of them that fall down for fear of Allah. And Allah is not unaware of what you do. (74) Do you covet [the hope, O believers], that they would believe for you while a party of them used to hear the words of Allah and then distort the Torah after they had understood it while they were knowing? (75) And when they meet those who believe, they say, "We have believed"; but when they are alone with one another, they say, "Do you talk to them about what Allah has revealed to you so they can argue with you about it before your Lord?" Then will you not reason? (76)
Our hearing and seeing are the faculties that we use to learn. When a person hears revelation (verses of the Qur'an), it will go to the intellect and then to the heart. The intellect says it is a good thing, but the heart might say, "I am afraid people will leave me...I am happy where I am at...I love my tribe too much...I love my wife too much...So, no, I don't want to do it...I don't want to follow it." Who won? The qalb.
Take for example, a teenager who is a straight A student. He learned about health and the dangers of smoking and As the test. But after school, you see him smoking outside. When you ask him why, he smiles at you and says, "It's cool!" Where does this answer come from? The heart.
Using the same kid but this time he is smoking in his room. The moment his father pulled up in the driveway, he quickly flush it down the toilet. He knows smoking is bad, he recognizes it, learned it, and he has everything the mind can do. All that knowledge does not help him change. The heart wins in the end because of the fear.
When we were born, the heart is as clear as glass. A sick heart has greed, jealousy, anger, ego, hate, temptations, laziness, and so on. With all the greed, ego, hate, etc, the heart gets dirtier and dirtier. If these things cover it completely, the light inside our hearts that we were born with, called 'fitrah', goes out. When a lamp is dirty, can the light come in?
Just because you are a Muslim, it does not mean that your heart is clean. Every Ayah (verse) in the Qur'an is a piece of light. If you allow it into your heart, it has an additional power. Not only it lives inside your heart, it starts cleaning your heart- from temptations and other things. When it is clean, you are ready to use your mind.
How come some people who are so knowledgeable are so messed up? It is very easy. If learning is for the sake of learning or to advance your understanding as opposed to for the sake of remembering Allah, that doesn't mean your heart is getting cleaner. The heart is getting cleaner when you are technically actually engage in the remembrance of Allah (dhikr). And every time you do actual dhikr (prayer, etc), its cleaning you out on the inside.
Aql has logical, rational, and possess the questions of intellectual value. The qalb doesn't have those questions- it already has the answers the moment it was created. The question the mind ask can be twisted and weird if the heart is already dead. If heart is intact, it will ask valid question and want to seek truth. Revelation feeds the aql and the qalb.
When you study the Ayah of the Qur'an, they are supposed to broaden the minds and the reminder cleanses the heart.
I saw that sins give death to the heart
Following it, the only inheritance for you is humiliation
Abandoning sins bring life to the heart (glass getting clean)
It is better for your own self that you disobey your temptations and sins
(if you want to rebel, rebel against your sins, not against Allah)
May Allah make us of people of remembrance and who constantly purify ourselves. May Allah purify our hearts and shower us with His Light. Ameen.
Allahumma salli 'ala Muhammad wa 'ala aalihi wa sahbihi wasallam.
And Allah knows best and He alone grants success.
Wassalaam
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