Delivering the Desperate Victim from the Snares of Satan

by Al Imaam Ibnu Qayyim Al Jawziyyah

How the Quran Cures

the Heart from the
Sickness of Desires
It cures the heart of desires by way of:
Using Wisdom and Fair Exhortation ( Admonishment):
1. By way of encouraging through incentive and discouraging with deterrents.
2. Encouraging disinterest in the life of this world and interest in the world to come
3. Using parables and stories containing lessons and imparting vision
The effect: The pure heart will desire what will benefit it in both worlds and will lose interest in what
will harm it in both worlds.
The heart will then love Al-Rushd ( rightly guided behavior) and hate its opposite: Al Ghayy
The Quran therefore removes the illnesses that cause corrupt desires

Therefore the heart is corrected and returns to its original state

This in turn corrects its voluntary accountable actions.
It (i.e. the heart) does so just as the body returns back to health and
the heart becomes as such that it wont accept anything but the truth,
just as a baby wont accept anything but milk
The heart is therefore nourished with Faith and the Quran due
to its contents: 1. purifying, 2. developing, 3. strengthening, 4.
reinforcing, 5. enthralling, 6. pleasing and 7. energizing it (i.e. the
heart) as well as 8. establishing its authority -just as the body is
nourished by that which develops and strengthens it.
Both the heart and the body are in need of that which will cultivate it
so that it will develop and increase until it reaches its perfection and
rectitude - the heart requires this just as the body is cultivated by
nutrition that rectifies it, and by protective abstinence from that which
harms it.
Just as the body cannot develop without giving it what benefits it and
forbidding it what harms it- likewise is the heart.
The only way to arrive at this development and completeness is the
Quran. Rarely can a person arrive at any small portion of it by other
means, and never could they completely reach their objective without
it.
Likewise, crops can only grow by employing these two methods
The life and bliss of the heart requires Development and
Purification. This is the therefore the subject of the next two
chapters

Chapter 8
The Zakah/Tazkiyyah of the Heart
Linguistically Zakah means: growth and increase in a things
completeness and recitude.
When mentioning the Zakah on property, Allah combines purification
and development because of their inseparable
connection.
The filth in the heart from lewd sins and disobedience is comparable to:
infected elements within the body or to the impurities in metals
Just as the body is restored to natural strength by riddance of infected
elements, enabling it to find comfort and restoring its function,
unimpaired and unhindered, so the body develops, likewise is the heart.
This happens when: It is freed from sins by sincere repentance. The
strength of the heart and its desire for good is freed, therefore it is
relieved from corrupt temptations and destructive elements, so it
develops, grows strengthens and becomes firm and assumes the seat of
authority and exercises its rule over its subjects (i.e. the body) which
then hears and obeys.
For this reason we are ordered to lower our gazes and protect our
chastity
There are three tremendous benefits of lowering the gaze:

There are three tremendous important benefits of

Lowering the Gaze from what is forbidden:
First Benefit:
The Sweetness/ Enjoyment of Faith
Second Benefit:
The Light of the Heart and Genuine Intuition
Third Benefit:
The Strength, Firmness and Courage of the Hearth

The First Benefit: THE SWEETNESS AND ENJOYMENT OF FAITH which is more sweeter, purer and more enjoyable that what he
turned his eyes away from and left off for Allah. Whoever leaves
something for Allah, then Allah will replace it with something better.
The Nafs is obsessed with looking at beautiful images/appearances.
The eye is the scout of the heart that it sends out to look around.
When the eye informs it about the beauty and attractiveness of what
it looks at the heart becomes anxious for it and will frequently
exhaust itself and its scout.
When the eye withholds from discovering and scouting for such
things, the heart will rest from the hardship of pursuing and
wanting. Whoever unleashes their glances will be constantly
regretful.
A look produces, love which begins as a connection of the
heart to what it looks at, then it becomes stronger and becomes
longing, where the heart discharges itself entirely for that
thing, then it becomes passion, adhering to the heart
unrelentingly like a debtor. Then it gets even stronger and becomes
obsession which is excessive love. Then it increases and
becomes which is a deep penetrating love. Then it
increases and becomes which is ENSLAVEMENT/WORSHIP.
Taymullah means Abdullah. The heart becomes enslaved to one
undeserving.
All of this is the crime of the unrestricted look. The heart becomes a
CAPTIVE after it was once KING, a prisoner after once free. It
accuses the eyes and complains about them.

The eyes say: I was just your scout and messenger and it was you
who sent me.
Only hearts that are empty and void of loving Allah and sincerity to
him are tested to such a degree. The heart must be attached to
what it loves. Whoever doesnt have Allah as their greatest love,
their deity and what they worship will inescapably have their heart
enslaved to worshiping something else.
The evidence for this from Surah Yusuf: What occurred was in
order that We may divert evil and lewdness from him. He was from
our SINCERE WORSHIPPERS. While the wife of Al Aziz fell into
what she fell into due to be a polytheist, despite being married,
while Yusuf was spared due to being sincere despite the fact that
he was young, single, foreign (in a strange land) and a captive.
THE SECOND BENEFIT: LIGHT OF THE HEART AND GENUINE
INTUITION
Abu Shuja Al Karamaani said: Whoever enlivens their exterior
with following the Sunnah, enlivens their inside with constant
cognizance that Allah is ever watchful, withholds his nafs from
lusts, lowers his gaze and habitually eats what is halal, his
intuition will never err.
Also, after mentioning the story of Luts people, Allah said
that within that are clear signs for those with intuition.
They are the people of who are free of looking at the haram
and lewdness.

Likewise, in Surah An-Nur, after ordering the

believers to lower their gazes and protect their
chastity, Allah informed that he is the Light of the
heavens and the earth. The secret behind this is that
recompense is according to the type of action.
Because they lowered their gazes from what was
forbidden they were rewarded with something of the
sort that was better for them than it. They restricted
their gaze from the muharramaat so Allah
unrestricted their inner vision and heart to be able to
see with their hearts what a person would be
prevented from seeing if they did not restrict their
vision.
A person can feel this from their own self. The heart
is like a mirror. Whims are like tarnish/rust. When it
is free of tarnish, then things are naturally observed
as they truly are otherwise their view of information
is warped to the extent their knowledge and speech
will be mostly guessing and fabrication.

The Third Benefit: The Hearts Strength and Courage.

Allah, by His strength, will grant it the authority of
victory just as He had given it, by His Light, the
authority of evidence. So He will gather both types of
authority for the heart and Satan will flee from such
a person.
This is why a person who follows his desires
experiences the inner humiliation and low esteem/
self-worth/ degradation that Allah places upon those
who disobey Him. He has made honor
and might for whoever obeys Him and
humiliation for whoever disobeys Him.
Al Munafiqoon: 8
Aali Imraan: 139
Whoever desires them let him seek it by
obeying Allah: by good speech and righteous deeds.

Some of the Salaf said: People seek honor at the

doors of kings but will never find it except in obeying
Allah.
Al Hasan said: Though the swiftest steeds are tamed
for them and the finest mules carry them, indeed the
humiliation of disobedience is in their hearts. Allah
refuses except to humiliate those who disobey Him.
This is because Allah makes those who obey Him, His
allies whom none cane humiliate as in the dua of Al
Qunoot.

In summary: The development of the heart is dependent upon its

purification just as the development of the body is dependent
upon ridding it of destructive, corrupt elements.
An-Nur: 21
The same in mentioned in connection to the prohibition of Zina,
unproven accusation of Zina and marriage to a fornicatress.
This proves that development/purification comes about by
abandoning such behavior.
This is similar to what is mentioned about the etiquettes of
seeking permission to enter homes.
Woe be to the mushrikeen, those who do not preform the Zakah.
Most of the scholars say: Meaning Tawheed and faith that
purifies/develops the heart.
It consists of negating the godhood of anything but the true
deity from the heart which is and affirming the godhood
of Allah which is the basis of every and development.
Althought the root of is development, increase and
blessing, that only occurs by removing evil. Therefore
consists of both affairs together. So the root of what purifies the
hearts and souls is Towhead.