The Hard Heart

Allah subhanho wa Taala

has commanded us to focus on our hearts and on the status of our hearts, the prophets of Allah wherever you are, send them. He said Allah in the field yesterday medulla either sada had sadaqa Jessa dokolo were either faster that faster than just a dokolo Allah, Allah Allah, Allah.

The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, Indeed in the body, there is an organ.

If it were to be rectified, if it were to be upon righteousness, then the entire person would be upon righteousness. And if it were to be corrupted, then the entire person would be corrupted. And then he said three times, indeed it is the hearts. Indeed it is the hearts indeed it is the heart. Just as we in our lives,

monitor our physical hearts. We look to see our heartbeats, our blood pressure.

As believers we have to monitor our spiritual hearts. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he tells us in the life of a young little Illa just Macomb water, you know, Sawari Comala Iconian Laura Illa.

He says that indeed, Allah does not look to your bodies, or to the shape of you.

But rather he looks to the condition of your hearts and the condition of your deeds. So the requirements of our faith is to have a pure hearts and to have a soft hearts, a tender hearts, the good hearts, is explained as the soft in the tender hearts, the heart that is connected to Allah subhanaw taala. And if in its opposition, Allah subhanaw taala describes the hardened hearts and the hardened hearts is the one that is not affected by the signs of Allah. That is not affected by the evidences of its Lord. That is not moved towards sincerity towards its creator. Allah praises the soft hearts, and he criticizes the hard hearts.

How do we know if our hearts are hardened? And how do we know if they were soft? What causes the heart to become hard? And what can cause it to become softened? Allah subhanaw taala mentions

a group from various raw eels that were shown a miracle and they were still not moved towards Allah subhanaw taala so he says to Mikasa, a

member of the daddy Kapha here can hijack Maratea worship.

He said their hearts became hard and they became like the stone or even more intense in its hardship. Even the rock or the stone is softer than their hearts because of how hard and difficult their hearts have become. Allah mentions punishing another people, which I'm not going to boom kharsia Allah says We made their hearts hardened. The punishment was not that Allah took away their wealth or destroyed their homes. There was something worse than all of this, which I'm not going to move on because here we made their hearts hardened.

The punishment was at the heart became hard. Malik Cuban dinar himolla I don't want to the scholars of the setup. He said No Baba Doumbia are cool but in other moment custodian calm. He said Allah never struck any of his creation, with a punishment that was worse than hardening their hearts. Well handlebar that poem in learners.

And Allah was never angered towards the people. People did not earn the anger of Allah except he took away mercy out of their hearts. And there's a connection between mercy and between the soft and hearts.

So what are the symptoms of a heart hearts? If we want to evaluate our own selves, we want to do a spiritual checkup, what is the symptom of a hardened hearts? Number one,

that we do not care about the rights and the laws of Allah subhanaw taala

Allah subhanaw taala ordained upon you to pray at its time.

The time of prayer comes we don't care to pray. Allah commanded you to eat certain food or not eat certain food, we don't care about it. We think Allah will forgive. We become blase lazy, nonchalant about the rights of Allah azza wa jal. This is one of the greatest indicators of the hardened hearts. Another indicator of the heart and the hearts is that our ADA our worship, becomes a burden.

It's no longer a connection between us and Allah azza wa jal. It's no longer the call of the servant to his Lord that he knows is listening

If, instead it becomes a chore, it becomes mechanical. We just go through the motions. We lift our hands, we put our heads on the ground and that's all that we are doing. But there's no joy. There's no relief in our ADA towards Allah azza wa jal.

Another symptom

of

the hardened hearts is that the person not only commit sins, but they commit frequent sins and habitual sins, sins become part of our habits, even part of our daily lives we are sinning.

And we feel very little guilt, if any at all. And part of this is also committing sins in public, not caring who sees our sins, not even taking the effort to hide them.

And of the symptoms of the hardened hearts

is that when the Quran is recited,

or a melody that an admonishment a reminder about Allah subhanaw taala is mentioned. The person has not moved from it. In fact, they might even be turned off from it they want to go away when Paradis recited.

They want to leave when someone speaks about Allah azza wa jal through even annoyed to hear the remembrance of Allah azza wa jal. These are some of the major symptoms of having a hardened hearts. Now if these are the symptoms, we might say, what is the cause of it? What causes these things to happen? What is the virus that gives us this disease? The first of them

is turning away from the vicar of Allah azza wa jal.

The one who has a soft and Hearts is the one who remembers a lie. So agenda is the one who glorifies Allah who seeks Allah with turns to allies.

And those whose hearts become hardened or the people who don't turn to Allah don't remember him. For way you don't kill us yet you follow? Gohan mean decree Allah. Allah says, whoa, to a warning will upon those whose hearts are hardened from the remembrance of Allah azza wa jal. So in this verse, Allah links the concept of the hardened hearts to they're not remembering Allah azza wa jal, they're mentioned in this connection. Allah azza wa jal also tells us women out or that I'm decree for in the locker room Asia 10 bunker, whoever turns away from my remembrance will have a suffocated life and this fixated life

when I showed over we elemental Tiana Tiana and they will be resurrected on the day of judgment as blind. The miserable life is the life of a hardened heart that is unconnected to Allah Zoda

also of the reasons that we get this virus of the the hardened heart is turning away from the commandments of Allah azza wa jal from the laws of Islam.

Allah says for the man after the Hemi Fairphone, there are now more Janna pollun Casia. Allah says because they broke the commandments of God, because they broke their covenant with God. Allah gave them a covenant. There's a contract between them and Allah commandments that they have to follow, because they broke the covenant law. Now when we curse them, which I now put on Casia we made their hearts then become heart.

So to abandon the halal and haram do not pray and fast to not care about how you live your life, according to the ethical moral laws that our religion gives us. This causes the hardened hearts.

Third is the habitual sin. Allah subhanaw taala says can lead the raw now to be him. Mechanically oxymoron. Allah says no rather their hearts have been rusted because of what they used to do. So because of what they were doing their sins. What happened to the heart are on it became rusted rust takes a while but what happens what happens to the thing that is rusted it becomes hardened and petrified rust is literally the petrification of something.

And our profits a little long Where are you listen them said, when the servant commits a sin in the movement either Edna can let Nikita becomes like a.on Their hearts a black.on the hearts he said so if he makes Taliban, the dots is removed. But if he continues to sin, another dot emerges. And another.he said until Hazza you are no calm the WHO that can run until his heart becomes achieved this run this rust that the Quran is referring to. So this is how our Prophet sallallahu Sallam made Tafseer of the verse in the Quran is that the person commits a sin he gets a dot makes Toba it's removed. But when we're in the habit of committing sin

is when the sins become every day and there is no television. It's dot after dot after dot until it achieves this run this rust that comes upon it.

The next is the open sin. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said cologne Lattimore alpha, il Mojang, in which I have all of my own melody forgiven, except the ones who proclaim the sin. They said Who was the one who proclaims the sin. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, the one who commits the sin that night. No one has seen it, it's under the cover of darkness. He wakes up in the morning he tells everyone I committed the sin. People who are public about their sins, they're open about their sins. It shows that it magnifies the evil effect of the sin. And it shows that they don't even look down on their sin.

They don't even see the sin as being something evil and worthy of hiding.

Another reason why the hardened heart occurs is too much of the dunya.

Too much dunya there is always a tension between our body and between our spirits. Each is competing for your time and your resources. And Islam preaches first a balance. You give your body what it requires, and you give your spirit and your soul what it requires. But what happens when we over indulge on the dunya

our life becomes just dunya eating and sleeping and joking.

We've removed this balance or you banter in our contemplation and are working towards the athlete it becomes very small in our lives, and the dunya becomes

all of the life.

This is something that the scholars even speak about this that following what is moved back what is permissible, but doing too much of it can destroy the person

where the Prophet SAW Allah who already listened them said

Yeah, from what Catherine said like we mentioned this in another football. I warn you about excessive laughter too much laughter

because too much laughter kills the hearts. So the heart dies because of what something that is, in principle Hello that's highlighted to laugh. No one that person becomes over indulgence in entertainment, over indulgent in laughing and joking all the time that it distracts you and it kills your hearts. One of the scholars in filleted him though yeah literally alone when he says there are three characteristics the heart and the hearts can threaten action. Will can threaten known will capitalism color, too much eating and too much sleeping in too much speaking, too much talking and too much sleeping and too much eating. All these things are halal. It's Halal to eat. It's hard to

sleep, and it's halal to speak to others, even they can be praiseworthy at times. Yet over indulging in this causes the heart to become hardened. We've become distracted from our goal in this life which is to turn to Allah azza wa jal is one of the prophets of Allah who are other you will send them says in the Hadith and Timothy he says that attack funeral Cannan believed in the Quran that do not increase in speaking in speech without remembering Allah subhanaw taala then the Catherine can be very ridiculous Allah password. He said because speaking too much without remembering Allah hardens the hearts when the other idea Nassif in Allah Al Khalifa, Cassie is in the people who are

furthest away from God from Allah subhanaw taala are the people have a hardened hearts.

And so

in our lives when we speak, we should be people who are linking back our speech to Allah subhanaw taala. Like even if you're telling your day to your wife, or your wife is telling her day to their husband, I went here and I did this and I did this and I did and you're just going through all of these details, all these things that happened to you. link it back to Allah. I went in I was disappointed this didn't happen but insha Allah Allah will take care of will give me something better tomorrow. I went to work and things were done well for me and hamdulillah I'm really happy I praise Allah subhanaw taala link back things to Allah because the speech when it becomes just

talking and talking and talking becomes vain.

And it could lead you to haram and gossip and backbiting, things like that. But most importantly, it distracts you and it causes the heart part to become hardened. And related to this is elements of laziness and wasting time.

Another reason why we get this illness of the hardened heart is a lack of compassion, and a lack of sympathy towards other other people. The Prophet sallallahu I do send them send me your hummingbird if you're hurting we'll hire whoever has been prevented from grief from kindness and gentleness has been prevented from goodness.

Likewise, another Hadith of our prophets Allah Allah What are you selling when the man saw the Prophet kissing his grandsons? And he said you kiss your children. I have

10 sons I never kissed a single one of them. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said to him, I will empty koala cache and Inessa Allahu COVID. Rama is a very powerful statement. He said, What can I do for you? Essentially, what power do I have over you? If Allah took mercy out of your heart, it says, If the Prophet is saying for this message, for this guidance to help you, you have to have Rama in your heart to begin with. If you don't have roadmap, what can I do for you? How can I help you?

So how do we cure this disease of the heart, the heart and hearts in the time that we have, what are the things that we can do that can cure this disease?

The first of them is to increase the Dhikr of ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada. Like the scholars have said, the vicar of Allah to our hearts is like water to a fish. If you take the fish out of the water, it's gonna die. If you take your heart out of the remembrance of Allah, the excessive remembrance of Allah remembering Allah alights then the heart is going to die as well.

And the best Vickers is the Quran, the best they can is to have time to recite the Quran. If you don't have time in your day to sit down and to read the Quran, you're leaving your hearts in a very dangerous situation. Allah subhanaw taala Allah says, Allah when is Allah accented Hadith he Kitab and moto shabby had Mitanni he said Allah has sent down the best statements, a book that is consistent in its iteration.

Men talk shy women who do the Latina have shown up down from Metallian, who drew tumakuru from inadequate Allah. Then Allah says the skin shivers of those who fear their board and their skin and their hearts relax at the remembrance of Allah. So look at this, Allah is mentioning the heart and the skin, the body of the person shivers out of the fear of Allah and it feels relaxed and happiness at the remembrance of Allah. But it begins the verse by saying what praising the Quran, so the best dhikr of Allah is reciting the Quran. And when you recite the Quran, often you will see even your body your skin is shivering, your heart is feeling that contentment with the remembrance of Allah

azza wa jal.

And I'll tell you this, if you do this in your life, if you have a time in your life, even if you start with 10 minutes a day, 10 minutes a day that you're going to recite Quran. If you start to implement this in your life, the day you don't recite the Quran, you're going to feel it. You're gonna say something's wrong with this day. I don't feel good about this day.

If you do this, you will see the effect on your hearts and that Allah azza wa jal will help soften it. Another point is finding joy in our good deeds. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said that Allah said Hadith could see that my servant does not draw closer to me with anything more than what is made fun of upon him. So the thing that will bring you closest to Allah is to do the photo and to do what is obligatory, to pray your five daily prayers to fasting Ramadan, to give you recap, and then if he increases, if he does more good deeds than Allah often, he will do it until Hector hippo until I love him. Think about this hadith. You say, Okay, I'm doing my five daily prayers. If

I just do a little bit more, I'll earn the love of Allah subhanaw taala I'll get the love of Allah azza wa jal so that you worship Allah with this mentality, I'm getting gaining the love of Allah azza wa jal. I have a Lord who wants to give me his generosity, we have a Lord who appreciates what I do.

And so you worship Allah subhanaw taala with this mentality, you become like the Prophet sallallahu it will send them when he wanted to pray, he would tell me that and it cannot be Hi OB that bring us comfort with it. It was a signal be that understood make and then so that we can pray because prayer brings us comfort. So when the Prophet says Go bring us comfort with it, he means go make the advance so that we can pray so I can get comfort. This is the way of the believer we find joy and relief and comfort in that Repatha of Allah azza wa jal and how can we achieve this? By increasing our knowledge of Allah azza wa jal in the NIOSH Allah Hammond, everybody and those who truly

fear Allah are the, the people have knowledge, the more knowledge you gain the more fear of Allah azza wa jal, you have, we have to increase that knowledge of Allah, we know Allah Azza wa Jackman's generosity and his appreciation and his forgiveness and you think about yourself as well I have committed all of these sins if I do more a bad to Allah will wipe out my sins because Allah removes the sins with the good deeds.

So I follow polyhedra software development stop through an awful running play. Just ask the brothers move up a little bit to make space for those in the back

Bismillah Alhamdulillah wa salatu salam ala Rasulillah who Allah Allah, he was a happy woman. Voila.

A few other ways that we can remove the hardness out of our hearts. One of the important ways that we often under appreciate is to have righteous company and many of the scholars have spoken about the importance of this having righteous company. And Marwa Allah Dini Hadith, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, a person is upon the religion of their friends. And this is incredibly important. You start going to people who train others about business, how to become wealthy, or they are training you to become a better professional in your field. What do they tell you? They tell you go network with people who are in your field. You want to become a good entrepreneur go and spend

time with people have successful businesses, they understand that for you to change your life and become better spend time around people have the same interest. SNAM is far more worthy of this. Our relationship with Allah is far more worthy of to spend time with others who are worshipping Allah so that they bring you in that in in, in your your characteristics will change to be like their characteristics of worshipping Allah azza wa jal next point is to show compassion towards others. And man came to our prophets of Allah who I know you will send them and we'll put it on the law and there is a man check out in the visa Lulu wherever you are Salam, cos whatever called he literally

complained to our Prophet and said, My heart my heart is hard. What do I do? The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa Sampson said in our teta Deen in order to study in the callback for our time in the Skene one saxonia team. He said, If you want to soften your hearts, then feed the ones who are needy, and rub the head of the orphan. show compassion to the orphan, show compassion to the hungry and to the needy. And this is the way that Allah azza wa jal will make your heart soften. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, Holy mackerel and now Kulu Hainan Lee in in Sakhalin or even minuteness he said made haram Allah has made haram the hellfire. The Hellfire has been made haram on

every person who is soft, and polite, and easygoing and accessible, they're close to the people.

And the final point that I will mention, that will help us soften our hearts is to make dua to Allah azza wa jal for Lola, Elijah, sunnah Lord who are all what I can possibly Allah says, Why isn't it when our sign when our punishment came to them? Why did they not humble themselves? Instead, their hearts became hardened.

Right? So humility is important. One of the best ways to show humility to Allah is to make dua to him. To show him your need, say Oh Allah, I need you. And if our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam according to his wife, I should not be alone when I met she said, the DUA that our Prophet would make the most frequent. Yeah, mocha liver polluted with called Reality. If the Prophet is asking ALLAH to protect his heart and to keep his heart firm upon his SNAM, we are in greater need of this. And so we should be making dua for Allah azza wa jal to soften our hearts may Allah azza wa jal protect us from the hardened hearts may Allah as diligent soften our hearts. May Allah azza wa jal

make us people of the Quran and people of dhikr of Allah azza wa jal