Kamal El-Mekki – Actions of the Heart
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AI: Transcript ©
Brothers and sisters in Islam, our today is
about
the actions
of the heart.
And
you see that there are many instances where
the actions of the heart are greater in
reward
than actions of the limbs.
And if we take, as an example,
the hadith
of the 7 types of people
will be under the shade of the in
the under the shade of the throne of
Allah
on the day, meaning the day of resurrection,
there is no shade except that provided by
Allah.
And Nabi
said
that and this hadith in Sahib Bukhari and
Muslim.
So then count of the 7,
how many of them are actions of the
limbs and how many of them are actions
of the heart?
And Nabi
began, and he said,
a just imam.
In a just imam, the scholar said, not
just a ruler of a nation,
but any Muslim put in charge of a
group of people, even if it's at work,
or in just a small village, or something
like that, and they're just then they qualify
to be from the 70. So
And a man whose heart is attached to
the Masjid. So that's the first 1.
So 2 men who loved each other, and
this applies to women also, who loved each
other for the sake of Allah. They gathered
upon that, and they separated upon that. So
that's the second 1 of the heart.
So
a man who was called by a woman
of position and status,
and he called to the haram. And he
said,
I fear Allah. So that's
the 3rd.
Because
what stopped him? Allah and and Nabi didn't
mention his action, pushing her away with the
running away. He said, the fear and where
is the fear? In the heart.
And then the a man who gave the,
and he hid it so well that even
his left hand couldn't see what his right
hand is doing.
A man who mentioned Allah while he's alone.
So he's not shown off to anyone. He's
just alone, and he thought of, mentioned, remembered
Allah, and his eyes overflowed with ears.
4 out of the 7 of these great
positions
are related to actions of the heart actions
of the heart. So the actions of the
heart can be, in some cases, greater in
status than actions of the limbs. But not
only that,
in many acts of worship, if not all,
if the heart is not involved, then even
the actions of the limbs can be rendered
useless or nullified.
Prayer is an excellent example.
If someone's praying and his heart is not
there, what happens?
That's why
That
indeed the servant will pray a prayer,
and only 1 tenth of it will be
written for him in reward. 1
tenth. 10th. Then the says says,
2 and then he's saying a 9th of
it, an 8th, a 7th, a 6th, and
then a 5th meaning half.
You'll get this much of your reward in
salah based on how much space you are
focused in salah. Similar to the other
hadith, Nabi sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said,
You will not get from your prayer, meaning
you will not be rewarded for your prayer
except that which you are aware of, you
were conscious
of. The rest where you're drifting off, you
didn't get rewarded for that part. So that
what is that showing? The heart is present.
The heart is present.
And whether the heart is present or not,
or to the degree to which the heart
is present determines the reward of the actions
of the limbs.
If you look at the example of fasting
example of fasting, someone, let's say, they intended
to drive to Dallas. They woke up extremely
late, So they jumped in their car, started
driving, and they never stopped. By the time
they reached Dallas,
they realized
that it's Maghrib time. And because they were
in the car, they never ate or drank
anything. So can they say, I'm fasting, and
get the rewards since they fasted all the
day? Since they never ate and drank the
whole day, can they say
I'm I'm fasting? And, unanimously, the answer is
no. They can't say that. But what's interesting
here, if you look at it from the
the the point of view of
physicality or physically and the limbs,
it is a perfect sand. It's perfect. Absolutely
perfect with not a flaw in it. From
the the from physically
and from the limbs perspective, it's completely perfect,
But what made it invalid and not in
the account of
that the intention
wasn't there? And what is the place of
the intention?
The heart.
The heart. So
we we see the the weight of the
actions of the heart.
And if we don't see it, we'll definitely
see it with this hadith, where
is mentioning the people on the day of
judgement. The first ones to be thrown into
the hellfire, and you would think they would
be murderers, or they committed some kind of
actions of the limbs.
But
but
as you know from this popular adidas, the
first 1,
a man who was martyred for the sake
of Allah
And Allah
will bring him forth, and he will and
he mentioned
his blessings upon that Masjid. That I gave
you courage, and I gave you a strong
body, and I gave you good health, and
I gave you an opportunity,
and then what happened? And then what happened?
So the man will say, the man will
say
that,
that I fought for your sake until I
was martyred. And then Allah Azulul will tell
him, you have lied.
And you only did it so they will
say that you were brave, that you were
courageous.
And it was said, so you got what
you wanted. You wanted people to say you're
brave, and it happened. During your lifetime. People
said you were brave. You got what you
wanted. You didn't want anything with Allah
he was the angels were commanded to take
him, and they dragged him on his face
until he was thrown into the *
And a man who learned the knowledge, and
he taught it to people, and he recited
the Quran.
And then he will be brought, and Allah
will
mention his blessings upon him, that he gave
him the
opportunity to learn and he gave him the
the a good sound mind and good memory
and all that and a beautiful voice. And
then he will say that
I learned and I taught the Quran for
your sake, and Allah will tell him,
but you did that so that people will
say your knowledge and
and they and it was said, so you
got what you wanted.
And then he was commanded, and the angels
dragged him on his face until they threw
him in the hellfire. And the third 1
was a man that
Allah gave a lot of wealth, and he
said, I didn't leave any avenue except that
I gave for your sake, you Allah. And
Allah will tell them that you have not
spoken the truth, but you only did that
so they will say that you were generous,
that you were giving,
and it was sent, and then he will
be thrown into the hellfire with.
So the point is this hadith narrated by
imam Muslim, is
a popular hadith. And this is a hadith
that over
the centuries would always terrify the righteous,
and it would always cause them to go
back and renew and refresh their intentions, and
make sure
that they are doing things for the sake
of Allah,
meaning that their heart is in the right
place. So if there's any lesson here, it
would be for us to give great attention
to
the heart.
More so than we give attention to our
external actions and how they appear externally.
The offenses of the heart, brothers and sisters,
in Islam,
they are serious,
and they can destroy an individual.
Look at just the example of Hasid, envy
and jealousy.
It is what got Iblis out of his
high ranking position. It is what prevented Abdullah
ibn Ubayb n Salud from the hypocrites of
Medina from becoming Muslim. It is what prevented
the Jews of Medina from accepting Islam. It
caused the son of Adam to kill his
brother. Yusuf alaihi salam was thrown into the
well as a small child because of it.
It separated Yusuf, alayhis salam, from his father
for 40 years. It eased up your rewards
as the fire consumes wood, as the hadith
says, and it destroyed and it has destroyed
many homes and many relationships.
How many murders has it led to? How
many sip siblings has it separated?
This is just 1 of the ailments of
the heart.
Envy and jealousy, and there are places in
the heart. There are places and look at
the things it has done in history.
Look at Abu Jahl.
Someone wants to ask Abu Jahl.
Is Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam upon the truth?
He says,
Can you imagine the fir'an of the Ummah
Abuja said this? He said, by Allah, I
know that he's a contradiction. So
the man asked
him, why why then wouldn't you accept? Why
wouldn't you become Muslim? And then look at
his his his arrogant answer.
It's just jealousy
competing for the dunya. He said,
from Bani Maqzoon.
And he said, Bani Maqzoon, my tribe, we
were competing
in in goodness. We always competed against Bani
Abdul Manas, the tribe of the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa
sallam.
We over the honor and who will be
in the better the best position.
They fed the people, so we fed people.
And they gave people, so we gave people.
Until we were like 2 race horses, neck
and neck.
Is a term that you would use when
2 things are equal, specifically racehorses. I mean,
they're equal in quality
and in in speed, and everything,
and they're also tied in the race tied.
So he said we were like 2 racehorses.
We tied.
Everything they did, we could do.
They said, from amongst us is a Nabi,
a prophet.
He said we they said we have a
prophet who received revelation from the heavens. He
said, how can we ever reach that? And
it's not like we can have a meeting
and say, okay, Allah, wanna be here and
be you get revelation.
So they beat us. So they beat us.
So he said,
He said,
because of that, we will never believe in
Him,
nor will we ever believe
just because of that.
That's the sickness of the heart, no doubt.
And look what it led this man who
swore by Allah that Muhammad salallahu alayhi wasalam
was upon the truth.
Finally,
from the the power of the action of
the body,
this is the a famous narration
mentioned in
probably about a dozen books of hadith, different
books of hadith.
It is narrated by Anas ibn Malik
that they were sitting with the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam. The companions were sitting with him,
and then the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said,
said,
He says, in a minute,
a man is gonna enter here, and he's
from the people of Al Jannul. So a
man entered, and he just made when he
was carrying his slippers. They described them in
a specific way.
And then the next
day, the prophet said, a man will enter
upon you, and he's from the people of
Ajannah. That same man walked in again. So
it's not of the well known companions.
So so Abdullah ibn al-'Amr ibn al-'Aas
Abdullah ibn al-'Aas,
he
he went to this man. He was a
young man. He is
known from
the They were young.
Young. He was a young man, so he
went to him. He wants to learn the
secrets.
Why is this man? Why is this man?
From the people of Al Jannah. He said,
so I made an excuse. I told him
that I had a fight with my father,
and I need to stay with you for
3 days until he holds down.
He says, I didn't notice anything from of
worship or long qiyam for peace people. We
always expect
people always expect
long actions,
They expect actions of the limits since he
deserves the.
But he said, the man just slept. The
only thing I noticed is he moved around
at night, he would make the decree and
mention Allah, as he would mention Allah. But
until I said, maybe he's tired the first
night. See what he does tomorrow. Same thing.
He just would wake up for Fajr, and
we would go to Fajr, and that was
about it. So instead, in the 3rd day
after the 3rd day, I admitted to him.
I didn't have any fight or any issue
with my father,
but I wanted to know why the prophet
said
about that about me. And this man,
he
told him
basically, he he couldn't figure anything out figure
anything out. I told him there's nothing that
I do. I just pray like everyone fast
like everyone.
Until
until
he said, when I left, he called me
back. I mean, look how innocent he was.
He couldn't even think of anything.
He didn't have in the forefront of his
mind, oh, it's this thing, the thing that
I excel in so much. He couldn't even
think of anything. And he said, when I
left, he called me back. He thought of
1 thing. He said, there's 1 thing that
I do.
That he said,
He said, the only thing I do cleans
his heart. It cures his purifies his heart.
He says before I go to sleep, I
or he says, I never ever have any
envy or jealousy for
or or
deceive any of the believers.
I never have any jealousy or envy in
my heart against any of the believers for
any good thing that Allah has
given them.
So then so look at the answer of
Abdullah
This is the 1. This is what got
you to that level.
He said, and that's the 1 we can't
handle. The
actions of the heart are amazing. They are
powerful,
but they could be harder to do than
the actions of the living. He said,
That's the 1 we can't handle.
They could stand in in hours and pray
at night and said, this man is different.
So we kindly request for you from you
to move forward
and also to tighten your lines inwards, any
space, because we have people now who are
spilling into the corridor.
So any space you see, please move forward
to tighten the spaces so someone else can
fill that gap.
So quickly, in the second kharbah, let's look
at
he was a contemporary of Imam Ahmed and
others.
Imam Ahmed says
about Abdullah ibn Mubarak. He said,
He said, people love him a lot,
We don't see a lot of a lot
of heavy or excessive
worship
from fasting, fasting, from from prayer. We don't
see anything excessive
in him, but people love him a lot.
Between him and Allah.
But just so you understand how much people
loved Abu Luh Barak Rahima Allah.
1 time, the wife of the Khalifa,
she was standing. It was Hajj season, and
she was looking out from above and at
the crowds, and she saw a large mass
of people, and then she saw a larger
mass of people.
So she asked about this huge mass of
people, the larger 1, and they said that
is Abdullah ibn Mubarak coming to Hajj, and
people love him. So they surround him.
They just wanna give him salaam and tell
him, make a make a dua for us
and just greet him. That's how much that
that was a huge mask. She said, what's
the other smaller mask? They said, that is
Amir Al Mu'tani, her husband,
with his soldiers and with people who want
things from him, wealth and people who just
want to be close to him and those
who love him. She said she said
that, She said, this is true honor. This
is true dignity right here, Abdullah ibn Mubarak.
He used to leave the city twice a
year. Once a year for jihad, once a
year for Hajj. And every time he left
the city, the entire town
would go out with him. Yeah. And the
people would shut down the stores, and they
would all walk him out until the outskirts
of the city.
What caused people
to love him so much?
1 of his students said, I traveled with
and
I found in the when I travel when
you travel with someone, you know them intimately.
He said, I found his prayer to be
just like our prayer.
The amount of the Quran he recites,
which is like ours, nothing excessive and over
the top.
And his fast was like our fast, Mondays,
Thursdays, nothing excessive.
So I continued to try to find out
the difference between him and the rest of
us. During that trip, he says we entered
a room at night, and it was dark.
So we stayed in pitch darkness for a
few moments,
while someone went out to fetch some oil
so it can light the lamp.
And he says by the time the man
came back and he lit the the lamp
and the illuminated the room illuminated, he said,
Abdullah ibn Mubarak, his beard was wet with
his tears.
And so he started to quickly wipe them
away so nobody would notice. So when we
left that room, I told him, I asked
you by Allah,
why were you crying in the room? He
said, don't ask me about it. I said,
don't ask me about it. He said, I
asked you by Allah.
He said, the
He said, I remembered the darkness
of the grave.
He said, I was afraid that Allah
would make me of those whose graves are
dark upon them, so
I cried.
So the scholar said, his secret
was his,
his,
the fear that he had of Allah
in his heart. And it was also a
secret because it's in his heart. He doesn't
have to make it public.
That's what gave him a status that would
beyond the the reward of Allah
made everyone in the city love him.
Muhammad ibn
Wasa, he said,
He said, I
met a
people. They would have their head on the
same cushion as their wife.
And underneath his cheek, it's all wet because
of his tears.
And his wife doesn't know anything about that,
that he's crying the entire night. So
so
to recap,
we saw that saw that the
the
the actions of the heart
or were from the greatest
of the actions and the greatest of rewards
like we saw in the hadith of the
7 under the shade of the throne of
Allah.
And we saw that they would also to
the point that they can nullify your the
actions of the limbs if your heart is
not in the right place, if the intention
is not in the right place, if your
focus is not in the right place. We
saw that. It is also the most dangerous
of things that can destroy people on the
day of judgment
even before actions of the limits. And we
saw a companion who earned a great place
because he focused very much
on his heart and making sure that the
elements of the heart of envy and jealousy
and all the other things and hatred are
not there. So that's the our only homework.
We just pay extra attention to our heart,
and we make sure that we don't have
all these feelings of hatred and jealousy. We're
always monitoring the condition of our heart. We
ask Allah to make us of those who
hear the truth and follow the best of
it, and to make it of those who
recognize falsehood as clear falsehood and abstain from
it.