Between a Rock and a Heart Place #1

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So, the other day, I was actually in the gym, and I was running on the treadmill. And I was pretty much out of breath. And I looked around, and I saw that I wasn't by myself in that situation. So I looked around and everyone else around me, everyone else was on the treadmills, they were sweating, and they were panting. And they're working really hard. And then I thought to myself, I said, how we as human beings, even Muslims, but in general, we, as human beings, we spend so much time so much effort, trying to take care of ourselves and try to take care of our bodies, and to look nice, and I looked over and and people were literally out of breath. And they were struggling, and they're

working really, really hard. And they're sweating. Some people are on their last leg, and they can barely go. But they keep trying and trying and trying to work harder and harder and harder. And I thought to myself, I said, you know what this is how much effort we put into working on our bodies. And unfortunately, at times we forget about our hearts, we forget about what's inside our bodies. But usually a person can take a look at their lives. And it's a very simple question that you could ask yourself, and you can save yourself, well, compared to how much time I spent taking care of my body, or taking care of my exterior, how much time do I spend taking care of my interior, right, and

just like the body can get sick, just like the body can fall ill just like the body can have problems. Likewise, the heart itself can become sick, and it can have problems. And this is a lot of times you see people suffering from this issue. And this is something that we would call like a spiritual sickness or a spiritual illness, right? That you may not see the effects on the exterior, you may not see this person suffering from a spiritual illness or spiritual sickness, but definitely on the inside, they're feeling it. And we're going to talk about this in a little bit. But at times, you will find that the spiritual sickness or spiritual illness can have an effect on the body

itself. So what are the main problems, one of the main sicknesses that the heart can suffer from is what is known as the hardness or the hardening of the heart. And this is where the heart becomes really hard. And this is what Allah azzawajal describes, in the US with a

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for your country job, a lot of sort of sense that and then your hearts became hard after that, well, he had a job. And they became like rocks, and then allies, so just says, what, Oh, I should do a swap, that perhaps they become harder or harsher than rocks. But in reality, gentlemen, when and how that even from a rock, water can spring forth. So if you look at rocks that have been hit by water over and over again, and you see it happen over time, and hundreds of years, you see that even rocks, can can soften up to water, and it can be shaped by water. Right? And this is why this example that even a rock, water can sprinkle it through it. But if the heart becomes hard, it can

become harder than a lock as a lesson. Oh, I should do a swap. I mean, it can become harder than this rock. And this is the issue that we're talking about today. The issue of our hearts becoming hard. And so I wanted to give you like a an in depth look at the hardness of the heart. What exactly it is what causes the hardness of the heart? What are some signs symptoms? And in the end, the last thing I'm going to speak about is how do we go about curing ourselves? Or how do we go about softening our hearts? So the first thing we want to look at what are some of the signs, we would say what are some of these symptoms? If you're looking at it from a medical perspective, what are some

of the symptoms or signs that a person's heart has become hard or it's become like a rock. So one of the first signs that we see is that if a person becomes lazy in their if they become lazy in their worship, this is a sign that their heart that their heart has become harder.

Why you see that the way this works is very interesting because the wish upon fools us into leaving off on a battle altogether, or he falls into into our hearts becoming completely heart is he starts with us just being lazy in things that are not fun. Those who are not obligatory. So for example, the first thing she had done will do is he'll come to us and say, you know, the sooner prayer, but don't worry about it today. Right? You pray every day, don't worry about today, it's not a big deal. So you may leave it off for a single day. Right? And then the next day comes in, you're like, yeah, you know, I prayed to yesterday, I used to pray before but you know, at least let me just at least

try to get my my phone, my obligatory prayer in, right, and this happens over time. And we know how shavon works, he works in steps in the footsteps of faithfulness. So it all starts like that, until eventually we start to become lazy in all of our worship, not just our know often in our pseudonyms, but also our obligatory acts of worship. And this is actually one of the signs of the hypocrites, and as Allah xojo tells us in the Quran, about the hypocrites, and how they pray in the Congo, in a society,

that if they stand for prayer, they stand leisurely. Right, and this is how I describe the hypocrites and even the prophets of Allah who send them when describing the Sunnah of the hypocrite. And in particular, the Muslim told us how a hypocrite prays the US on prayer, the President told us that the hypocrite, they delayed, they're also in prayer. So at the time for us, it comes in, but they're like, you know, I'll pray later, I'll pray later, they keep delaying it, to get become lazy in their prayer, until the President have said that the sun starts to become yellow and orange. Right meaning until the time promoted is just about to come in. There's almost no time left. And

then at that point, I sort of said, this person goes, and they quickly Peck out for a cause of prayer. And then the person says that in this thought, they barely even remember allies soldier. And it's unfortunate that in our times, forget praying it at the last minute, sometimes we we delay our Salah till the point where the time even goes by and we have this misconception that for some reason, it

is a complete song, right about Salah is this all the time is gone. Right? The credit for that song is over. So this is like I said, this is one of the first signs of a heart that has become part of that person. They become lazy in their prayer. And this is usually warned us about this while the precedent tells us that this is something from the signs of the hypocrites. Meaning This is something that we have to be careful about. Because as we know, the hypocrites in the Hellfire will be in the lowest portions of the hellfire. And even the process of them said that the worst person is the one he said the worst type of thief is the thief who steals from his prayer. And then a

companion he asked us, he said what type of person or type of thief steals from us prayer like how do you steal from your prayer, and the person said, You steal from your prayer when you don't make up properly, or you don't make sense properly. This is how you steal from your prayer. I saw a man praying and he was praying quickly. So most of them told him he said Jeff was suddenly in the academy to Sunday. He said go back and pray because you haven't prayed. And he went he prayed again quickly. And he came back to the center and personal certificate in Jericho. Suddenly, suddenly, he said go back and pray because you haven't prayed. And then you went again, quickly, you prayed

again. And the person said to him third time, go back and pray for you have not prayed. And then he said, Well, how do I pray, and then the process and described the prayer to him. He said you make it clear, and you try to find it out. And they say when you go into court, you go into court until your heart becomes at ease until you're settled into what he says. And when you go to set it up, you go into such as the until your heart becomes at ease until you become at rest. Right. This is the prayer that the prophets of love I knew send them was telling us about

that is the first sign of being lazy in our in our prayer or being lazy in our acts of worship. The second sign or the second, this second sign that shows us that our heart may have become hard or it's becoming hard is being lazy in goodness. Right? Well, I mean goodness is a general term which applies to all types of goodness. So an example of this may be let's say, you're on the street, and you see something harmful on the road. Right? And instead of picking it up or moving it You say you know somebody else will do it. Right or it's not such a big deal. I'm better thing to do right now and try to remove this heart. Right so now in an hour

In general, aka goodness, we become lazy. Or we always think that we have that mentality that listen, somebody else will do it. Right when we begin to do little acts of goodness. So we look at active piety, and we're like, yeah, it's okay. It's not such a big deal. The first seven told us, he said,

he said, Never be little anything from good deeds. And then the example that he gave us as an example, that a lot of people think, is not even a good deed. People think it's just yeah, it's good if you do it, but if you don't do it, it's not such a big deal. He said, Well, and tell him a hawk. Have you watched him play? He said, even if it's you, meeting your brother with a cheerful face or smiling, right, we think of smiling as Yeah, it's okay to do you know, it's, I guess it's okay. Because it's nice if you smile at people. And we forget that the prophets I send them called smiling.

An act of charity. And he called it he called it a good deed. Right? So when a heart with a heart starts to become hard, people look at these deeds and say, yes, no big deal. It's small, why bother with it? Right? Even something like charity, a person, you may find stuff at a fundraiser, or someone's at a fundraiser, and they're asking for money. And this person, he looks in his pocket, they have like, $10 or something. And it's been a while, but I get $10 in such a small amount, right? what's what's the big deal, or even less than that, and the profits I'm in love is that and he actually gave us an example, which is less than $10, or less than even $1. The prophets I send

them said, Enough, he said, protect yourselves from the Hellfire, how? He said, when we shut him off, he said, even if it's with a piece of a date, right, meaning, even if it's giving a piece of a date in charity, right? How does a piece of a date cost? How much $1 less than $1.50? Right? Foster was showing us that even that small act of goodness can be an act of goodness that can protect us from the hellfire. But when the heart becomes hard, we begin to belittle these these these deeds, right? Likewise, we begin to be little our sins are just like little the deeds will be in to deliver our sins. We think, you know, it's a small sin, who cares? What's the problem? Right? So a person

may commit a sin, they'll say, you know, I was before my Hello, forgive me. Right? I do other good things. What's the problem? And this is what

he said, one of the worst sins that a person can commit is to belittle their bad deeds, is to look at their body and say, you know, it's not such a big deal. He said, this is one of the worst sins that a person can commit.

Number three, the third sign that the hardest part is when we are not affected by the recitation of the poem. So we hear the Quran being recited, but it doesn't affect our hearts, right? We hear it passively. And we don't even think about it. Like we're praying, we're hearing in prayer, but it makes no difference to us and allies, or that tells us about the believers in them. And we know

that the believers are only those that when a lot is mentioned, their hearts tremble in fear.

were either too high or too

low. And when there is or recycle the item, decided upon the believers, increases them in email, while being a token and upon their Lord, do they rely? The question we ask ourselves is what is the last time we heard the product, or we heard that you were sighted in our hearts trembled. But we came back from that experience. When we heard the plan. We said, I heard this recitation of the Quran, and I felt lucky to go up. If that didn't happen, it's a sign that our hearts have become hard. Also, number four,

when we stop becoming affected by the things occurring around us, when it doesn't raise our human, this is a sign that our hearts become hard. So for example, we see a loved one or a close one guy, right? We're sad for a day or two, we're like, you know, death is certain and all that. And then we forget quickly, or we see natural disasters, we see the signs

all around us. We see whole cities being destroyed. We see this happen that we see major world events, and it makes no difference to us. Right when we just we're just indifferent to the things happening around us. Or we look at the blessings of a lot and it doesn't raise our email. Right? We think about the fact that like even eyesight, Allah gave me the ability to think allocating my two hands that I have, if I didn't have my hands, for example, what would my life be like? And I guarantee you, that whatever your life is like right now if a lot took away at

Single head of yours, a single head, your life would be incredibly different life as you know, it would completely change. And this Why talk to somebody who's hadn't had amputated or are reputated. And ask them how their life is. And they will tell you that before I lost my limb, my life was completely different. Right? When we stopped thinking about these matters, when we look at the blessings of Allah, it doesn't affect us, this is another sign that our heart has become hard. Number five, the pleasures of this life become our main concern. Right, we become consumed by the dunya. So in

a way to judge whether that's our lifestyle or not, is to ask yourself the question for me, how do I judge good and bad? Right? So if I look at good things, and the bad things? Is my judgment of good and bad based off of how much pleasure I've gotten out of it or not? Is that my sole Judge of what is good and what is bad? Right? So for example, some people live their life in this way that if something brings them enjoyment and pleasure, then it's good. And it's fine. It's okay to do. And if something is difficult, or it's hard to do, and it doesn't bring them pleasure, then there's something just not good. Right? So basically, Islam is thrown out the door at this point, right. And

the reason why this happens is because a person's main concern in life is the dunya. Right, they start thinking about, to start thinking about the fact that they're going to be accountable for the things that they did in this life. So if the only their purpose in life basically becomes How can I just have more fun? When you ask a lot of people, this is very common, like a new normal. So say this, let's say, Well, my goal in life is just to be happy. What they mean by be happy, is just to have as much fun as possible, right? And sooner or later. It's something that a lot of people realize, you know, people who have been given everything, they didn't give it lots of money in vain

kind of stuff. This is normal, that they realized at some point in your life, that worldly pleasures become boring at a certain point, right, at certain point, you're like, what's next? What's next, what's next. And there's nothing more to fulfill your worldly desire. Right. And this is, this is like the spiritual sickness that I was talking about, where we cannot fulfill our desires anymore. And that is the problem. That is when our hearts, it's a sign that our hearts and become hard, if our main concern in life is just to have more fun or to get as much pleasure as I can. Number six, the sixth sign that our hearts become a card is that we are not bothered by sins. So for example,

we're sitting in a gathering and somebody's sitting around is blatantly, blatantly disobeying a law or they're committing a sin in front of us. And we're sitting in that gathering, and we don't care. Right, this is a sign that our hearts have become hard. Right? Their hearts not soft anymore. Because we see a lot of xojo being disobeyed, and it makes no difference to us. And a lot of times the excuse that we'll make is, well, at least I'm not doing it. Right. That's another trick. Because your body knows that, you know, if he told you to do this, then you'd say no, I'm not gonna do this thing. So you at least he wants you to at least sit in the gathering where the sin is being taken

place, right? And the excuse to give yourself as well, at least I'm not doing this thing, right? I'm better off than these people with a thought doesn't want you to know is that it's a slippery slope, that we start off like that. Right? We start off saying, you know, at least I'm not committing the sin. What's the problem? What's the big deal, but what's happening is that we are becoming desensitized to this sin. And this is why for example, I'll give you a personal example. When I was living in Medina, I spent almost seven years in Medina. When I was there, I almost never heard somebody cursing, it would never happen. Right? I would never go to Sonic University. So obviously,

people were students of knowledge, and you would never ever hear anyone cursing. So when I would come home in the summertime, and I come home for a couple months, if I heard somebody curse, it would shake me to the core. Right? You would have a huge effect on like some kind of law. I can feel how foul this thing is that is being said, right, now that I've moved back. I've been back for over a year now.

Because cursing is so common in our society. Right? I personally, I myself don't feel like I still feel before. Right? People will curse around me. Yeah, I know. It's bad. But it doesn't shake me like it used to shake me when I was in an environment where no cursing took place. And this is what happens when you desensitize yourself to sins. Right? You start to think that it's not such a big deal. But number seven, the seventh, the seventh sign that our heart is becoming hard is when our sins turn into habits. Okay? So one of the one of the issues with sitting is that when we sin

We don't make Toba from this sin we don't repent.

It reads more sins. So usually one sin will lead to another sin will lead to another sin, so on and so forth. If we don't make right make Toba. But if we don't make Toba then once it will lead to another thing that will lead to another state. Now what it leads to a lot more sins, eventually the sin becomes a habit. Because we're doing it so much it becomes a habit. And the problem with habits is, what's the problem? What happens?

What's the problem? When something becoming a habit? It's hard to break, right? When something becomes a habit, it's hard to get rid of it. This is why people who smoke for example, once it becomes a habit, it's not even so much about the nicotine sometimes, right? Yes, there is a nicotine addiction and all that. But sometimes it's simply just the habit of smoking a habit of taking something and putting in your mouth and smoking, that it becomes a habit. And because of that it's hard for them to leave this, right. So if our sins have now turned into habits, this is another sign that our heart has become hard last day. And there's actually many signs, these are some of the main

signs I want to give you showing that maybe our hearts are becoming hard. The last sign number eight, is when we begin to feel a lack of purpose in our life. Right? When we look at our life, and we're like what is life for? Right? We're just like going through life. And we start to feel sad, and we start to feel depressed. Mind you, I'm not talking about clinical depression here. I'm talking about sadness, right? Where you feel uneasy, right? When you look at life, and nothing really makes sense anymore, right? You're doing your sins or whatever you doing day in, day out. Let's say you go to work in the morning, you work all day, you come home at night, and then you you

sleep late, and you wake up early in the morning. It's just like the cycle and you feel like you're stuck in a rut. Right? This is another sign that maybe the heart has become hard because we're exposed to all these sins. All these things are happening. And you haven't found the answers yet. So maybe the heart become heart. Now. Those are some of the signs that our heart has become hard. I also wanted to give you what we could call the leading causes of a hard part. Right? Some of the leading causes those things that actually make our hearts hard, right. So obviously, it goes without saying that these are the things that we want to avoid. And these are the things you want to stay

away from