Saad Tasleem – Between A Rock And A Heart Place – 02 – Causes of a Hard 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 heart heart. Right, some of the leading causes those things that
actually make our hearts heart, right. So obviously, it goes without saying that these are the
things that we want to avoid. These are the things you want to stay away from. So number one, I
mentioned this before, the fortune of being consumed by the dunya. Right, if our main purpose in
life is the idea, and that's all that's the only reason we're living our life, will find that it
will lead to a heart becoming part. And this is what this is why we're the early scholars, he said
		

			that Georgia has given every human being two sets of eyes. One is their physical eyes and their
physical eyesight. And then he said a lot has also given the human beings, eyes for their heart.
Right. And he says, the person who opens up the eyes of their heart, they will look at the realities
of life, not just like the physical things that you have here, but look deeper, and they'll start to
think about like the purpose of their life, that will get the creation, let's start thinking about
the Creator, right, they'll start pondering and thinking, and they'll have a low get them to feel to
understand the purpose of their life. Right. And then this call you said when a person when they're
		

			when they're the eyes of their heart, when they become open, this person begins to realize all the
pleasures Allah has for them from this dunya. And from the
		

			what, there's two main problems with being consumed by the dunya. Two ways in which it needs our
hearts to become our number one.
		

			It blinds the heart, right, and this is what I was talking about with the statement of the scholar
where he said that we have eyes in our hearts, right, meaning our hearts need to feel the need to
see. But once we become consumed by the dunya, we begin to cover up our spiritual needs we can
become, we start to cover up the needs of our heart, because the reality is that all of us as human
beings, like we have the need to eat and drink and sleep, etc. We also have the need to be
spiritual. We have the need to connect to our Lord and our Creator. And this is why the prophets
have to send them said couldn't move. Oh, who did you know?
		

			He said, every single newborn child is born upon their fifth Ah, what is the fifth? The fifth is
Islam. The fifth one is our natural desire, our natural inclination to worship Allah azza wa jal
alone, right. And that is our spiritual need that we have. And the person that told us this is their
parents, this is person parents that either make them a Jew or a Christian or whatever, they change
their religion. But if this child was left on their own, without other influences, they would
automatically be Muslim, because they would worship allies alone. This is our fifth our natural
desire or spiritual desire to worship Allah as well. So that's the first thing in blind, our, our,
		

			the, the bodies of the eyesight of our hearts. Secondly, being consumed by the dunya, right or
seeking the dunya only wanting things in this dunya it actually fools us. Right? It fools us into
thinking, for example, that we're gonna live forever, right? And this is a concept that nobody
actually believes, right? Whether you're Muslim or not, whether you're Christian, or Jew or atheist,
everyone understands that at some point, we're going to die.
		

			But when we become consumed by the dunya, right, I mean, our main goal in life just becomes having
more in the dunya. Right, having to have more fun in the dunya attain more things, get a car and a
house and all that kind of stuff, we begin to fool ourselves into thinking that we're going to live
forever, that we're going to last forever. And we forget that a lot of Zodiac can take our life away
at any moment. It also fools us into thinking that somehow we're going to attain perfection in this
life. Right? So we try this a lot of us we tweet and all we're doing like we're trying to attain
some type of perfection, the perfect car, right? Or the perfect house, the perfect wife, the perfect
		

			children, the perfect career, the perfect is the perfect match. And that becomes the purpose, our
love our lives. And we forget that perfection doesn't exist here in this dunya. Perfection is for
the parent, for parents, for gentleman for Africa, it's only an hour, we're gonna get these things
that are like, this is perfect. Right? And this is an exercise I usually do in my class. The Chilean
class that I teach and exercise I do with the students is I tell them, think about something that
you're desiring right now. So think about something that you want to buy one day, so maybe it's like
a car like there's a car looking for to buy or house or something that you're really looking forward
		

			to right now.
		

			After you think about this thing,
		

			realize that whatever this thing is, once you bought it once you've attained it once you actually
have it, how are you going to feel about it? Two months after that, or a year after that, or two
years after that? Are you going to be like, this is perfect? Or are you going to be like, you know
what, I need something better. I need something cooler, I need something which is more perfect. And
it doesn't exist, right? So the consumer fools us into thinking that it's in this life that we're
going to attain that perfection, when that is not actually the reality. Secondly, the second thing
that leads to a heart heart is what is known as a flop. And that's heedlessness, that's basically
		

			when we stop caring, right? We're like I said, we see sins happening around this, we see people
reminding us of a lie. So we may go to like a football. Or we may come to a lecture, and we hear
somebody reminding us but it doesn't make a difference because we're careless, were heedless, right?
meaning all the all the reminders that we get about the realities of life and the ASPCA and
paradise, and * and all this kind of stuff, and this and this and this and this, and we hear it
and it just like bounces off of our chest, right? So either lecture, there's no difference in our
email, right it's to say this is what is known as
		

			right a state of business when we stop caring stop thinking about the realities of life and the
problem in a lot is the return call the people like this, these are the people will be in the
Hellfire
		

			level life.
		

			These are the people that was talking to people they know.
		

			They have hearts that they don't use to understand.
		

			Now, you will see they have eyes, that then by which they do not see right now.
		

			They have ears, but they don't use these ears to hear right and then allies notices.
		

			that these people are like cattle, right? Like animals, right? Why a lot described to people as like
animal. Why?
		

			What is this thing? It was? What is it? What is the what is what do we avoid that type of state
where we seeing all these things around us? Like I said, we see the signs of a lock, we realize that
death is certain we see all that stuff, but still where he lists. What does that do with being like
cattle? Anyone know? Yeah.
		

			Exactly. So like an animal, right? Where your only concerns in life are your base desires, right?
Eating, sleeping, drinking, having *, etc, etc. That's it. That's your that's your only goal in
life. That's all you're concerned about. This is why I said that these people are like an arm.
They're like cattle. And then Allah says, burn him out, buddy.
		

			So once we have a picture was we can we can picture cattle and we say, Okay, I don't want to be in
that state. Allah says that the people who are like this bundle of one that they are more misguided,
they're further Australian cattle.
		

			So when we are in that type of state, where do we stop paying attention to the world around us? We
start paying attention to the cries of our soul, the cries of our spirituality, when we become
hedonist, Allah says we become more misguided than the cattle.
		

			Right? And then Eliza says,
		

			that is those people who are the author, you knew that people weren't heedless. And this is a
beautiful idea, because here a walk into such a vivid picture of the type of life that we're living
and the
		

			moment that rather than they are more misguided than even counting, number three,
		

			being around the wrong people, so this is an this is another thing which can lead our hearts to
become hard. Right? So being around the the wrong people has told us that and love
		

			that a person is a part of the religion of their close friend, fun young, but I hadn't given you
Harlan. So you should be careful to who you take as your close friend. So my son is telling us here
that listen, sooner or later, you're gonna adopt the characteristics of the people around you. So be
careful who you take as your close friend. Because if they are heedless, if their hearts are hard,
if they're sinful, whatever, eventually it's going to have an effect on you that eventually you're
going to become in that state as well. And this is what Eliza tells us of the person who shows up on
the day of judgment and he bites his hands your mind your body will end. The day on the bottom bites
		

			his head. And what does he say? He says I wish I had taken a path with the process in the process.
		

			Because I wish I followed the guidance of the press seven. And then he says, won't be able to me. I
wish that I had not taken so and so as a funny as a close friend. Right? Why not have a wonder the
added victory
		

			that he misguided me from the thicker from the remembrance right after it came to me right after I
had become Muslim after I had the proofs and evidences in front of me after I already had my
religion after that he misguided and then dispersed and then the Watchtower says, what kind of shape
		

			that will certainly ship on is the desert of mankind. The fourth reason or the fourth, the fourth
thing, the fourth leading cause of a hard heart is indulging in sins without repenting. Right. It's
when we commit a sin, but we don't repent is what the prophets have sent him. He told us that when a
person commits a sin, a god is placed on their heart. Right and if this person if they make Toba,
they asked Allah for forgiveness, than Allah removes that dot and actually, the heart gets polished.
Right? And this actually shows us that Toba polishes our heart, right? And then the President have
said that this person doesn't make Toba, they commit another sin, another Donna's place and then
		

			another another until the heart becomes covered. Right? And this is why when we commit a sin, and we
don't repent, this leads to a hard heart or a sealed heart. Right. And the issue isn't really the
issue isn't the fact that we committed a sin, right, obviously, is one committed sin. The bigger
issue here is that we didn't repent. Right, everyone makes mistakes, everyone convinced since
that's, that's not the issue, and doesn't expect us to be perfect, and we're never going to commit a
sin. But the question is, or the issue is, did we make Toba after the sin or not? Right? And this is
why the prophets a lot of them said, he said couldn't move. But he
		

			said all of the children are the late mistakes
		

			in October, and the best of those who make mistakes, and those who sin or those who make Toba.
		

			There's a difference between your parents, Heidi, whether it's authentic or not, the scholars said
that the meaning is at least authentic. Right that a lot of listeners Expect us never to listen. But
all a lot wants from us is that if we sit we make Toba and we returned to allies, when we stop
making Toba. Right, that is when our hearts start to become hard. And that's what happens when you
leave October, you commit sin after sin after sin. And there's no Toba involved mental process. This
is where the heart starts to become hard. Number five, is ignoring death. Right? This is like I
mentioned before, as well, when we start ignoring the fact ignore these realities that like I said,
		

			we all understand the fact that we're gonna die, right? But we become heedless, we get involved in
the dunya. And we just stop caring about death, we start ignoring death.
		

			At that point, our heart starts to become hard. And the further away a person is, by the way, the
further somebody is from the reality of death, the harder the harder it's going to become. Right? So
a lot of I know, like a lot of young people, they will nobody says this, but deep in their mind,
like they actually believe that nothing will happen to them, they'll live forever, and they're
somehow going to live forever. And this is why you see like, it's it's very common for young people
to start smoking. Usually, when people get old, they will all sudden start smoking usually, right
usually happens at a young age because you feel invincible. Like how was some cigarettes gonna do to
		

			me? Right? And this is this is this thing in your hearts has become hardwired when you stop thinking
about the fact that a lot could take your life at any moment. Right. So those are some of the
leading causes of becoming harder. Now the final issue that I want to talk about, and I would say
this is the takeaway from this lecture tonight, right? There's anything that you can take away, this
is what I want you to take away and these are the cure the cure to a hard part, or the things that
we can do to soften our heart.