Purification of the Heart

Types of Heart :

Just as the heart may be described in terms of being alive or dead, it may also be regarded as belonging to one of three types; these are the healthy heart, the dead heart, and
the sick heart.

The Healthy Heart :

On the Day of Resurrection, only those who come to Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala with a healthy heart will be saved. Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala says: "The day on which neither wealth nor sons will be of any use, except for whoever brings to Allah a sound heart. (26:88-89)"

In defining the healthy heart, the following has been said: "It is a heart cleansed from any passion that challenges what Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala commands, or disputes what He forbids. It is free from any impulses which contradict His good. As a result, it is safeguarded against the worship
of anything other than Him, and seeks the judgment of no other except
that of His Most Beloved Messenger Salla Allahu ta'ala 'alayhi wa 'aalihi wa Sallam. Its services are exclusively reserved for Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala,
willingly and lovingly, with total reliance, relating all matters to
Him, in fear, hope and sincere dedication. When it loves, its love is
in the way of Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala. If it detests, it detests in the light of what He detests. When it gives, it gives for Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala. If it withholds, it withholds for Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala.
Nevertheless, all this will not suffice for its salvation until it is
free from following, or taking as its guide, anyone other than His
Beloved Messenger Salla Allahu ta'ala 'alayhi wa 'aalihi wa Sallam. Those who follow the Beloved Prophet Salla Allahu ta'ala 'alayhi wa 'aalihi wa Sallam in observing his Sunnah and the Shari`ah are guides to those who had not met him Salla Allahu ta'ala 'alayhi wa 'aalihi wa Sallam.

A servant with a healthy heart must dedicate it to its journey's end and must not give precedence to any other faith or words or deeds over those of Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala and
His Beloved Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace and
those who are rightly guided, keeping the Prophetic example. Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala says:

"Oh you who believe, do not put yourselves above Allah and His Messenger,
but fear Allah, for Allah is Hearing, Knowing. (49:1)"

The Dead Heart

It is called to Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala and the akhira from a distance but it does not respond to advice, and instead it follows any scheming, cunning shaytan. Life angers and pleases it, and
passion makes it deaf and blind[1] to anything except what is evil.

To associate and keep company with the owner of such a heart is to tempt illness: living with him is like taking poison, and befriending him means utter destruction.

The Sick Heart

The first heart is alive, submitted to Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala , humble, sensitive and aware; the second is brittle and dead; the third wavers between either its safety or its ruin.

Symptoms

"He it is Who sent down calmness and tranquillity into the hearts of the believers, that they may grow more in Faith along with their (present) Faith. And to Allah
belong the hosts of the heavens and the earth, and Allah is Ever
Al-Knower, All-Wise." The Noble Quran: [48 : 4]

Signs of a sick heart

Since the living heart experiences pain as a result of any ugliness that it encounters and through its recognising its ignorance of the truth (to a degree that corresponds to
its level of awareness), it is capable of recognising the onset of
decay-and the increase in the severity of the remedy that will be
needed to stop it-but then sometimes it prefers to put up with the pain
rather than undergo the arduous trial of the cure!

Some of the many signs of the heart's sickness if its turning away from good foods to harmful ones, from good remedies to shameful sickness. The healthy heart prefers what is
beneficial and healing to what is harmful and damaging; the sick heart
prefers the opposite. The most beneficial sustenance for the heart is
faith and the best medicine is the Qur'an al kareem.

Signs of a healthy heart

The healthy heart continues to trouble its owner until he returns to Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, and is at peace with Him, and reaches Him, like a lover driven by compulsion who finally reaches his beloved. Besides his love for Him he
needs no other, and after invoking Him no other invocations are needed.
Serving Him precludes the need to serve any other.

If this heart misses its share of reciting the Qur'an al kareem and invoking Allah (dhikrullah), or completing one of the prescribed acts of worship, then its owner suffers more distress than a cautious man who suffers because of the
loss of money or a missed opportunity to make it. It longs to serve,
just as a famished person longs for food and drink.

Yahya ibn Mu'adh said:

Whoever is pleased with serving Allah, everything will be pleased to serve him; and whoever finds pleasure in contemplating Allah, all the people will find pleasure in
contemplating him.

This heart has only one concern: that all its actions, and its inner thoughts and utterances, are obedient to Allah. It is more careful with its time than the meanest people are
with their money, so that it will not be spent wastefully. When it
enters into the prayer, all its worldly worries and anxieties vanish
and it finds its comfort and bliss in adoring its Lord. It does not
cease to mention Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, nor tire of serving Him, and it finds intimate company with no-one save a person who guides it to Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala and reminds it to Him.

Its attention to the correctness of its action is greater than its attention to the action itself. It is scrupulous in making sure that the intentions behind its actions are
sincere and pure and that they result in good deeds.

As well as and in spite of all this, it not only testifies to the generosity of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala in giving it the opportunity to carry out such actions, but also testifies to its own imperfection and shortcomings in executing them.

The causes of sickness of the heart

Hudhayfa ibn al-Yamani, may Allah be pleased with him, said:

The Messenger of Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala said, "Temptations are presented to the heart, one by one. Any heart that accepts them will be left with a black stain, but any heart that
rejects them will be left with a mark of purity, so that hearts are of
two types: a dark heart that has turned away and become like an
overturned vessel, and a pure heart that will never be harmed by
temptation for as long as the earth and the heavens exist. The dark
heart only recognises good and denounces evil when this suits its
desires and whims.[3]

He, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, placed hearts, when exposed to temptation, into two categories:

First, a heart which, when it is exposed to temptation, absorbs it like a sponge that soaks up water, leaving a black stain in it. It continues to absorb each temptation
that is offered to it until it is darkened and corrupted, which is what
he meant by "like an overturned vessel". When this happens, two
dangerous sicknesses take hold of it and plunge it into ruin:

The first is that of its confusing good with evil, to such an extent that it does not recognise the former and does not denounce the latter. This sickness may even gain hold of
it to such an extent that it believes good to be evil and vice-versa,
the Sunnah to be bida' and vice-versa, the truth to be false and falsity to be the truth.

The second is that of its setting up its desires as its judge, over and above what the Beloved Prophet Salla Allahu ta'ala 'alayhi wa 'aalihi wa Sallam taught, so that it is enslaved and led by its whims and fancies.

Second, a pure heart which the light of faith is bright and from which its radiance shines. When temptation is presented to pure hearts such this, they oppose it and reject it,
and so their light and illumination only increase.

Notes :

2. Sahih Al-Bukhari, Kitab ar-Riqaq, 11/233.

3. Sahih Muslim, Kitab al-Iman, 2/170 (with different wording).