An Occupied Space Cannot Contain Two
Opposites
A
beautiful example of the contents of the Heart by the great scholar, Imaam
Ibnul-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah. (taken from troid.org)
By
Imaam Ibnul-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah (d.751H)
For a space to accept what is being put
in it, it has to be emptied of the opposite. The same way this is relevant with
individuals and objects, it is also true for beliefs and wills.
- So,
if the heart is occupied with loving and believing in falsehood, then it
has no space for loving and accepting the truth.
- Just
like if a tongue is busy uttering what does not have benefit, then its
owner will not be able to utter what has benefit for him except if he
stops talking about what is useless.
- Also
if the different body parts are busy doing what is not obedience then it
is not possible to keep them occupied in doing what is obedience except if
he (the owner) frees them of the opposite.
- In
the same way, a heart full of loving other than Allaah, wanting him,
longing to meet him, and enjoying his company cannot be occupied with love
for Allaah, wanting Him, longing to meet Him except by emptying it (the
heart) from attachment to anything other than Him (Allaah).
And the tongue cannot move to remember Him nor can the body parts move to His
service except if he (the owner) frees them from mentioning and servicing other
than Him.
So if the heart is full of occupation with creation and sciences that do not
have benefit then there is no space for being occupied with Allaah and knowing
His Names, Attributes, Laws. And the secret of that is that the Isghaa
(listening in concentration) of the heart is like the Isghaa (listening
in concentration) of the ears, so if he listens to other than the Hadeeth
(meaning speech , words, subject) of Allaah, then there will be no room to
listen to or understand the Hadeeth of Allaah. Just like if he is
inclined in love towards other than Allaah then he would have no room to
incline in love towards Allaah. If the heart utters other than the remembrance
of Allaah then it will not have any space to utter His remembrance by using the
tongue. And that is why we find in an authentic narration from the Prophet (sallallaahu
'alayhi wa sallam):
"It is better for your mouths to be full of pus until it makes it go bad
than to be full of poetry." [1]
So he made it clear that a mouth can be full of poetry and therefore it also
becomes full of doubts, fictions and unexisting measures. Also the sciences
that have no benefit, jokes, comedies, stories and so on. If the heart is full
of that, then when the truths of the Qur`aan, and the sciences that can
make it experience its full function and happiness, come to him, it will not
find any space for itself and no acceptance (from it), so it bypasses it (the
heart) and moves to another place. If you give advice to a heart full of its
opposite, it will not find a way in and (the heart) will not accept it. It does
not enter inside but it only passes by briefly and not from the inside. That is
why it was said:
"Clean your heart from other than Us , and you will
find Us
For our Highness is compatible with every clean heart
And patience is a chest for the treasure of being associated with Us
He who makes the chest compatible wins its treasure."
Footnotes:
[1] Narrated by Sa'ad Ibn Abee Waqqaas in Saheeh Muslim, Kitaabush
Shi'ir (Book of poetry) (27/5610).
Check other master pices of Imaam
Ibnul-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah
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