By
Rana Rais Khan – Founder and Editor-in-Chief Hiba Family Resource Centre
Ibrahim at Tawejri, an Arab scholar has beautifully explained the five main root causes that corrupt a human heart in part 1 and 2 of the series.
Why do you need to fight the corruptors of the heart in the first place? The heart is the place where decisions are made. It has a physical and spiritual reality that impacts your choices in life. It decides the direction you will take not only in Dunya but also your ultimate and eternal home in the Aakhirah. Heart is the source of guidance or misguidance.
Believe it or not but the fourth corruptor of the heart is ‘Over eating.’
- Over eating
The passage to enter the human heart for Shaitan is expanded due to excessive eating. On the contrary fasting closes these doors of entry.
Allah (swt) states in the Quran: “O you who have believed, do not follow the footsteps of Shaitan, indeed he enjoins immorality and wrongdoing…” (An Nur 24:21)
Sometimes excessive indulgence in Halal also becomes a means of disobedience to Allah (swt). A believer cannot leave the path of moderation in any circumstances because it takes him away from his Creator.
How Shaitan has played with our ignorance of Deen and driven us to over indulgence of food. World over cafes, eateries and fine dining have mushroomed. Businesses related to the food industry are also booming. But all this economic activity does not ensure health, hygiene, etc. With the splurge of food joints there has been a drastic rise in diseases, allergies and what not.
Reflect upon your own eating habits. Are you disciplined with your diet? Do you eat on time? Do you eat the right type of diet in the correct portions? Do you splurge on food or on the coffee runs with friends in the name of good time?
Our Prophet (sa) had the simplest of tables even in the presence of food. He fasted regularly and even faced starvation. One of the Sahabi is known to discipline his Nafs by not eating what he craved for at that particular time.
One who can resist his appetite can build himself spiritually faster, become physically tougher and regulate his emotions too.
Keep your daily meals timely, healthy and simple. Keep your festivities also likewise. A celebration doesn’t mean that we serve the worst quality of food to hundreds of guests at odd times.
Tragically Pakistani weddings have become a worst case example of the above. We are responsible and answerable for the wastage of food too. But most fatal are the clogged arteries physically and a corrupt heart spiritually.
- Excessive Sleeping
This has alarming down sides to it. Over sleeping not only corrupts the heart but it makes the body heavy and lethargic, wastes constructive time and breeds a laidback, inactive and lazy attitude in life too.
In earlier times when globally people were more disciplined and entertainment avenues were few, parents were strict about the sleep pattern of their children too. Sleeping in or staying up late was never allowed.
Your sleep has been categorized in terms of its benefits to the human body. The sleep in first half of the night is most beneficial physically and spiritually. It detoxifies the body, relaxes and repairs it and readies it for the next day.
Similarly, the power nap between Zuhr and Asr prayer is also beneficial. It renews the tired mind and body and enables it to unwind the day ahead gradually.
The sleep during Chasht prayer (before midday) and after Asr prayer is non-beneficial and harms the body physically and the soul spiritually. Similarly sleeping after Maghrib prayer or before Isha prayer is not liked.
As majority of muslims who are either ignorant or neglectful have taken up strange habits. Students study late at night, people entertain themselves through different means all night long and now people even take up jobs that keep them awake through out the night reversing their clock.
If we become nocturnal, the first thing we lose is the Barakah (blessings) Allah (swt) bestows upon a believer between Fajr and dawn. Working and worshiping at this time brings extra ordinary results. Try memorizing the Quran or some Dua at this time, it will be easy and will stay with you forever, if Allah (swt) wills. Similarly, if you are stuck in a hard task, try attempting it right after Fajr prayers. You will overcome it by divine help.
But if you reverse the clock, emotionally you become stern, spiritually your Nafs becomes wayward and mentally your comprehension is badly impacted. Allah (swt) granted a cosmic principle to the universe. He deliberately set up the night dark so we could sleep and rest peacefully. He created the day bright so we could get up and work hard.
Allah (swt) states in the Quran: “And of His signs is your sleep by night and day and seeking of His bounty. In deed in that are signs for a people who listen.” (Ar Rum 30:23)
Reversing this natural body clock permanently is amounting to disobedience to Allah (swt) which ultimately corrupts the heart. Genuine reasons such as occasional travelling or staying up due to illness is obviously exempted.
Our heart was created to worship Allah (swt) with love, humility, fear, submission and respect. But if the heart is enslaved by Shiatain it becomes dysfunctional and disconnects from Allah (swt) the only source of guidance in Dunya and salvation in Aakhirah.
As believers we must make an action plan to overcome the five corruptors of the heart: excessive socialization, riding the waves of desires, attaching yourself to the world instead of Allah (swt), over eating and excessive sleeping.
Our hearts should be as Allah (swt) has described in the Quran: “The believers are only those who, when Allah is mentioned their hearts become fearful and when His verses are recited to them, it increases them in faith and upon their Lord they rely. The ones who establish prayer and from what We have provided them, they spend. Those are the believers, truly. For them are degrees (of high position) with their Lord and forgiveness and noble provision.”
Find out the earlier three corruptors of the heart in Part 1 and 2 of this series.
Part 1: https://hibamagazine.com/rebuild-your-life-know-the-corruptors-of-your-heart-part-1/
Part 2: https://hibamagazine.com/rebuild-your-life-fight-corruptors-of-the-heart-part-2/
Partially adapted from a course taught by Safiya Khan – ‘A Path to Spiritual Awakening.’
