Duties and Sins of the Heart

## No opinion in religion

We do not interfere in the matters of religion with our own opinion; Allah forbade us and warned us against that. Allah said: "Indeed, the hearing, the sight and the heart — about all those [one] will be questioned." So we will be asked about what is in our heart. Many people have let loose their tongues and begun to issue fatwas.

## The heart and its duties

We will be asked about what goes on in the heart — the sins of the heart — on the Day of Resurrection. The heart is ever-changing; it is called *qalb* because of how often it turns, so we call upon Allah night and day to make us firm in His obedience.

Upon this heart there are duties:

- Faith in Allah and in what comes from Allah, Mighty and Sublime — and that is *taṣdīq* (assent): we believe what we know and what has reached us, that there is no god but Allah, and we believe in everything that came from Allah without doubt, without uncertainty, not even for a moment. - Faith in the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and in what came from him — that we believe him and what is established from him, that we believe in him, and that he was sent to all the worlds, commanding them with what Allah made obligatory and forbidding us what Allah forbade. - Faith in all that is well known of the matters of religion and in the rites of Allah — they must be venerated, and we must not mock them. - Love of Allah and love of His speech — which is by veneration and declaring Him free of imperfection — and love of the Quran and its veneration, for it is the guide of the Muslims. - And whoever assigns a "how", there is no "how" for Him — that is, the One who created all this has no "how", and He is not described by it. - This Quran is the speech of Allah — that is, expressions that point to the eternal speech of Allah; for when the word "fire" is written, that written word is not fire. - Love of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ — describing him with what befits him and declaring him free of what does not befit him: that he was brave, that he is not afflicted with repulsive diseases, and that he is not described with lying or cowardice; and we follow his law (*sharīʿa*), which is the law of all Muslims, and it is the easiest of laws. - Love of the Companions — they are the Companions of the Prophet ﷺ in a general sense, not individually; because they transmitted this religion to us, they and the Successors (*tābiʿīn*) and the followers of the Successors, for it reached us by transmission (*naql*). - *Āl*: that is, the Companions and the household of the Prophet. - **Love of the righteous (*ṣāliḥīn*) in a general sense** — they are servants whom Allah chose, whom He guided to His obedience, who drove the love of this world from their hearts, who followed the Messenger with a complete following, and who increased in the supererogatory deeds (*nawāfil*); so Allah loved them, the Messenger loved them, and the angels loved them — and we do not oppose them. Allah said in a *ḥadīth qudsī*: "Whoever shows enmity to a friend of Mine, I have declared war on him."

## Patience

Among the duties of the heart is patience (*ṣabr*):

- Patience in performing the obligatory — such as your [being commanded with] prayer, zakāt, and fasting. - Patience away from the forbidden — such as someone's mistreating you. - Patience in the face of affliction.

Allah said: "And give good tidings to the patient." The reward of patience is Paradise. And Allah tests the servant in proportion to the strength of his faith.

## Sins of the heart

Among the sins of the heart:

1. Doubt concerning Allah. 2. **Denying the divine decree (*qadar*) — for our Lord is not overcome. 3. Hatred of the Companions, the family, and the righteous — for it is not obligatory to love every one of the righteous individually, but it is obligatory not to hate them all; this is a sin among the sins of the heart. 4. Feeling safe from Allah's plan (*al-amn min makr Allāh*) — that a person persists in sins and does not want to repent, only saying: "My Lord is Forgiving, Merciful"; it is one of the major sins, but it does not put one outside the religion. 5. Despair of Allah's mercy (*al-qunūṭ min raḥmat Allāh*) — that the servant thinks ill of Allah by saying that Allah does not forgive sins; this is a major sin. And the path of salvation lies between this and that. 6. Arrogance (*al-takabbur*) — it is one of the major sins, and it has two kinds: - Rejecting the truth when it is said, while knowing that the one who said it is right — the speaker may be young or poor. - Despising people, that is, looking down on them so as to raise oneself above the poor. 7. Showing off (*al-riyāʾ*)** — performing the act of obedience seeking people's praise; it is the minor *shirk*, and it nullifies deeds. A person should not perform the act of obedience for the sake of reward and people's praise. 8. **Envy (*al-ḥasad*)** — that a person dislikes the blessing that Allah has bestowed on someone else. If the envier wishes the blessing of Islam to disappear from another, he disbelieves. If he wishes a worldly blessing to disappear from another, the scholars said he does not fall into sin, because it may come upon him without his will. But if he acts upon that dislike by word or deed, then he falls into sin.