Chapter 1.1. Between Sickness And Death

Sickness is of a lesser level then death, so the heart dies due to total ignorance but becomes ill due to having fragments of ignorance, and in this case there can be either death, sickness or healing for the heart. Its life, death, sickness and the cure is greater and more vital then the life, death, sickness and cure of the body. This is why the heart becomes sick when presented with doubts and desires, or the sickness becomes more acute. If wisdom and goodly exhortation occur then theses are routes to its correction and cure.

Allah, the Most High; says,

That He may make what is thrown in by Satan a trial for those hearts is a disease and whose hearts are hardened. [Surah al-Hajj (22) : 53]

Because this breeds doubts in them and their hearts harden due to their dryness, and are weakened by doubt and become distant from faith and therefore what is thrown in by Satan becomes a trial for them.

Allah, the Most High, said,

If the hypocrites, and those in whose hearts is disease, and those who spread false news among the people of Madinah cease not, We shall certainly let you overpower them, then they will not be able to stay in it as your neighbouts but for a little while. [Surah al-Ahzab (33) : 60)

...and that no doubts may be left for the People of the Book and the believers, and that those in whose hearts is a disease and the disbelievers may say, 'What does Allah intend by this parable?' [Surah al-Muddaththir (74) : 31]

These people's heart (which have hardened) have not died as in the case of the disbelievers and the hypocrites, and neither are their hearts correct and pure like the pure hearts of the believers, rather they contains the sickness of doubt and desire. The same applies to (the ones referred to in) His saying:

...Lest he in whose heart is a disease be moved with desire... [Surah al-Ahzab (33) : 32]

Referring to the sickness of desire, for indeed if the correct heart is tempted by a woman it will not incline towards her, contrary to the heart diseased with .desire, for it, due to its weakness, will incline towards what it is tempted with in accordance to the strength or the weakness of the sickness, and when it submits to the temptation, the sickness in the heart is satiated.

• Concerning the Ailments of the Hearts an...
• The Quran Is A Cure For The Hearts

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