1. THE HEARTS VARY IN THE SUSCEPTIBILITY TO [RELIGIOUS] EXHORTATIONS
A person may hear an exhortation (mawaiz) or an influential sermon (khutba) that causes the heart (qalb) to be awakened (jaqza). However, as soon as he leaves the place of exhortation or where the sermon was delivered, the heart returns to its state of hardness (qasawa) and heedlessness (ghafla). This being the case, I contemplated the reasons behind the quick change of the heart and I was successful in finding the answer.
I came to realize that the reason for the variation of the effect of [religious] exhortations and sermons on the heart is because the state of the heart prior to hearing them is different to its state at the time of hearing and after having heard them.
There are two reasons to explain this variation in the state of the heart and mind:
1.The first of which is that the mechanism and effect of exhortations and reminders is similar to the effect of whips and lashes on people; the skin feels pain only when it is whipped but pain evaporates afterwards.
2. The second reason is that both the mind and the heart at the time of hearing exhortadons and sermons are detached from all worldly distractions, hence the heart listens attentively. However, as soon as he returns back to his normal life, his worldly affairs absorb his time, due to which he is unlikely to remain in the same condition he was upon while hearing the sermon. The vast majority of people are exposed to this kind of effect whereas the heedful ones are affected differently when they are exposed to exhortadons. There is a group of people who are determined without having hesitation and proceed without a second thought. They become in a state of discomfort whenever their intrinsic nature stands in their way! This was the case of the companion Handhalah (radiyAllahu ‘anhu) who admonished himself by saying, ‘Handhalah has turned out to be a hypocrite.
On the other hand, there are some people whose nature sometimes inclines them to heedlessness (ghafla) and so such exhortations entice them to sometimes act upon them, for which they become like a tuft standing in the path of wind!
With other people, the effect of reminders and exhortations on them vanishes by the time they finish hearing them, similar to how much time water would remain over a smoothened rock.
(source: al-Hafiz Abu’l-Faraj ibn al-jawzl [d. 597AH] “CAPTURED THOUGHTS being” a translation of his masterpiece ‘Sayd al-K hatir)
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