27. PIETY IS THE VEIN OF LIFE IN GOOD HEARTS
Whoever was endowed with a good heart (qalb tayyib) and the sweetness (halaira) of invoking Allah in secret (khawla) should mind his state and beware of change because the lasting of this state depends on the continuality of his piety (taqwa).
I was blessed with a good heart and invoking Allah in privacy, but one day some of the high ranked people in this life invited me to a feast they prepared, and I could not refuse the invitation. I ate and I ate from their food, however ever since, I endured some hardships and received my punishment immediately. I remained in such a state of disturbance for a while. This made me become furious about the state of my heart, and I lost the pleasure of worship that I used to feel prior to that incident.
So I said to myself, ‘I wonder to what this action lead me to, though I accepted that invitation unwillingly and I was in the position of the one who is compelled to do what he does not want to!’
Upon giving it more thought I realised that I could have overcome the situation by sufficing with a few bites, but my interpretation of the situation caused me to eat the food with appetite and so I ate more than I should have!
My desirous ‘self argued, ‘On what basis do you practice caution when you have no evidence that the food you ate was from unlawful source?’
My vigilant ‘self responded, ‘But where is the fear from the doubtful?’
I came to realise that when I ate a mouthful because of my interpretation and encouraged it with my innate desirous nature, I endured the worst of bitterness i.e. the loss of the heart:
“O people of vision, take warning.” [al-Hashr (59) :2]
(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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