On Informing the Heart

A cordial discipline of worship, especially the invoking worship, is "informing" [tafhim]. It is to take the heart, at the beginning, as a child not yet able to speak, and is wanted to be taught. So, each of the invocations, recitations, facts and secrets of worship is to be taught to the heart with strict accuracy and effort, and whatever the degree of perfection, one has to teach to the heart the facts which he has so far recognized. Even if one was unable to understand the meanings of the Qur'an and the invocations, and had no share of the secrets of worship, he, nevertheless, would have to teach his heart the very general meanings, such as telling it that the Qur'an is the words of Allah, that the invocations are remembrance of Allah, and that worship is obeying the Creator. He has to teach his heart such general information. Should he be of those who understand the apparent meanings of the Qur'an and the invocations, such as the promises, warnings, biddings and forbiddings, as well as the information about the Source [mabda'] and Resurrection [ma'ad], he must inform his heart of whatever has been understood from them by him. Should a fact of knowledge or a secret of worship be exposed to him, he is to inform it to his heart carefully and strictly. The result of such information is that after a period of perseverance the tongue of the heart will open to speaking and will become an invoker and a reminder. At the beginning the heart is a learner and the tongue a teacher. Whenever the tongue invokes, the heart also becomes an invoker, and so the heart is a follower of the tongue. But after that the heart's tongue learns to speak, the contrary happens: the heart becomes invoker and the tongue follows it in invocation and in movement. Rather, sometimes it happens that even when man is sleeping, his tongue starts invocating in pursuit of his heart's invocation, as the heart's invocation is not confined to the state of wakefulness, and when the heart remembers, the tongue, having become its follower, starts invocating after it, and it leaks out from the dominion of the heart: "Say: Every one acts according to his own manner ..." [54]

In short, at the beginning man must observe this discipline, that is, "informing", so that the tongue of the heart starts speaking, which is the real objective. The sign denoting that the heart's tongue has been released is that the tiredness and the hardship of the invocation are removed and replaced by animation and pleasure. It is like a baby which has not yet started talking, its tutor feels tired and bored before it speaks. No sooner the baby starts prattling than his tutor's fatigue goes away and the teacher follows up the child's utterances without tiredness or trouble. Similar is the heart. It is a mere infant at the start, knowing not how to speak. It is to be taught, and the invocations and the recitations are to be placed on its tongue. Then, as it begins talking, man begins to be its follower, and there will remain no pain of teaching nor any tiredness of invocating. This discipline is quite necessary for the beginners.

It must be noted that one of the secrets of repeating the invocations and benedictions and continuing the remembrance and worshipping is that the heart's tongue gets untied, and the heart becomes an invoking devotee. Without observing this discipline the tongue of the heart would remain tied up.

Some noble hadiths refer to this. The noble al-Kafi, quoting Imam as Sadiq (AS), who quoted Imam 'Ali (AS) who, referring to some disciplines of recitation, said: " ...But strike with it (the Qur'an) your hardened hearts, and do not be eager to get to the end of the surah. [55]

In another hadith in al-Kafi, Imam as Sadiq (AS) told Abu 'Usamah: "0 Abu 'Usamah, call your hearts [qulub] to remember Allah, and avoid what displeases Him." [56]

Even the most perfect godly men (AS) used to observe this discipline. A hadith relates that Imam as Sadiq (may Allah's peace be upon him) (once) was subject to a fit during the salat and fainted. When he came to his senses and he was asked about the reason, he said: "I kept repeating this ayah to my heart until I heard it from the one Who spoke it, and so, my body could not bear to see His power." [57]

Abu Dharr is quoted to have said that the Messenger of Allah (SA) was one night repeating this Qur'anic verse: "If You should torment them, then they are, indeed, Your servants, and if You should forgive them, then You are, indeed, the Mighty, the Wise." [58]

In short, the reality of invocation and remembrance is the invocation of the heart, without which the invocation of the tongue will be futile and worthless. This is referred to in a number of hadiths. The Messenger of Allah (SA) informed Abu Dharr: "Oh Abu Dharr, two rak'ats of salat in contemplation are better than spending the whole night with an inattentive (or forgetful) heart." [59]

The Messenger of Allah (SA) is also quoted to have said: "Allah, the Exalted, would not look at your faces, but at your hearts." [60]

In the hadiths concerning the presence of heart it is stated that, the more the presence of heart in the salat, the better it is accepted, and the more the negligence of the heart, the less it is acceptable. As long as the said discipline is not observed, no cordial invocation will happen, and the heart will not come out of its being inattentive and negligent.

It is narrated that Imam as Sadiq (A.S) said: "Make your heart a qiblah to your tongue and do not move it except by a sign from the heart." [61] But the heart would not become a qiblah, nor would the tongue and the other organs follow it unless the said discipline was observed. Should it happen without the observation of this discipline, it would be a rarity, and one must not take pride in it.

On the Presence of Heart

One of the important cordial disciplines, which many other disciplines may be its preliminaries, and worship without it would be lifeless, and it is the key to the lock of perfections and the door of the doors of blisses, and the noble hadiths seldom attach so much importance to a discipline other than that, is the "presence of heart". Although we have sufficiently explained this topic, together with its ranks and degrees in the thesis The Secret of the Salat [62] and in Forty hadiths, [63] nevertheless, we shall allude to it once again, to complete the benefit, and to avoid reference.

It has already been explained that worships, ceremonies, invocations and benedictions can have their results only when they become the inner image of the heart, and the interior of the essence of man is mixed with them, and his heart takes the form of servitude, renouncing disobedience and obstinacy. It has also been noted that one of the secrets and advantages of worship is that one's will gets stronger, the soul overcomes (one's) nature, the forces of the nature become subjugated to the soul's power and sovereignty and the will of the invisible soul overrules the visible body, such that the forces turn like the angels with regard to Allah, the Exalted, i.e. " ... They do not disobey Allah in what He commands them, and do as they are commanded." [64]

Now we add that one of the important secrets and advantages of worship, to which everything is a preliminary, is that the entire inside and outside kingdom becomes subjugated to Allah's will and moves at Allah's command, and the soul's visible and invisible forces become of Allah's soldiers, and all of them get the post of being Allah's angels. This is regarded as one of the low degrees of the annihilation of the forces and wills in Allah's will. Then, gradually, big consequences appear, the physical man becomes divine, and the soul practices servitude to Allah. The soldiers of Iblis will totally be defeated and abolished, and the heart and its powers surrender to Allah, and in it appear some inner stages of Islam. The result of this submitting of the will to Allah in the Hereafter will be that Allah, the Exalted, will enforce (make effective) the will of such a servant in the invisible worlds and make him His "sublime similitude" [mathali a'la]. And, like His Sacred Self when at His mere Will everything He wants is created, He makes this servant's will like His; as some of the people of knowledge, quoting the Messenger of Allah (SA), concerning the people of Paradise, say that an angel comes to them, and, after asking permission from them, he enters and after conveying Allah's greeting to them he delivers a letter from Allah, the Exalted. The letter says to whomsoever it is addressed: "From the Everliving, the Everlasting, Who never dies, to the everliving, the everlasting, who never dies. Now then, I tell a thing: Be! and it is. I made you tell a thing: Be! and it is." The Messenger of Allah (SA) said: "Hence, no one of the people of Paradise says to something: 'Be!' unless it will be". [65] This is the divine sovereignty bestowed upon the servant, because of his forsaking his own will and his desires' sovereignty, and because of his disobeying Iblis and his soldiers. None of the said results may take place except with the complete "presence of heart". If the heart was negligent and forgetful during the salat, his worship would not be real, but more like a play and sporting. Such a worship, as a matter of fact, will have no effect whatsoever on the soul, and the worship will never sublime from its outer form to the inside and the invisible world [malakut]. This fact is referred to by many narratives. The powers of the soul would not surrender, through such worship, to the soul itself, nor can the sovereignty of the soul be seen on them. Similarly, the outward and inward powers will not surrender to Allah's will , and the kingdom will not be subdued to Allah's Majesty, as is quite clear. That is why you can see no effect from forty or fifty years of worship on us. On the contrary, the darkness of the heart and the obstinacy of the powers increase day after day, since our longing for nature, our obedience to our desires and to the Satanic whispers, increase, too. These mean nothing but that our worships are empty and their interior and exterior disciplines are not observed. Otherwise, the Qur'anic text denotes that: " ... The salat forbids lewdness and vice." [66] Naturally, this forbidding is not something superficial. A torch should be lighted in the heart, and a light must shine in one's interior so as to guide him to the invisible world, and there appears a divine preventer which prevents man from disobedience.

We do regard ourselves among the musallin, and we have been engaged in this great worship for decades, without seeing such a light, nor discerning such a preventer in our interior. So woe to us on the day when the images of our deeds and the list of our acts are handed to us in that world and we are told to check our own accounts. [67] See if such deeds can be accepted by His Majesty, and whether such a salat, in such a deformed and darkened form, can bring one nearer to His Presence. Is it right to treat this great divine trust and the advice of the prophets and wasis (executors of the prophets' wills) in such a way, and to let the treacherous hand of the cursed Satan, the enemy of Allah, meddle in it? The salat, which is the mi'raj of the believer and the means of proximity of the pious, [68] why should it keep you away from the sacred proximity to the divine Presence? What would be our share on that day except regret, remorse, helplessness, wretchedness, shame and disgrace? -a regret and a remorse which have no equal in this world, and a shame and disgrace which cannot be imagined. This world's regrets, are, at any rate, mixed with a thousand kinds of hope, and the shamelessness here is transitory, while there is nothing there except regret and remorse day after day. Allah, the Exalted, says: "And warn them of the day of regret, when the matter shall have been decided." [69] What has passed cannot be returned and the life which has been wasted cannot be restored. "0 woe to me! for what I fell short of my duty to Allah ... " [70]

My dear, this day is the day of a grace period for actions. The prophets came and brought Books, and they proclaimed their calls, with a lot of celebrities, enduring pains and hardships, in order to wake us up from the sleep of negligence and to sober us from the nature's intoxication, and to take us to the world of light and the source of joy and pleasure, and to introduce us to the eternal life, the everlasting bliss and the unlimited delights, and to deliver us from annihilation, misery, fire, darkness, regret and remorse. All these are for our own benefit, without there being any profit for them, as those sacred personalities are in no need of our faith and deeds. Despite all that, they had not the least effect on us, as Satan was so firmly closing the ears of our heart, and exerted so a strong control over our inside and outside that none of their admonitions could ever have an effect on us, nor could any of the ayahs and hadiths pierce the ears of our hearts, going to no farther than our outer animal ears.

In short, O respected reader who read these papers, do not be, like the writer, void of all lights, and empty-handed of all good deeds, entangled in the sensual desires. Have mercy on yourself, and get a fruit from your life. Carefully look into the lives of the prophets and the perfect godly men [awliya], and cast away the false desires and Satan's promises. Do not be deceived by Satan's fraud, nor by the deceptions of the commanding soul, as their trickery is very clever, and they are able to dress every wrong as right in the eyes of man in order to deceive him. Sometimes they fool man by making him think that he will repent at the end of his life, and thus, drag him into wretchedness, despite the fact that repenting at the end of life, after the accumulation of the darkness of sins, and the numerous acts of injustice against the people and against Allah's right, is a very difficult task. Now, when man is still strong and in the prime of life, and the tree of sin is still frail and the influence of Satan has not yet become widespread in the soul, and the soul is still new to the invisible world and very near the God-given disposition, and the conditions for an acceptable repentance are easy, they do not let man repent and uproot this frail tree and overthrow the dependent kingdom. They suggest old age, when, on the contrary, the will is weak, the powers have given way, the trees of different sins are strong and deep rooted, the kingdom of Iblis, inwardly and outwardly, is independent and firm, the familiarity with nature is strong, the distance from the invisible world is great, the light of innate disposition is extinguished, and the situation for repentance is difficult and bitter. This is nothing but delusion.

In another instance the promise of the intercession of the intercessors (AS) drives man out of their sacred realm and deprives him of their intercession, because indulgence in disobedience gradually darkens and upsets the heart and drags man to a bad end. Satan's aim is to rob man's faith, and he makes committing sins a preliminary step to that aim so as to attain to it. If a man covetously thinks of intercession, he must try hard in this world to keep his connection with his intercessors, and think of the status of those who will intercede on the Day of Resurrection to see how their state of worship and devotion was. Suppose that you died a faithful man, but if the load of the sins and injustices was heavy, it is possible that concerning the different pains and tortures in the barzakh there would be no intercession for you, as Imam as Sadiq was quoted to have said: "Your barzakh is with yourselves". [71] The tortures of the barzakh cannot be compared with the tortures of this world, and the length of the period of the barzakh is unknown except to Allah. It will probably last for millions and millions of years. It is possible that, in the Hereafter and after long periods of diverse and unbearable kinds of torture, we get the intercession, as it is also related in the hadiths. [72]

Thus, the Satanic deception stops man from good deeds, and causes him to leave this world either faithless or loaded with heavy burdens, afflicting him with wretchedness and misfortune. In some instances, Satan, by giving man hope in the vast mercy of the Most Merciful, cuts his hand off the skirt of mercy, while he is careless of the fact that raising up so many prophets, revealing the Books, descending the angels, and the revelations and inspirations to the prophets, and their showing the right path, are all of the mercy of the Most Merciful. The whole world is enveloped in the vast mercy of Allah, while we, at the fringe of the spring of life, die of thirst.

The greatest of the divine mercies is the Qur'an. If you are looking greedily for the mercy of the Most Merciful, hoping for His vast mercy, do benefit from the Qur'an, the vast mercy. It has opened to you the way to happiness, and has distinguished for you the pit from the paved road. But you fall over into the pit by yourself, because you deviate from the right path. So, what has mercy to do with that? Had it been possible to show the road of good and happiness to the people in a different way ,it would have been done, according to the vastness of the mercy. Had it been possible to force the people into happiness, it would have been done. But alas! How far it is! The road to the Hereafter is a road which cannot be trodden except at one's free will. Happiness cannot be attained forcibly. Piety and righteous deeds are not so if not done voluntarily. This is probably the very meaning of the noble ayah: "There is no compulsion in religion" (2:256).

Yes, what can be made compulsory and forcible is the appearance of the divine religion, not its reality. The prophets (AS) were enjoined to impose the appearance, in any possible way, on the people, so that the appearance of the world might become the appearance of the divine justice, and to guide the people to the interior, so that they themselves might march on their own feet towards happiness.

In short, this is also a Satanic delusion which cuts, by coveting mercy, man's hand short from mercy.

Hadiths Concerning the Presence of Heart

There are many hadiths from the infallible and pure Ahlul Bayt (AS) concerning urging the "presence of heart". It suffices to translate some texts of those narratives:

The Messenger of Allah (SA) is quoted to have said: "Worship Allah as if you see Him. If you do not see Him, He does see you." [73]

From this noble hadith two of the degrees of the presence of heart can be realized:

The first is that the salik discerns the Beauty of the Beautiful, and is absorbed in the manifestations of the Beloved [hadrat i mahbub] such that all the ears of his heart will be closed to all other creatures, while the eye of his insight opens to the pure Beauty of the Lord of Majesty, discerning nothing else. That is, he is engaged in the Present [hadir], neglecting the presence [hudur] and company [mahdar].

The second degree, which is lower in rank, is that the salik sees himself present in His Presence [mahdar] and observes the discipline of the Presence [hudur] and Company [mahdar]. The Messenger of Allah (SA) says: "If you can be of those who are in the first degree, then worship Allah accordingly, or else, do not neglect the fact that you are in the Presence [mahdar] of the Lord." Naturally, there is a discipline for being in the Presence [mahdar] of Allah which should not be neglected in respect of the state of servitude. In a hadith, Abu Hamzah ath-Thamali narrates: "I saw Ali ibn al-Husayn (AS) performing his salat. His cloak slipped off his shoulders, but he did not try to rearrange it until he finished the salat. When I asked him about that, he said: 'Woe unto you! Do you know at whose service I was?'" [74]

The Messenger of Allah (SA) was quoted to have said: "Two of my Ummah stand for the salat, and, although their ruku' and sujud are the same, the difference between the two salats is like that which is between the earth and the sky." [75]

He also said: "Is the person who turns his face in the salat not afraid that it may turn into the face of an ass?" [76]

He further said: "Whoever performs a 2-rak'at salat without paying attention to any worldly matter, Allah, the Exalted, will forgive him his sins. [77]

In another hadith he said: "A salat, half of it may be accepted, or one-third, or a quarter, or one-fifth, or even one-tenth. Another salat may be folded, like an old dress, and be thrown back at the face of its owner". "No part of the salat is yours except that part which you perform with an attentive heart." [78]

Imam al-Baqir (AS) has quoted the Messenger of Allah (SA) as saying: "When a believing servant stands for the salat, Allah, the Exalted, looks at him (or he said: He turns to him) until he finishes, and mercy shadows over his head, the angels surround him from all sides up to the horizon of the heaven, and Allah assigns an angel to stand at his head, saying: '0 musalli, if you know who is looking at you, and to whom you are supplicating, you will look to nowhere, nor will you leave your position.'" [79]

Imam as Sadiq (AS) is quoted to have said: "Eagerness and fear will not get together in a heart unless Paradise is his. So, when you perform your salat, turn with your heart to Allah, the Glorified, the Almighty, because there would be no believing servant who would turn with his heart to Allah, the Exalted, during the salat and invocation, unless Allah would turn to him the hearts of the believers, and with their love He would back him and lead him to Paradise." [80]

It is narrated that Imams al-Baqir and as Sadiq (AS) said: "Nothing of your salat is yours except that which you did with an attentive heart. So, if one performed it completely mistaken, or neglected its disciplines, it would be folded and thrown back at its owner's face." [81]

Imam Baqirul 'Ulum ( the cleaver of knowledge) (AS) is quoted to have said: "of a servant's salat ascends half, one-third, one-fourth or one-fifth to his account. That is, of his salat will not ascend except that part which is performed with an attentive heart. We have been commanded to perform the nafilah so as to make up for the shortcomings of the obligatory salats." [82]

Imam as Sadiq (AS) is quoted to have said: " when you wear the ihram for the salat (i.e. When you prepared for the salat), pay attention to it, because when you pay attention to it, Allah will pay attention to you. If you do not care for it, Allah will not care for you. So, sometimes, does not ascend of the salat except one-third, one-fourth or one-sixth, according to the amount of attention the musalli pays to it. Allah grants nothing to the negligent." [83]

The Messenger of Allah (SA) is quoted to have said to Abu Dharr: "Two moderate rak'ats of salat with contemplation are better than worshipping a whole night with a negligent heart." [84] The hadiths on this are many, but those which have been related are enough for those whose hearts are awake and attentive.