Tuesday, March 2, 2010

The tongue, the mind and the heart

Bismillah.

O son, yesterday we learned from Shaykh Adnan Kabbani on the importance of having our hearts tuned to Allah always by way of zikr with our tongues and remembering Him in our hearts and minds. This is what Imam al-Haddad has to say on the relationship between the tongue, the mind and the heart in relation to reciting the Qur'an, which is one of the best forms of zikr.
You ask about the following statement of Imam al-Ghazali in his 'Book of the Secrets of Recitation': the tongue is a counsellor, the mind an interpreter, and it is the heart which is influenced.'

The passage is clear: the function of the tongue is to produce the words which convey concepts; the mind listens to these words, extracts the concepts, and then casts them into the heart, it is called an 'interpreter' in contexts such as this. This applies to the Companions of the Right Hand (ashab al-yamin), to whom the concepts come during and after the recitation of the Qur'an.

The Ones Brought Nigh (al-muqarrabun), on the other hand, actually receive the ideas before the recitation, since the concepts are already established in their hearts and blended with their essential realities, so that they are ever present, whether the tongue is actively reciting or not.

FROM: Gifts for the Seeker
Publisher credit: Fons Vitae
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O son, we may be too ignorant and impure to belong with the al-muqarrabun but that should not stop us from belonging with those who recite the Qur'an regularly. May Allah in His generosity and compassion gather us with ashab al-yamin.
Ameen Allahumma ameen.


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