Thursday, January 8, 2009

The Soldiers of the Heart ... Imam Ghazzali ...

God has armed soldiers which He has placed in the hearts and the souls and others of His worlds, and none knows their true nature and actual number except He...

Know that the two soldiers of anger and sexual passion can be guided by the heart completely... or on the other hand disobey and rebel against it completely, until they enslave it. Therein lies the death of the heart and the termination of its journey towards eternal happiness.

The heart has other soldiers: knowledge (`ilm), wisdom (hikma) and reflection (tafakkur) whose help it seeks by right, for they are the Party of God against the other two who belong to the party of shaytan... Imam Ghazali

"Concerning the Murid (seeker) and What Helps or Hurts Him in His Journey to God Most High, and What His First Step Ought to Be

There are two types of murid:

Those that seek God's Grace by worshipping Him, fulfilling His commands and avoiding His prohibitions, then turning to perform as many voluntary good works as they can, seeking through them salvation from the fire and attainment of the rewards He has prepared for His workers.

Others approach God in worship, fulfill His commands and avoid His prohibitions, then turn to examine their inner self, and they find in their hearts many diseases, such as love of the world (dunya), lust for power, honor, and greatness, greed, the furnace of desires (shahawat), the chatter of vain passions (hawa), ambition, envy, love of praise and compliments--all of them worldly bonds blinding the heart.

Such a heart can never find the way to God bearing those stains, because in loving the world he parts with His Lord. He is in love with something God has removed far from Himself and despised. To ask for greatness is to compare oneself with God Most High; in the furnace of desires one faces the greatest seductions; and in the chatter of vain passions lies tyranny itself and aversion to the rights of God the Lord of Might and Majesty. That heart is veiled from wisdom and from the understanding of how God disposes His affairs.

Such a person is a prisoner of his ego (asir an-nafs). He performs obligations while attached to the world, he avoids prohibitions while attached to the world, and he generally worships God at his own convenience. This is a servant who must try to found upon sincerity every matter, every action, and every moment, by working on his ego.

Whoso desires the reward of God the Lord of Might and Majesty, let him keep to this battle, and let him be sincere in every matter in order to purify his worship.."

Hakeem Tirmidhi -Aadaab al -muridin-

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