The metric we fear is not the metric that matters.
Narrated by Abū Hurayrah (أبو هريرة)
إِنَّ اللَّهَ لاَ يَنْظُرُ إِلَىٰ صُوَرِكُمْ وَأَمْوَالِكُمْ، وَلَٰكِنْ يَنْظُرُ إِلَىٰ قُلُوبِكُمْ وَأَعْمَالِكُمْ
"Allah does not look at your forms or your wealth — but He looks at your hearts and your deeds."
The hadith is quoted in almost every book of the spiritual sciences in Islam. The Prophet ﷺ is saying, plainly: the stage we perform on is not the stage that is being judged. There is a different, quieter stage — the heart and the deed — and that is where the weight of a life is measured.
Passages that draw on this hadith
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"If He wills, He makes it steadfast, and if He wills, He causes it to deviate." Then he said: "O اللّٰه, Turner of the hearts, make our hearts steadfast upon Your religion. O اللّٰه, Director of the hearts, direct our hearts to Your obedience.""
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"Whenever its springs are tapped, it gushes forth fountains of wisdom. It is the light of insights from their blindness, the healing of hearts from their ailments and sorrows, the life of hearts, the delight of souls, the gardens of hearts, and the guide of spirits to the lands of joy."
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"A knowledgeable individual noted that Allah looks at the hearts of the wakeful at dawn, filling them with light, causing benefits to descend upon their hearts, illuminating them, and spreading goodness to the hearts of the heedless."
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"God, exalted is He, said: "And when they deviated, God made their hearts deviate; and God does not guide the transgressing people." And God, exalted is He, said: "Nay, but what they used to earn has cast a rust over their hearts." So He, glorified be He, informed us that what they earned covered over their hearts and came between them and faith in His signs, so that they said, "Legends of the ancients." And He said, exalted is He, concerning the hypocrites:"
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"Manifest the knowledge in your hearts until it covers and sweeps over you." Sahl ibn Abdullah al-Tustari, may Allah have mercy on him, said, "Scholars, devout worshipers, and ascetics departed from the world with their hearts locked, opened only to the hearts of the truthful and martyrs.""
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"Thus do not feel secure from my deception. The Prophet, peace be upon him, often said, O Turner of hearts, make our hearts steadfast in your religion. When asked if he feared for his followers, he replied, Indeed, the hearts are between two fingers of the Merciful."
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"which He has sent down. He said: "Those who have believed and whose hearts are assured by the remembrance of اللّٰه," meaning by His Book and His words: "Unquestionably, by the remembrance of اللّٰه hearts are assured." The tranquility of sound hearts and pure"
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"yet his longing is forever for the first home." This light is like the sun in the hearts of the close and foremost ones, like the full moon in the hearts of the righteous companions of the right, and like the star in the hearts of the general believers."