The heart as the pivot of the whole person.
Narrated by al-Nuʿmān ibn Bashīr (النعمان بن بشير)
أَلاَ وَإِنَّ فِي الْجَسَدِ مُضْغَةً إِذَا صَلَحَتْ صَلَحَ الْجَسَدُ كُلُّهُ، وَإِذَا فَسَدَتْ فَسَدَ الْجَسَدُ كُلُّهُ، أَلاَ وَهِيَ الْقَلْبُ
"In the body there is a piece of flesh — if it is sound, the whole body is sound; if it is corrupt, the whole body is corrupt. It is the heart."
The entire classical literature on the inner life — al-Ghazali's Iḥyāʾ, Ibn al-Qayyim's Madārij — begins at this hadith. The heart, the scholars said, is not a metaphor. It is the actual seat of the self. All the work of tazkiyah is work on the heart.
Passages that draw on this hadith
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"a black, overturned heart, which is the heart of a disbeliever, a sealed heart bound upon its seal, which is the heart of a hypocrite, and a heart layered with faith and hypocrisy. Explanation of the heart in relation to knowledge. Know that the seat of knowledge is the heart,"
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"like darknesses in a deep sea, resembles the heart of the hypocrite. Zayd ibn Aslam, when interpreting the verse in a preserved tablet, said it is the heart of the believer. Saul likened the heart and the chest to the throne and the chair. These are examples of the heart."
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"The presence of the heart in prayer is due to focus. Your heart follows your focus and will be present in what truly matters to you. When something is of concern, the heart naturally attends to it, whether willingly or unwillingly. If the heart is not present during prayer, it tends"
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"from anything else, and there is remembrance in the heart of what it is involved with, presence of heart has been achieved. Understanding the meaning of the speech is beyond the presence of heart. The heart may be present with the words, but not with their meaning."
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"As faith increases, the whiteness increases, and when a servant completes his faith, his entire heart becomes white. Conversely, hypocrisy appears as a black dot in the heart. As hypocrisy increases, the blackness increases. When hypocrisy is complete, the entire heart becomes black."
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"the heart and the limbs, or between the soul and the body. Any attribute in the heart affects the limbs, causing them to move accordingly. Similarly, actions carried out by the limbs can elevate their effect to the heart, creating a cycle. Consider the example of someone who"
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"is aware of what is in one's heart, where the heart toward God is like the tongue toward people. The core of matters for those on the path to the hereafter is the heart, and regular fasting does not entirely sever the source of whispers unless accompanied by bodily weakness"
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"by intention or action, neither in the heart nor in the limbs. In the heart, this means avoiding transformation into aversion and hatred, and in the limbs, it means acting on it. The devil may embed within a heart the slightest suspicion about people, and suggest that this"