The Heart & The Quran

By: Khurram Murad
IslamiCity* -

The more important part of your 'person' is your inner self. This inner self the Quran calls the qalb or the 'heart'. The heart of the Prophet was the first recipient of the Quranic message:
Truly it has been sent down by the Lord of all the worlds, the Trustworthy Spirit has alighted with it upon your heart [O Prophet], that you may be one of the Warner ... Quran 26:192-194.
You will therefore reap the full joys and blessings of reading the Qur'an when you are able to involve your heart fully in your task.

The 'heart', in Quranic vocabulary, is not just a piece of flesh in your body, but it is the centre of all your feelings, emotions, motives, drives, aspirations, remembrance and attention. It is the heart which softens Quran 39:23, or hardens. Quran 2:74 It is the heart that goes blind and refuses to recognize the truth Quran 22:46 and it is the heart that inspires the function to reason and understand. Quran 7:179; 22:46; 50:37 In the heart, lies the root of all outward diseases Quran 5:52; it is the seat of all inner ills Quran 2:10. The heart is the abode of faith Quran 5:41 and hypocrisy. Quran 9:77 It is the heart, which is the centre of all that is good and bad, whether it be contentment and peace Quran 13:28, the strength to face afflictions Quran 64:11, mercy Quran 57:27, brotherly love Quran 8:63, God-Consciousness Quran 49:3; 22:32; or, doubt and hesitation Quran 9:45, regrets Quran 3:156, and anger Quran 9:15. Finally it is, in reality, the way of the heart for which we shall be accountable, and only the one who brings before his God a sound and sincere heart will deserve to be saved.
God will not take you to task for a slip, but He will take you to task for what your hearts have earned. Quran 2:225
The Day when neither wealth nor children shall profit, [and when] only he [will be saved] who comes before God with a sound heart [free of evil]. Quran 26:88-89

You must therefore ensure that so long as you are with the Quran, your heart remains with you. The heart not being that piece of flesh but what the Quran calls qalb.
God has sent down the best discourse as a Book, fully consistent within itself, oft-repeated, whereat shiver the skins of those who fear their Lord; then their skins and hearts soften to the remembrance of God. Quran 39:23

Excerpted and adapted from the book "Way to the Quran" by Khurram Murad

Blogger Comment:
Anatomically and physiologically the heart is merely a pump that circulates the blood to the whole body. However when we feel fear we feel it in the heart when we love we feel it in the heart. Thus the heart is sensitive to our emotions. It responds to the brain that has the real thinking and emotion through autonomic system and hormones that fire from the brain. Likely it has something to do more than this relation likely a spiritual one. I do suspect that our spirit is somewhere between our brain and heart. When we die this spirit is released from our body. God did not tell us much about the spirit since our actions while we are alive is what is accounted for and will determine the fate of our spirit and if we will be able to save it.

وَيَسْأَلُونَكَ عَنِ الرُّوحِ قُلِ الرُّوحُ مِنْ أَمْرِ رَبِّي وَمَا أُوتِيتُم مِّن الْعِلْمِ إِلاَّ قَلِيلاً (17:85)
17:85 (Picktall) They will ask thee concerning the spirit. Say: The spirit is by command of my Lord, and of knowledge ye have been vouchsafed but little. -