Each and very human being has two hearts. One is a physical lump of flesh the size of a fist and the other is the spiritual heart of immeasurable size and depth, more immense than the universe! If you are asking about aches in the physical heart, the remembrance of Allah is one good medicine, as it imparts unto our bodies strength and regularity and helps the bodily systems that effect the heart to maintain better equilibrium. If your question pertains to the spiritual heart the heart that encompasses the whole universe, the remembrance of Allah is the medicine and nourishment of that heart as well. But to even become aware of the existence and functions of that heart certain teachings must be absorbed and certain practices maintained, for these teaching and practices are what can make our remembrance effective.There are five stations of the spiritual heart. These stations are virtually unattainable to people because they never place a guard at the first station, and thus Satan is free to enter it at will and to make his mischievous, evil proclamations. When we let him enter, he immediately starts to discourage us from our spiritual endeavours by announcing that in reality there is no “train,” no “spiritual station,” and no destination.” He claims, indeed, that even this first station is no station at all but only a place where we are wasting our time waiting to go somewhere when in fact there is nowhere to go. By making such false proclamations he hopes to influence us to abandon the hope of attaining spiritual enlightenment - to leave even that first station and occupy ourselves as his servants in his realm. If we heed his tricky words and abandon our journey he will keep us in constant misery and distress like prisoners in a very tiny cell. But if you post a guard at the first station of your heart to prevent Satan and his soldiers from entering, you will be safe from the invasion of bad thoughts and evil intentions that would pull you down into endless trouble. Who is that guard? That guard is “dhikr,” the remembrance of Allah. Who remembers his Lord has a Divine Light in his heart that prevents Satan and his soldiers from entering. Therefore the more you are able to remember and to meditate, keeping a close observer’s eye on your heart; the more successful you will be in keeping out your mortal enemy. What is it that keeps us from meditation and self observation? When we dwell on the desires of our lower selves we become preoccupied and distracted from our vigilance. Thus with our own desires Satan accomplishes his break in. But how can we escape from the preoccupation with our ego’s desire when those desires are such an intrinsic part of our being? You must know that the ego’s desires are of two kinds legitimate and illegitimate. The physical being is attracted to food drink and sexual life. You cannot prevent yourself from desiring those things as long as you are alive, for we are human beings and not angels. We must understand that Allah Almighty grants us from all of those things that we desire only as much as is good for us, - just as much as will make us better able to concentrate on our “guard duty”. The best guard is neither the starving man nor the overfed glutton, for the starving man will leave his post in search of food, and the overfed glutton will fall asleep at his post. Thus if a person does not permit himself even the legitimate fulfilment of physical need especially sex , the lower self will rebel violently and attack him with a gigantic and frenzied explosion which forces him to fulfill his needs immediately, regardless of whether that fulfilment is legitimate or not.
to listen to some of its demands; - that they eat and drink of good wholesome and tasteful permitted food and marry in accordance with the Divine injunction. If you deny yourselves these permitted pleasures you are inviting “heart disease,” and you will suffer from many blows, sometimes to the heart, to the head to the stomach or the sexual organs, etc, and therefore you must have a guide to teach you how to prevent such an onslaught. A person in distress from heartache must seek a Guide with the same urgency that a heart attack victim calls for a doctor. |
| HEALING OF THE HEART with the MEDICINE OF ZIKR |
Sheikh Nazim
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