Purification of the Heart by Hamza Yusuf

Author:Hamza Yusuf
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780985565909
Publisher: Sandala Inc.

Heedlessness

POEM VERSES 138–140

Heedlessness is being careless concerning what God has commanded one to do and has prohibited.

Scholars of this science consider [heedlessness] to be the source of all wrongdoing. Its cure is to be found in four deeds, all of which possess rectifying qualities:

Seek forgiveness from God; visit the righteous; invoke benedictions upon the Prophet ; and recite [God’s] Book.

Definition

Heedlessness (ghaflah) is a terrible lack of attention to what is infinitely more important in one’s life than material goods. Heedlessness is a key concept often discussed in Islamic spiritual treatises and is referred to in many passages of the Qur’an. Imam al-Junayd, a prominent ninth century scholar, argues that heedlessness is the one pathogen that breeds all the rest of the diseases of the heart. The Arabic word for a simpleton is mughaffal, a person who is easily fooled. In our context, it is a person who is easily diverted from what is essential and consequential toward what is ephemeral and ultimately pointless.

According to some linguists, the Arabic word for “human being,” insān, comes from the word uns, which refers to “intimacy,” for the human being needs close companionship. Other linguists, however, believe it comes from the Arabic word nasya, which means to forget, implying that one of the characteristics of human beings is forgetfulness; this further implies that we need to be reminded often, which explains the centrality of repetition in spiritual practices.

The heedlessness that Imam Mawlūd speaks of here is that of its most menacing form: being heedless of divine purpose, accountability, the resurrection, ultimate standing, and judgment in the Hereafter. The full manifestation of these events is veiled to us by the thin wall of death, the timing of which is the secret that hovers above the heads of all men and women. Even though the reality of these things is hidden in the realm of the unseen, what is expected of us is to receive and accept the message the Prophet brought.

This was the duty of all the prophets—to call people to believe in the unseen, to trust what they say, and to commit to their teachings. There is a well-known allegory of some people in a cave: at the entrance of the cave was a lamp which cast shadows that the people in the cave believed to be realities. When one person left the cave and saw the real world—the sun, the stars, and the trees—he raced back in the cave to tell the others that there was much more to their world than what they saw in their cave. But the people feared what he said, causing them to deny, ridicule, and then physically attack him. The prophets came to rouse people from their stupor, to take them from their delusion and heedlessness to awareness. Many of the prophets were slain; all faced harsh opposition.

In the Qur’an, you will find ghaflah mentioned several times in different forms, but almost invariably referring to unawareness. The Qur’an uses other words to refer to unawareness. Those who

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