Hard-Heartedness

What is hard-heartedness?

It is stated on page 370 of the commentary ‘Siraat-ul-Jinaan’, volume 4 published by Maktaba-tul-Madinah: Hardness of the heart means that the heart becomes so hard due to not remembering death and the Hereafter, that advice does not affect the heart, a person gets inclined towards sins, he does not feel a sense of shame when committing sins and he does not consider repentance.

(Siraat-ul-Jinaan, vol. 4, pp. 370)

Remember! The disease of hard-heartedness is not a minor disease, it is a destructive disease and hard-hearted people have also been condemned in the Holy Quran Karim. In verse 74 of Surah Baqarah, part 1, Allah عَزَّوَجَلَّ has said:

ؕ ثُمَّ قَسَتۡ قُلُوۡ بُکُمۡ مِّنۡۢ بَعۡدِ ذٰلِکَ فَہِیَ کَا لۡحِجَارَۃِ اَوۡ اَ شَدُّ قَسۡوَۃً

Translation from Kanz-ul-Iman: Then after it, your hearts hardened - so they are like rocks, or even harder.

(Part 1, Surah Al-Baqarah, verse 74)

Heart harder than stone!

In the above-mentioned blessed verse, the hard-hearted people who have been mentioned, refers to those people of the Bani Israel who lived in the time of Sayyiduna Musa عَـلَيْـهِ الـسَّـلَام . It was stated about them that they did not learn any lesson after seeing great indications and miracles of Sayyiduna Musa عَـلَيْـهِ الـسَّـلَام . Their hearts became like stones, or rather harder than stones, because even stones get affected as from some of them streams flow out, some stones break and water flows out of them and some fall down due to the fear of Allah عَزَّوَجَلَّ as Allah عَزَّوَجَلَّ Wills, but the human who has been given so much of common sense and understanding, whose senses are powerful, intellect is complete, (to him) evidences are clear, (and) opportunities of advice are present, even then he does not worship and obey Allah عَزَّوَجَلَّ .

(Siraat-ul-Jinaan, part 1, vol. 1, pp. 146)

Blessed Ahadees

Hard-heartedness increases sins, it keeps a person away from the religion, erases the pleasure of worship , recitation of the Holy Quran and Zikr of Allah عَزَّوَجَلَّ . It keeps a person away from the mercy of Allah عَزَّوَجَلَّ and is the sign of misfortune. In short, it is a disease that becomes the cause of bringing out other apparent and spiritual diseases. It has been condemned in blessed Ahadees. Two blessed Ahadees regarding this.

1. ‘A hard-hearted person is very far from (the mercy) of Allah’.

(Sunan-ut-Tirmizi, vol. 4, pp. 184, Hadees 2419)

2. ‘4 things are from misfortune, (1) the act of not flowing tears (2) the hardness of heart (3) to have high hopes (4) to suffer from the greed of this world.’

(Al-Jami’-us-Sagheer, pp. 62, Hadees 921)

Signs of hard-heartedness

1. Negligence in acts of worship!

One of the symptoms of hard-heartedness is that a person does not like to perform good deeds . If he ever goes to the Masjid, he hastily offers Salah without extreme humility like a bird that is confined in a cage and trying to get free as soon as possible. Similarly, he begins to feel other obligatory acts and Wajibat as a burden. This symptom of hard-heartedness is very evil because the same symptom has been mentioned for hypocrites in the Holy Quran. Allah عَزَّوَجَلَّ has stated:

ۙ وَ اِذَا قَامُوۡۤ ا اِلَی الصَّلٰو ۃِ قَامُوۡ ا کُسَالٰی

Translation from Kanz-ul-Iman: And when they stand up for prayer, they do it unwillingly.

(Part. 5, Surah An-Nisa, verse 142)

عِبادت میں لگتا نہیں دل ہمارا

ہیں عِصیاں میں بدمست ہم یا اِلٰہی

بڑی کوششیں کی گناہ چھوڑنے کی

رہے آہ! ناکام ہم یا اِلٰہی

May Allah عَزَّوَجَلَّ save us from this disaster (i.e. hardness of the heart) and grant us extreme humility in worship and recitation of the Holy Quran, as well as sincerity and steadfastness!

2. Advice has no effect!

In the same way, one of the symptoms of hard-heartedness is that when a person is not inclined to pondering over the Hereafter or not doing good deeds after listening to sound advice and to those acts which remind him of the Hereafter or by reading or listening to the parables about sudden death.

3. Preferring the world to the Hereafter!

Another symptom of hard-heartedness is to prefer this temporary world over the everlasting Hereafter and to become restless in attaining success for this world, considering it to be everything. As a result of this, such a person becomes blind in the love of this world and loses himself in the dark valley of sins and is left with nothing but destruction of the world and the Hereafter.

4. Weakness of faith!

Another symptom of hard-heartedness is when Divine commands are not followed and sins are abundantly committed by being shameless and immodest in front of a person, even then his faith does not wake up to this fact and he does not refrain from that evil or he does not consider it to be bad in the heart if he cannot stop it, it should be understood that his heart has become hard.

From these symptoms and signs it can easily be judged that hard-heartedness is a very dangerous disease. It is a disease that makes a person a slave of his Nafs and Satan, by making him disobedient to Allah عَزَّوَجَلَّ. One of the ways to get rid of hard-heartedness is to ponder over the causes leading to hard-heartedness and then try to remove them.

مجھے بے حساب بخش دے میرے مولٰی

تجھے واسِطہ نیک بندوں کا یا ربّ

Surely, hard-heartedness is a kind of punishment from Allah عَزَّوَجَلَّ because of which a person commits major sins, even sometimes committing Kufr (disbelief). Hard-heartedness makes a person cruel. Hard-heartedness puts a person far away from the mercy of Allah عَزَّوَجَلَّ. Hard-heartedness is a sign of misfortune. Hard-heartedness keeps a person away from worship. Hard-heartedness weakens the faith. Hard-heartedness makes a person bold in committing sins and it wastes the previous good deeds. Hard-heartedness is a curse because due to it, advice has no effect on the heart. May Allah عَزَّوَجَلَّ enable us to abstain from hard-heartedness by pondering over the causes of it!

اٰمِيۡن بِجَاهِ النَّبِيِّ الۡاَمِيۡن صَلَّى اللّٰهُ تَعَالٰى عَلَيۡهِ وَاٰلِه وَسَلَّم

صَلُّوۡا عَلَى الۡحَبِيۡب صَلَّى اللّٰهُ تَعَالٰى عَلٰى مُحَمَّد