salahdin
Junior Member
بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ
The Heart and its Enslavement (Uboodiyyah)
Uboodiyyah - Obsession of the Heart Part 1
Author: Ibn al-Qayyim
By way of introduction it should be pointed out, both to muslims and non -muslims alike, that this treatise was originally written in arabic to an audience consisting predominantely of men. Furthermore, it was presented to a culture which did not analyse human behaviour on the basis of "sexism", or "feminism", but to an environment which was free of these modern day innovations. This is, perhaps, why the discussion is referred primarily to men. It should be pointed out that whenever the shaikh (scholar) refers to "men" that the discussion can be extended to incorporate a similar, if not the same, observation for women. Although during his life the great shaikh was taught by at least eleven female scholars of religion and would often refer specifically to women in many of his essays, perhaps, on the occasion of this dissertation, he was mainly involved in the sphere of men. Nevertheless, when one is involved in understanding Islam one should never allow anything to enter into discussion which does not have a basis within the Qur'an and the Sunnah (authentic narrations).
Shaikh-ul-Islam Ibn Taimiyyah says:
When a man's heart becomes attached to a woman, even though she is lawful for him, his heart will be her captive. She controls him and manipulates him as she wills. In appearance he is her lord because he is her husband or her possessor. However, in reality, he is her captive and is possessed by her especially when she knows his need and his passion for her. Then she will control him in the same way in which a conquering, aggressive master controls an overpowered slave who cannot escape from his master. Even worse than this is the captivity of the heart, this is more severe than the captivity of the body, and enslavement of the heart is much more severe than the enslavement of the body. Verily, whoever' s body is subdued, enslaved and captivated will not care so long as his heart is reassured and is serene. In this way, it is possible for him to escape.
In the other case though, when the heart, which dominates the body, is s ubdued, enslaved and enthralled by love for other than Allah, then, this is indeed mere humiliation and captivity. It is the humiliating Uboodiyah (enslavement ) that has subdued the heart.
The Uboodiyah of the heart and its captivity form the basis on which good reward or bad punishment will be incurred. If a muslim is captivated by akaa fir or is enslaved by a profligate and given no rights, it will not harm him so long as he can fulfil his duties to Allah Azzawajal. Whoever is lawfully subdued and fulfils the rights of Allah Azzawajal and the rights of his master will be rewarded twice. Even if he is forced to pronounce Kufr (disbelief), pronouncing it with his tongue but keeping Eeman (conviction, faith) in his heart, the utterance will not harm him. But the one whose heart is subdued and becomes an abd ( slave) for other than Allah will be harmed by that even if he is a king. Freedom is the freedom of the heart and al-Uboodiyah (enslavement) is the Uboodiyah of the heart. Similarly, well-being is the well-being of the soul. The Messenger of Allah (sallallahu-alaihi-wasallam) said :"Well being is not how much wealth you have, but it is the well-being of the soul."
This, by Allah, is the case when a lawful image has enslaved one's heart . But whoever's heart is enslaved by an unlawful image will earn a torment more severe than any known torment.
These people who are obsessed by images are of the most severely punished and the least rewarded. For if one is obsessed by an image and his heart remains attached to it and subdued by it, he will be surrounded by so many kinds of evils and corruption that they cannot be counted but by the Lord of al-Ibaad (the servants) even if he were safe from committing the greatest Faahisha (obscenity i.e. az-Zina - fornication). Continuous attachment of the heart .1 without commiting al-Faahisha is more harmful for him than it is for the person who commits a sin and repents of it. Since, after true repentance the attachment and affection vanishes from his heart. 2 These people are likened to drunk people or the insane. It has been said:
"They said you were driven insane by that which you have a passion for.I replied to them that passion causes more harm than insanty."
As for this passion, the one who is obsessed by it will never awake until the end of time. However, the insane only exhibit their madness during certain periods.