The Heart or Soul: God’s Dearest and Most Precious Trust That Requires Care!
Most of us are usually very sensitive toward the small and great trusts that others entrust to us, and we take great care not to let any damage befall them. However, when it comes to safeguarding God’s most precious trust, which is actually deposited within ourselves, we often lack sufficient diligence.
For example, have you ever experienced living in a rented house? Usually, if your home is rented, you constantly warn your child not to hammer nails, draw on the walls, or cause any harm! Why such care? Because the house is not yours; it is merely entrusted to you. Being trustworthy matters to you; thus, you do not want any harm to come to the trust others have given you.
Undoubtedly, all of God’s blessings are given to us in trust; however, God’s most precious trust is our heart or soul, which He has deposited within us, and we must return it safely to its Owner. This is our foremost duty in this world.
Unlike other responsibilities that change or fade, the care of our own heart is a constant throughout our lives. The more the heart receives proper and healthy nourishment, the freer it becomes from diseases and impurities, and fewer factors can alter its state or disturb its tranquility.
Contrary to what we usually imagine, our sorrows and lack of inner peace do not primarily stem from external conditions; rather, they arise from our lack of mastery over the heart, which complicates and aggravates situations. If properly cared for, the heart remains sound and powerful, remaining unshakable by any storm.
In this lesson, we will discuss God’s most precious trust—namely, the human heart and soul—and the significance of safeguarding them. We will also briefly mention the factors of the soundness of the heart and the signs of a diseased heart.
Spiritual Diseases Are the Result of Betraying God’s Most Precious Trust
In previous lessons, we got to know God’s most precious trust and understood that the most vital part of our existence is the supra-rational dimension or the heart, whose true Beloved is the Absolute and Infinite Perfection—God Himself. Other existential parts, such as sense perception, imagination, estimation, and intellect, serve as preliminaries and gateways to this supra-rational part.
Without exception, all of us carry the divine breath, which is God’s most precious trust in our lives, and it must be returned safely to its Owner. Indeed, all levels of the nafs (soul) are God’s trusts; just as sense perception, imagination, estimation, and intellect must have their proper beloved and nourishment, so too must our heart or supra-rational faculty receive its appropriate sustenance, which is connection, intimacy, and solitude with God.
All conflicts, deviations, griefs, and betrayals—whether financial, moral, economic, or social—that occur in our lives stem from one cause: betrayal of our human dimension and true self. Unfortunately, the desires of our false self consume so much of our time and occupy our minds that little opportunity remains to attend to our true self. Many of us seek to accomplish great deeds, bring about societal transformation, and serve others; yet when it comes to ourselves, we become powerless.
Most of us lack the ability to manage our own heart and soul, leaving God’s dearest and most precious trust in a state of absolute poverty and hunger. Thus, no matter how much effort we exert, our condition is not as good as it should be; we are not truly joyful from the heart, lack peace, and cannot maintain balance during crises. A slight offending word unsettles us, and the resulting distress lingers with us for hours or days. All of these have only one cause: neglecting the needs of our human dimension.
Our true self, like other parts of our existence, becomes vulnerable and unable to sustain itself when it is starved. Unfortunately, most of us do not pay attention to this and prioritize the needs of our material and animalistic dimension. This is the greatest betrayal we commit against ourselves. We trample our delicate soul beneath the hooves of our animal self, yet wonder why we are continually sad, anxious, and why we do not often feel well.
The Soundness of the Heart Is God’s Most Precious Trust
We stated that God’s most precious trust in our lives is our heart. But how can we know whether we have been good trustees of this trust? Certainly, to answer this question, we must be aware of the state of our heart’s soundness. The sign of a sound heart is an authentic one and cannot be gauged by worldly credentials such as inanimate, vegetative, animal, or even intellective perfections. Holding a high academic degree, being a religious scholar, serving on battlefronts, helping others, and so forth are not criteria for diagnosing the soundness of the heart. The soundness of the heart must have external manifestations because everything that truly exists has an effect and its manifestations are visible. The manifestations of a sound heart are happiness, inner peace, and love for God. A heart deprived of these three elements is surely diseased.
It is not difficult to know whether the heart is sound or not. Each of us, based on our daily choices, relationships, thoughts, behaviors, and internal desires, can precisely assess the soundness of the heart and what treasures it holds. Undoubtedly, a heart nourished well and sufficiently will display sound manifestations; its owner will always be happy and calm, and no external hardship, no matter how severe, can overcome them because they possess a strong heart.
Signs of the Soundness of God’s Most Precious Trust
Most people tend to visit psychiatrists or counselors to diagnose the diseases of the heart or soul; however, in many cases, there is no need for others, and we can easily recognize our own issues because our inward self, whatever it may be, manifests itself and does not remain hidden.
All of us can fully evaluate ourselves based on the outputs of our soul and recognize our inner weaknesses. One of the most important factors indicating whether our heart is sound or diseased is how much we desire and long for God. Connection with God is the nourishment of our human dimension, and if our heart does not crave this nourishment, it means it has deviated from its normal state and become diseased—just like a sick person who lacks appetite for food.
We human beings seek infinity by fitrah, which leads us to seek the true manifestation of infinity. If we find this manifestation, that is, God, and connect with Him, we become calm; otherwise, we deviate and wander through false paths such as obsession with knowledge, lust for power, wealth, fame, and so forth, attempting to satisfy our desires. However, since none of these perfections are the true beloved of our hearts, they do not grant us happiness or peace. Our hearts find inner peace only in the remembrance of God, and when our connection with God weakens, we experience grief, anxiety, jealousy, hatred, suspicion, and fear. Engaging with false beloveds may entertain us for a while, but ultimately yields nothing but a sense of lack, psychological emptiness, regret, sorrow, and humiliation.
In this article, we discussed the heart—the most precious trust of God—and stated that if we do not properly care for this divine trust and do not provide it with its appropriate nourishment, we have betrayed it. In fact, the root cause of all our troubles and sorrows is neglecting and betraying the heart, which over time leads to various illnesses such as jealousy, hatred, oversensitivity, and anger.
How well do you guard God’s most precious trust within you, and how do you protect this priceless gem? Please share your experiences with us.