Diseases the Heart Does Not Feel

And other diseases of the heart. The Muslims have identified about thirty-three diseases of the heart. One of the fascinating things about the spiritual diseases of the heart is that, like the physical diseases, we are oftentimes unaware of them. Ask any cardiologist, or anyone who has worked on a cardiac unit: people are amazed when they suddenly have a heart attack. They were not even aware they had heart disease. And the spiritual heart is very much like that. There are many people who do not know that they are arrogant. And this is why there is a tradition that says that arrogance in the presence of an arrogant person is worship. In other words, let them know what it feels like. There is a type of blessing in that to an arrogant person: to let them know, to let them feel the brunt of arrogance. Because many arrogant people are completely unaware of their arrogance.

This point bears explaining again. If somebody is being arrogant with you, you one-up them. One of the Arab poets said: if anybody is going to be arrogant with me, he will be shown an arrogance he will never forget. And the idea is that it is like a medicine: one is just giving them a little taste — how did you like it? Because a lot of people are very unaware of that state. And it is a very unfortunate ailment of the heart. And it can be cured. All these diseases, according to the Muslims, are curable.

The fountainhead. And then he says — now, instead of going into the thirty-three, he is going to say what the root cause is. So if one can work on the root, one does not have to worry about the branches. One can uproot it all: get the weed by the roots and the weed dies. The fountainhead of all misdeeds here: know that the source of all these infirmities is love of leadership and procrastination.