The Forgetful Heart and the Covenant Adam Forgot

Returning to Rūḥ al-Bayān's own four kinds of heart, the first of them coincides with what has already been said: the hardened heart, qaswa, belonging to the disbeliever and the hypocrite, whose peace lies only with this world — whereas the heart of a Muslim is the one that finds its peace in the dhikr of Allah (swt).

The second is the forgetful heart — the heart of an ordinary believing Muslim. Allah (swt) swears an oath to this effect in Sūrat Ṭāhā, at its hundred and fifteenth āyah: that a covenant was taken from Adam, commanding him not to eat from a particular tree in Paradise, and that he forgot it — forgot completely, absent-mindedly — and Adam was not found reliable, not trustworthy, in this regard. It is said that Allah (swt) had first offered this trust, amānah, to the mountains, and the mountains refused it, saying, our Lord, we want none of it, this is too great a responsibility — and every other part of creation refused it in the same way. Only then did Allah (swt) create Adam and put the same question to him: would he carry this trust? Adam asked what was in it for him, and was told: My good pleasure, riḍā, and My Paradise. Without a second thought he accepted — Paradise, then, yes — and yet, according to the commentators, al-mufassirūn, he could not hold to it even for the span of time between the noon and afternoon prayers, Ẓuhr and ʿAṣr, before forgetfulness overtook him and he ate from the tree — part of the “Takfir”^** of Allah (swt) — and was sent out of Paradise — the point from which the whole of mankind has ended up here, in this passing life, far from its first, eternal home.

This forgetful heart finds rest, sukūn, comfort, rāḥah, peace and tranquility only once its repentance is accepted, when it returns to Allah (swt) in repentance, and it begins, again, to taste the pleasures, ladhdhāt, of Paradise. Allah (swt) says of this, in the hundred and twenty-second āyah of the same sūrah:

Allah (swt) chose Adam, accepted his repentance and gave him guidance, setting him back upon the straight path — at which Adam was, once more, entirely content.

One of the masters used to say that whatever sin springs from desire, shahwah, may be hoped forgiven, but a sin springing from pride, kibr, carries no such hope; and the proof he gave for this was the case of Adam set against Shayṭān. Adam's fall came through desire — the longing that led him to eat from the tree — and he repented of it and was forgiven. Shayṭān disobeyed Allah (swt) out of pride alone, and his pride was never forgiven at all.