The Yearning Heart

The third of Rūḥ al-Bayān's hearts is the yearning heart, qalb mushtāq — the heart of a believer who has truly submitted, muṭīʿ — the heart of a truly pious Muslim. Such a heart pursues, in every step and at every moment of life, one single object, expressed in the words ilāhī anta maqṣūdī wa riḍāka maṭlūbī: my Lord, You are my aim, and Your good pleasure is what I seek, and nothing else. This is the most essential ingredient in everything such a person does; the pleasure, riḍā, of Allah (swt) is to him the most precious thing in the world. Every act carried out, and every act refrained from, is coloured by this single pursuit. A person with such a heart will make decisions in life that others around him do not approve of — even, in an age unlike earlier ones, his own parents; even his own spouse and children — because the good pleasure of Allah (swt) matters to this heart more than any of their approval. Allah (swt) describes such hearts in Sūrat al-Raʿd^***:

Those who believe, whose hearts find peace in the remembrance of Allah — listen, hearts find peace only in the remembrance of Allah: the same tranquility already set out, but now belonging to a heart that yearns for nothing besides Him. May Allah (swt) make His servants of those people.