Allāh Sees Hearts

Narrated by Ḥaḍrat Abū Hurairah, Allāh be pleased with

him: Said the Prophet of Allāh (peace be on him and

blessings of Allāh):

“Allāh does not see towards your shapes

and your wealth but He sees towards your

hearts and your actions.”

(Muslim).

                        Explanatory Note

In this Ḥadīth, the Holy Prophet (peace be on him and

blessings of Allāh) has mentioned two things which, in spite

of being gifts of God, can and [do] become, at times, causes

of big trial for both men and women. Of these, one is

physical beauty and comeliness which becomes, generally for

women, a source of great trouble. The second is wealth and

affluence which generally put men to a lot of test and

temptation. Citing both these as examples, the Holy Prophet

(peace and blessings of Allāh be on him) said that while,

without a doubt, they were great gifts of God, but Muslims

should take note that Allāh does not judge the worth of

people by His appraisal of the beauty of women or of wealth

of men but that He sees towards their heads and hearts

which are the source and repositories for human thoughts

and feelings and then He sees towards their deeds which are

the products of their thoughts and feelings.

The word qalb used in this Ḥadīth stands both for heart

and mind: for, qalb literally means the central point of an

organism and the heart and the mind are both, in their

respective spheres, centers of the bodily organism; the mind

being the center of overt feelings and the heart that of

spiritual experience. By using the words qulūb (hearts) and

a‘māl (deeds), the Holy Prophet (peace of Allāh be on him

and His blessings) in this context, has pointed out that,

though physical beauty and material wealth are gifts of God

and one should value them, but what God takes note of is the

heart (qalb) of men and their (a‘māl) actions. It is therefore

the duty of every Muslim to seek to improve his mind, heart

and actions, instead of taking pride in the gifts of physical

beauty and property and worldly goods.

It must be borne well in mind that the Holy Prophet’s

(peace of Allāh be on him and His blessings) admonition that

God, the Excellent, watches the heart and deeds of man,

means not only that these things will weigh him, on the Day

of Requital but in this world too, real weight is given to

feelings of the heart and the motives of the mind and the

actions of limbs. The truth is that, once a people are granted

the favor that the heads and hearts and limbs of its members

start operating in the right direction, no power can hinder

the courses of its progress nor deprive it of realization of the

highest of values.