Is Love Ingrained in Our Fitrah? What the Heart Should Embrace
Have you ever thought what the heart should embrace? We are inherently inclined towards love. Any type of perfection or external beauty captures our attention and fascinates us. However, does our heart have the capacity to hold all these different kinds of love? In this article, we intend to explore what the heart should embrace and where our true love and beloved reside within us.
The vast expanse of the sky, the amazing magnificence of galaxies, creatures, deserts, oceans, and everything we see and perceive are mysteries of creation in their own right. It is like human creation, which is simple and subtle, yet complex and unknown. That is why we often need reflection and guidance in the things we do of our own free will, even when it comes to love. That is because we always seek infinite perfections.
There are some among us who merely see the heart as a fist-sized muscle that beats in the chest and pumps blood, but as we stated in previous lessons, the heart is a term that refers to our human and infinity-seeking dimension that is the truth of our existence and our only asset on our journey towards the hereafter. Our heart is the most precious and powerful part of our being; it houses all our interests, relationships, attachments, and desires. But what should the heart embrace, and how can different beloveds coexist in it?
The Heart and Different Beloveds
With a little attention to our body’s organs and parts, we realize that each organ is intended for a specific purpose. We cannot hear with our stomach or think with our eyes. Our sensory organs are the means of our connection with sensory perfections and beloveds, and our brain is the tool of mental calculations and activities. Each of these organs belongs to a level of our existence and has its own special function. But as for the spiritual heart, it belongs to our supra-rational dimension, and it should embrace our main Beloved. In truth, the only function of the heart is within this domain, and if we use it for anything else, we cannot fulfill its potential. Just as a pen made for writing can be used to stir the contents of a paint can, our heart can descend from its status of connection with the main Beloved to a garbage dump for worthless and trivial beloveds.
The heart, which is also called the soul, true self, or the Soul Child, is infinite in essence and can only connect with a beloved of its own kind. A heart that cannot connect with Allah is like an advanced radar used as a simple box. What we must not forget is that the heart is our only means of connection with our true Beloved, i.e., Allah, and without Him, we would be like animals trapped in inanimate, vegetative, and animal dimensions, unable to find a path to infinity or connect with our true Beloved. Therefore, the first step in connecting the heart with its true Owner is to understand what the heart should embrace and which beloveds are allowed to enter its sanctuary. In reality, the heart’s honor lies in its capacity to embrace the Absolute and Infinite Perfection, and it belongs to Him.
What Is Our Duty in Life?
Since we have different dimensions of existence, we face different beloveds, so it is important to know what the heart should embrace so as not to waste it on worthless matters. Inanimate, vegetative, animal, intellective, and supra-rational beloveds each have their own function, but they ultimately have their special effect on our heart. Any beloved can only dwell in our heart if it strengthens our supra-rational dimension and is controlled by it. Any beloved other than the supra-rational one should not be our primary focus and play a role in the happiness or sadness of our heart.
The beloveds of other dimensions of our existence are only useful when they are managed by the supra-rational dimension. Suppose you want to apply for a job in construction; your cooking skills, gardening expertise, or tennis proficiency are not important to your employer. What matters to him is having a degree or experience in construction or any skill that helps you in this field. Our heart’s connection with God and other beloveds is defined the same way; we cannot feel attached to a house, car, academic degree, professional status, etc., and expect our supra-rational dimension to grow and ultimately find happiness and peace. To achieve lasting joy and peace as a human, we must properly manage our connection with the Beloved of our supra-rational dimension. The reason why God is the only beloved of this part of our existence is proven in the lessons on the oneness of God, and if you have any questions in this regard, you can review the basic course. The four lower dimensions can help our relationship with our true Beloved only if they serve our supra-rational dimension.
Our acquaintance and intimacy with various beloveds depend on the extent to which we are connected with them. Our heart becomes filled with things we value and pay attention to. Our life’s path and the connections we have with different matters constantly lead us towards the beloveds of different levels of our existence. Sometimes we fall in love with a new car; sometimes our appearance becomes extremely important to us, and at other times we become attached to our child, etc. In each of these cases, it is our heart that is affected and changes according to each beloved. Our heart is never empty; when it is emptied of one beloved, another one immediately takes its place. In reality, our task is to empty our heart of the loves of the lower levels of our existence and purify it for our main beloved because our heart should only house our main Beloved, and it is the sanctuary of Allah.
What Is a Sanctuary?
A sanctuary is a sacred space where certain actions, behaviors, and even appearances are restricted out of respect for its sanctity. For example, we cannot behave any way we want, use any word or phrase, or enter with any sort of clothes. To enter, we must adhere to specific standards and conditions.
Since our heart originates from God, it is only compatible with Him and finds peace only with His remembrance. When we replace God’s love with other kinds of love, our heart gets steeped in hypocrisy, losing its balance. In reality, the heart is introduced as the home and sanctuary of God. If someone harbors love for anything other than God, it is as if they have expelled the owner from their home and handed the keys to careless tenants. A soul filled with worldly and transient loves lives in negligence and suffers from various diseases, ultimately preventing us from reaching Allah.
Therefore, we must know the limits and boundaries of the various dimensions of our existence in relation to our heart. In reality, different thoughts, desires, or relationships should not find their way to our heart and soul, but since we have often not taken proper care of our heart, a positive action we can take in this regard is to expel other beloveds from our heart. In truth, only our main Beloved should occupy our heart.
In this article, we explored what the heart should embrace. Our heart is from God, and it should only be the sanctuary of God. Due to our attachment to the world, we fill our heart with beloveds other than its true Owner. Other beloveds should not occupy our heart, and they are only allowed to enter the heart if they strengthen it.
What is your opinion regarding what the heart should embrace? Does your heart belong to its true owner?