Echos of the heart

Bismillah.

You know the progression of certainty from ilmu yaqin to ainul yaqin to haqqul yaqin to kamal yaqin.

Today, Alhamdulillah wa shukrulillah, as far as the heart is concerned, I went from ilmu yaqin to ainul yaqin, that is from knowing through reading to knowing something by seeing. For the first time in my life I saw the image of my own heart at work, beating for real. I saw the right atrium, the left atrium, the right ventricle, the left ventricle and the two valves opening and closing like an automatic gate, Subhanallah! 

And the most heart moving experience was to listen for the first time the sound of the blood pumping from within the heart. I wish I knew the right words to describe the sound. It sounded like out-of-this world kind of sound.

According to the cardiologist who attended to me, the sound varies. The echo of the blood pumping sounds differently if the heart was healthy, than if it had a hole or if it's entirely damaged. I can imagine the doctor must have heard all kinds of melodies.

Anyhow, the sound gives you a mixed feelings between real and surreal. It makes you want to cry because it feels like it's the closest thing you can come to the Source of life, the Giver of your soul. Then you begin to understand a little bit the ayah in the Quran verse 8:24 "And God comes between  a person and his heart."  

In the translated version of Imam Al-Ghazali's Mukhtassar Ihya Ulumuddin by Haji Marwan Khalaf, the physical heart is described as a pine cone shaped muscle on the left chest and it being the source of the soul. That's the first meaning.

The second meaning is of course the bathin aspect of the heart:  "A divine spiritual subtlety (latifah) which has a connection with that muscle. This subtlety is the seat of The Knowledge of God the Exalted, aware of what neither the imagination nor intuition are aware of, which is the Reality of Man."

This precious book is published by SPHOR based in Cyprus. The translator Haji Marwan is a mureed of Mawlana Shaykh Nazim Adil al-Haqqani. You may purchase this book from Wardah Bookshop in Singapore.

Back to the heart of the matter. Yes the echos of the heart sounded out-of-this-world. It sounded like "whoosh", like a rush of water but of course it sounded heavier than water because it's blood. You can almost feel the weight of the gushing fluid which has its own melody. And as though God provides you this instrumental melody of life and it's up to you to write the lyrics for each gush of the blood, for each moment of the pumping - the actions or mechanics of which gives you your existence. Indeed, on hearing the sound of the blood flows, you feel humbled and guilty at the same time because it is evident that the one liner lyrics which should accompany that heavenly melody is none other than: ALLAH. 

Reminds us of the ayah: 

"We will show them Our signs in the horizons and within themselves until it becomes clear to them that it is the truth. But is it not sufficient concerning your Lord that He is, over all things, a Witness?" (Quran 41:53)

Sadaqallah al-Azim.
Allah says the truth.