The eye of the heart, though closed in fallen man, is able to take in a glimmering of light and this is faith. But anyway of living causes a covering like rust to accumulate over the heart so that it cannot sense the Divine origin of Allah's message.
Interpretation
This quote expresses the idea that true faith allows one to perceive divine truths, even if one's inner vision is obscured by life's challenges.
Martin Lings suggests that while humans may have a natural inclination towards faith, their experiences and challenges can obscure this inner vision, much like rust covering over a precious surface. It emphasizes the importance of maintaining an open heart to truly recognize and connect with the divine essence of messages from God, despite the closed state of our hearts due to worldly distractions.
In practice
A speaker at a spiritual retreat may use this quote to encourage participants to open their hearts to faith.
A myth is a fantasy, a preferred lie, a foundational story, a hypnotic trance, an identity game, a virtual reality, one that can be either inspirational or despairing. It is a story in which I cast myself; it is my inner cinema, the motion picture of my inner reality - one that moves all the time. No diagnosis can fix the myth, no cure can settle it, because our inner life is precisely what, in us, will not lie still.
No one knows what capacities for doing and suffering he has in himself, until something comes to rouse them to activity: just as in a pond of still water, lying there like a mirror, there is no sign of the roar and thunder with which it can leap from the precipice, and yet remain what it is; or again, rise high in the air as a fountain. When water is as cold as ice, you can have no idea of the latent warmth contained in it.
Life is not at all what you might think it to be_x000D_ _x000D_ A simple tale where each thing has its history_x000D_ _x000D_ It's much more than its scuffle and anything goes_x000D_ _x000D_ Both evil and good, subject to the same laws.
I realize now that people are not thinking about you and me or caring what is said about us. They are thinking about themselves-before breakfast, after breakfast, and right on until ten minutes past midnight. They would be a thousand times more concerned about a slight headache of their own than they would about the news of your death or mine.
I think I hate cynicism more than anything else. It's the curse of our age, and I want to avoid it at all costs.
All sins are attempts to fill voids.
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