And that is the secret of this world. If you remove love of dunya from your heart, the dunya is yours for the taking. You can have the dunya because it's in your hand and not in your heart
Hamza YusufRead
Hypocrisy is wretched because the hypocrite says with his tongue what is not in his heart. He wrongs his tongue and oppresses his heart. But if the heart is sound, the condition of the tongue follows suit. We are commanded to be upright in speech, which is a gauge of the heart's state.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Hypocrisy involves a disconnect between what one says and what one truly feels or believes.
In this quote, Hamza Yusuf articulates the moral failing inherent in hypocrisy, emphasizing that a hypocrite verbally expresses beliefs that do not align with their true feelings. He suggests that integrity in speech reflects the purity of the heart, implying that genuine communication arises from a sound and truthful inner state. The call for uprightness in speech serves as a reminder that our words should authentically mirror our inner convictions, promoting honesty and integrity in our interactions.
Themes
HypocrisyTruthfulnessIntegritySpeechHeart
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion on ethics, one could use this quote to emphasize the importance of aligning actions with words.
More from Hamza Yusuf
All quotes →People say to you, 'you've changed', or something like that, well, I hope, for the sake of God, that you have changed, because I don't want to be the same person all my life. I want to be growing, I want to be expanding. I want to be changing. Because animate things change, inanimate things don&'t change. Dead things don't change. And the heart should be alive, it should be changing, it should be moving, it should be growing, its knowledge should be expanding.
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Islam is based on naql (texts) and ‘aql (intellect). Some people just have the texts – we call them naql-heads.
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The weak are dominated by their ego, the wise dominate their ego, and the intelligent are in a constant struggle against their ego.
Hamza YusufRead
Opinion is not knowledge. You're entitled to your own opinion but you're not entitled to your own facts.
Hamza YusufRead
Why do we need to justify God's existence? He exists. We need to justify our own existence.
Hamza YusufRead
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