Ajaeb al-Qulub (Wonders of the Hearts) lesson series

A short daily Ramadan series by Omar Abdelkafy titled "Wonders of the Hearts" (Ajaeb al-Qulub), on the diseases and the character of the heart, beginning with envy and what is linked to it, in episodes of about seven minutes. This set has twenty-nine episodes from the Assabile archive, and everything in it is the sheikh's speech as it stands in the machine transcript; what is not traced to a chain or is garbled in the transcript is marked as needing a source.

• Omar Abdelkafy opens a daily Ramadan series titled "Wonders of the Hearts" and says he will meet the viewers every day at the same time. ^{1 2}
• He says a human being is a handful of earth and a breath of God's spirit, and the more that breath shines with the light of the Book and the Sunna, the less the darkness of the earthen body, so the heart rises through the ranks of good. This is his explanation. ^{2 3}
• He notes that the heart is called qalb because it turns (taqallub) between a moment of openness and a moment of tightness, and between approach and withdrawal. ^{3 4}
• He describes the days of Ramadan as travel across time and an inner emigration from the heart to God, in which the servant leaves what he was before the month. This is his picture. ^{5 4}
• He relates a prophetic saying by its sense that hearts have an approach and a withdrawal: when the heart approaches, one multiplies voluntary prayers, and when it withdraws, one keeps to the obligatory, which is the minimum that separates a Muslim from a non-Muslim. ^{6 7}
• In the introduction he calls on every Muslim to weigh himself at the start and end of Ramadan, and holds that a fast that ends in weight gain has not reached its aim. This is his opinion. ^{8 9}
• He says statistics show that some Arab and Muslim peoples consume in Ramadan what would last many months outside it, and counts that a calamity. ^{9 10}
• He says the pre-dawn meal is a blessing and not a store of food, since the stomach digests what is in it after two hours, and advises the fasting person to stop eating while still having an appetite. This is his opinion. ^{10 11 12}
• He mentions that the Prophet ﷺ used to break his fast on a few dates, then a sip of water, then stand to pray. ¹²
• He advises that a Muslim should not eat in Ramadan several times what he eats in other months. ¹³

• He says the heart that turns to God with sincerity, reliance, truthfulness and certainty knows only contentment with what God has provided, while other hearts are struck by a deadly disease, envy. ¹⁴
• He counts greed and avarice among the worst things in the heart, because their owner looks at what others hold. ¹⁵
• He reports from Ibn Abbas that the Prophet said that if the son of Adam had two valleys of wealth he would seek a third, that only earth fills his belly, and that God relents toward whoever repents, and says it is agreed upon. ^{15 16}
• He says the envier lives in grief and distress, and recites verses whose gist is that the envier offends against God in what He has done because he is not content with what was given, and that the envier dies having gained of the world only what was written for him. ^{16 17}
• He says envy devours good deeds as fire devours wood. ¹⁷
• He makes envy close to arrogance and the father of hatred and ill will, stirring strife and spite, and sees the envier as rejecting God's apportionment from eternity, so that he cannot sleep when God favours someone else. ^{18 19}
• He relates by its sense that the Prophet told whoever sees in his brother something he likes to pray a blessing for him, and that the angel then says to him, "and you the same". ¹⁹
• He says the harm of envy falls on the envier before the envied, because he objects to God's decree, and he voices that objection in questions about a high-achieving colleague, an obedient wife and the like. ^{20 21}
• He likens the envier to a fire that consumes itself when it finds nothing else, and says envy is an act of the heart that can turn into harmful action. ²¹
• He recalls that the son of Adam, when he envied his brother, killed him, and that the brothers of Joseph, when they envied him, threw him into the well. See al-Ma'ida, verse 27 and Yusuf, verse 15. ²²
• He says the envier never learns to thank for a blessing and always compares himself with those who have more, so his envy never ends. ^{22 23}
• He promises that the next episode will be on the cure for envy. ^{23 24}

• He recalls that the previous episode was about envy and says a Muslim who finds this disease in himself must look for its cure. ^{25 26}
• He distinguishes blameworthy, forbidden envy, which is wishing the blessing to leave the envied person, from permissible envy, which scholars call ghibta, wishing for the like of what another has without wishing his blessing to go. ^{26 27}
• He cites a prophetic saying that there is no envy except in two cases: a man God taught the Qur'an who stands with it through the hours of night and day, so his neighbour says "would that I had been given the like", and a man God gave wealth who spends it rightly, so another says the same, and he ascribes it to al-Bukhari. ^{27 28}
• He says God tied character to the law and to faith, so whoever is given good character finds no way for envy into his heart, because God apportioned character and provision in eternity. This is his explanation. ^{29 30}
• He says the first thing in envy is ill opinion of God and distrust of what He apportioned, and that one cure is for people to compete in good and each to love good for himself and his kin. ^{31 32}
• He sees envy in three stages: first, wishing to be like so-and-so and belittling the owner of the blessing; second, wishing the blessing to leave others, where the danger lies and whose cure is training the self in good character; third, the hardest, striving personally to remove it, for instance by informing against the person to his manager or superior, and then one loses this world and the next. This is his division. ^{32 33 34 35}
• He says he has never seen an envier who left a good mark on life, that this trait must vanish from societies, and promises the next episode on the cure. ^{35 36}

• He cites a prophetic saying by its sense that forbids envying one another, hating one another and spying, and bids people be servants of God and brothers. ³⁷
• He cites a saying he ascribes to the Prophet that envy eats good deeds as fire eats wood, and another about three things none escapes: ill opinion, omen-taking and envy. ^{37 38}
• He says one cause of envy is people's distance from the truth of religion, so a person becomes a slave to his wishes and desires and seeks what others have, and another is ill opinion of God and lack of reliance on Him. This is his reasoning. ^{39 40}
• He counts among the causes the deceptive show of the world, so a person wants the post another holds and sees himself more deserving, and he says the envier always looks at the empty half of the glass. This is his illustration. ^{41 42}
• He makes part of the Qur'anic cure God's call to people to compete for what is with Him, not in gathering money, and mentions a saying that the world weighs nothing with God. ^{43 44}
• He illustrates the Salaf's competing for the next life by saying that Umar gave half his property and Abu Bakr all of his. ⁴⁵
• He advises that when a person sees a blessing with another he should ask God instead of thinking ill of His wisdom, should purify tawhid in his heart and know that envy only adds to him rancour and sickness. ^{46 47}
• He advises doing good to whoever one thinks envies one, especially a relative, citing God's command to repel with what is better. See Fussilat, verse 34. ^{47 48}
• He advises that a Muslim seek refuge with the two Mu'awwidhat and teach his children to recite them before sleep, blowing into the palms three times and wiping the face and body. See al-Falaq, verse 1 and al-Nas, verse 1. ^{48 49}

• He presents sincerity as a trait among the wonders of the heart, and says it is a secret of God which He deposits in the heart of whomever He is pleased with and loves. ^{50 51}
• He says a person is either sincere or trains until he becomes sincere, and that Satan does not come near the sincere, and relates by its sense that the Prophet told Umar that when Satan sees him going down a road he takes another. See al-Hijr, verse 40 and Yusuf, verse 24. ^{51 52}
• He lists three secrets of sincerity: the servant is not aware of it, so he is not deluded by it; the angel who records good deeds does not see it, because it is a secret between the servant and his Lord; and Satan cannot enter it. This is his listing. ^{52 53}
• He says the scholars' definitions of sincerity come down to one meaning: that the Muslim's aim in every movement and rest, outward or inward, is God's face, wanting from people neither reward nor thanks. See al-Insan, verse 9. ^{53 54}
• He relates that al-Fadl ibn Zayd asked Abu Abd Allah, whom he identifies as Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, about intention, and was told to work on himself so as to want nothing by his deed but God. ⁵⁵
• He gives the example of the harlot who gave a dog water and was forgiven, and of the man who removed a thorny branch from the road and was forgiven, and says the deed was small but sincerity made it great. ^{55 56 57}
• He says the Companions showed sincerity in practice in their deeds and words, and gives Ayyub al-Sakhtiyani, who would cover his face with his sleeve when he wept in his lesson and say it was a cold, and who hid his night prayer until dawn, when he raised his voice as though just awake. ^{57 58 59}
• He says that when a servant is sincere, showing off, seeking reputation and love of display keep away from him, and calls on the viewers to check their sincerity in charity, fasting, night prayer and reciting the Qur'an. ^{60 61}

• He relates from Abd Allah ibn Amr ibn al-As (may God be pleased with him) that the Prophet said a man of his community will be called out before all creation on the Day of Resurrection and ninety-nine scrolls, each as far as the eye can see, will be unrolled for him; he is asked whether he denies any of it and says no; then a card bearing the two testimonies is brought out, set in one pan of the scale with the scrolls in the other, and the scrolls fly up while the card is heavy. ^{62 63 64}
• He quotes Ibn al-Qayyim that deeds do not differ in merit by their form and number but by what is in the hearts, so the form of a deed may be the same and the difference between two such deeds be as between heaven and earth. ^{64 65}
• He says the card is a small slip that outweighs the pan, because nothing outweighs the name of God. This is his explanation. ⁶⁵
• He holds that the sincere Muslim says the testimony of tawhid truthfully and acts on what it requires, and gives the example of someone who says it and then says that but for such-and-such a doctor God would not have healed his daughter, or who fears the creature and not the Creator, saying this is not the reality of "there is no god but God". This is his opinion. ^{66 67 68}
• He relates by its sense that the Prophet saw a man turning about in Paradise for a tree he cut from the side of the road because it harmed Muslims, and says the sincere person removes any harm he sees from the road. ^{69 70}
• He criticises someone who opens his car window and throws out a paper, saying he is not a true Muslim who knows sincerity, and likewise an employee who leaves a long queue waiting while he is slack. This is his view of particular conduct, not the museum's judgement. ^{70 71}
• He calls on every Muslim to ask himself which deeds he would like no one to see and which he would like people to see, and says the outward acts like prayer, zakat and pilgrimage are seen by people, but the sincerity inside is what matters most. ⁷²

• He says fear of God is among the greatest stations of servitude and the most beneficial, and an obligation on every person. See Al Imran, verse 175 and al-Rahman, verse 46. ⁷³
• He gives scholars' definitions of fear: expecting punishment at every breath, the strength of knowledge of the rulings, the self's wariness of a harm known or suspected, and the stirring of the inner self over sins one knows, and says whoever fears God flees to Him. See al-Dhariyat, verse 50. ^{74 75 76 77}
• He says fear was stronger among the Companions, and mentions by sense the Prophet's saying that he is the nearest of them to his Lord and the one who fears most. ⁷⁷
• He says that when fear settles in a heart it burns the places of desire, and tells that Umar would hold his finger near the fire and say "can you bear this, Ibn al-Khattab?" and then stand to pray at night, and that on hearing a reader recite a verse about the punishment of your Lord he fainted. See al-Tur, verse 7. ⁷⁸
• He divides fear into praiseworthy, which stands between the servant and the forbidden, and blameworthy, which reaches despair, and quotes Ibn Taymiyya that fear is what holds you back from what God has forbidden. ⁷⁹
• He divides fear into obligatory, which drives one to do the duties and leave the forbidden, and recommended, which drives one to the recommended acts and away from the disliked. This is his division. ^{79 80}
• He repeats the picture of the heart as a bird whose head is love and whose wings are hope and fear, and says a person tends to fear when healthy and to hope as he ages. This is his picture. ^{80 81}
• He gives a saying that whoever worships God by love alone is a heretic (zindiq), by fear alone is of the Kharijites, and by hope alone is of the Murji'a, while whoever joins hope and fear is a believing monotheist. ⁸²
• He lists forms of fear: the fear of the lost person far from the road, the worshipper's fear that his fast and zakat will not be accepted and that his end will not be good, and the fear of being unjust, without knowing it, to one's children or wife. ^{83 84 85 86}
• He cites verses on a person beginning with himself and forbidding himself before forbidding others, and says the vanishing of fear from the heart is a great calamity. ^{87 88}

• He opens with the verse praising the believers to whom it was said that people had gathered against them, so fear them, and it increased them in faith. See Al Imran, verse 173. ⁸⁹
• He lists what brings fear into the heart: that a person reveres and magnifies God, and fears falling short in obedience and falling into disobedience. This is his listing. ^{90 91}
• He says a person should look at God's blessings upon him, and tells that when the world pressed on the Salaf they would visit the sick, the graveyards and the prisons and thank God for health, life and freedom. ^{91 92}
• He counts remembering death among them, so that one treats each prayer as his last, and he recites verses on renewing repentance because death has come. ^{92 93}
• He counts among them reflecting on the Qur'an and the fates of earlier wrongdoers, and keeping up voluntary acts, and alludes to the sacred saying that the servant keeps drawing near to God by voluntary acts until He loves him. ⁹⁴
• He advises sitting with the righteous who remind one of God, and says nothing good is left in the world except the gatherings of those who love one another for God. This is his opinion. ⁹⁵
• He calls on the viewer to test himself: which does he fear more, being late for work and answering to the manager, or God seeing him in disobedience, and says God looks at hearts and deeds, not at forms and clothes. ^{96 97}
• He lists signs of weak fear: delaying prayers, lying, backbiting and slander, speaking about people's honour and forgetting God's blessings, and prays that God keep hearts firm on His religion and obedience. ^{97 98 99}
• He asks the viewer to check whether fear has kept him from eating what is forbidden, usury and orphans' property, from wronging people and from falling short in zakat, to learn whether he fears God or not. ⁹⁹

• He contrasts an anxious person who fears tomorrow and the future with one who has left his affair to his Creator, and tells that Abd al-Muttalib said to Abraha that the camels have a lord and the House has a Lord who protects it. ^{100 101}
• He says the reliant person feels inner security and sleeps without anxiety medicine, and holds that whoever takes anxiety medicine and sedatives has had reliance evaporate from his heart. This is his opinion, not medical advice, and the museum does not adopt it. ^{101 102}
• He says the Muslim takes the means and depends on the Lord of the means, and tells that in the cave the Prophet said to Abu Bakr, who said that if one of them looked under his feet he would see them, "what do you think of two with God as the third". ^{102 103}
• He cites the verse about those told that people have gathered against them, who said "God is sufficient for us and the best of guardians". See Al Imran, verse 173. ^{103 104}
• He quotes one of the scholars, without naming him, that reliance is thinking well of God, and asks whoever relies on his reason, knowledge, tribe and post who provided for him when he was a foetus in his mother's womb. ^{104 105}
• He tells that Hajar, mother of Ishmael, ran between al-Safa and al-Marwa, and that after she had exhausted the means God ordered Gabriel to strike the earth with his wing and Zamzam sprang up, and he cites Abraham's prayer at the House. See Ibrahim, verse 37. ^{105 106}
• He explains reliance as taking the means and then leaving the matter to God, with the example of a student who studies and attends lessons and then relies, and of the Prophet at Badr, who arranged the ranks and blocked the wells and then stood to pray. ^{106 107 108}
• He says whoever sleeps all year and then says he relies on God does not truly rely, that reliance bears the fruit of God's love because He loves the reliant, and quotes a phrase that when one is given understanding in withholding, withholding becomes the very giving. ^{108 109 110}
• He promises that the coming episodes will be on the degrees and fruits of reliance. ¹¹⁰

• He says one fruit of reliance is that faith is not realised without it, and that the verse is as if saying "if you are believers, then rely on God". See al-Ma'ida, verse 23. ¹¹¹
• He counts among the fruits the calm of the self and the stillness of the heart, with no anxiety or tension. ^{111 112}
• He says God suffices the reliant person in everything and his enemies reach him only with what God wrote, citing that whoever relies on God, He is sufficient for him. See al-Talaq, verse 3. ^{112 113 114}
• He relates that when a man leaves his house two angels accompany him: when he says "in the name of God" they say "you are guided", when he says "no power nor strength but with God" they say "you are protected", and when he says "I rely on God" they say "you are sufficed", and then the devil says to his fellow what does he want from a man guided, protected and sufficed. ^{115 116}
• He mentions a supplication on leaving the house, seeking refuge in God from going astray or being led astray, from wronging or being wronged, and from acting ignorantly or having ignorance done to one. ¹¹⁶
• He says reliance is among the greatest causes of drawing benefit and repelling harm, and recalls that when Abraham said "God is sufficient for me and the best of guardians" God told the fire to be cool and safe, and that the Companions said it when told that people had gathered against them, and came back with a blessing from God. See al-Anbiya, verse 69 and Al Imran, verse 173. ¹¹⁷
• He quotes Ibn al-Qayyim that when a servant relies on God, his Lord takes him in charge and only good comes to him. ¹¹⁸
• He says wealth is a loan to be taken back, reason errs and is right, and relatives with posts may die or be dismissed, whereas reliance on God lasts and the signs of servitude appear with it. This is his opinion. ^{119 120}
• He says God loves the reliant and that reliance brings strength and steadiness of heart with which one faces the devils of men and jinn, and calls on viewers to rely on God as He should be relied on. ^{120 121}

• The machine transcript of this episode matches episode 10 almost word for word, so it is recorded here briefly with its own timestamps. ^{122 123}
• He sets out the fruits of reliance: faith is not realised without it, calm of the self, and God sufficing the reliant. See al-Ma'ida, verse 23. ^{123 124 125}
• He repeats the report of the two angels who accompany a man when he leaves his house and the devil's remark to his fellow, and the saying of Abraham and of the Companions "God is sufficient for us and the best of guardians". See al-Anbiya, verse 69. ^{126 127 128}
• He repeats the quotation from Ibn al-Qayyim and that wealth is a loan to be taken back, then that God loves the reliant and gives them strength and steadiness. ^{129 130 131}

• He opens with two verses, on God turning away from His signs those who are arrogant in the earth and on His sealing every arrogant tyrant's heart, and explains the sealing as a veil or black rust that surrounds the heart. See al-A'raf, verse 146 and Ghafir, verse 35. ¹³²
• He says God does not love the arrogant, who look down on people as if they were of another clay, and relates by sense that the Prophet said that all of you are from Adam and Adam from dust, and that an Arab has no merit over a non-Arab except by piety. See al-Nahl, verse 23. ¹³³
• He mentions the sacred saying by its sense that pride is My cloak and greatness My garment, and whoever contends with Me for either I will throw into Hell. ¹³⁴
• He lists forms of arrogance: over followers and partisans, wealth, kin and tribe, and knowledge, and asks the man proud of his wealth who provided it when he was born naked from his mother's womb, saying wealth is a stewardship. ^{134 135}
• He relates by sense that God does not look at one who trails his garment out of conceit, and says the point is what is in the heart, and that whoever has an atom's weight of arrogance in his heart does not enter Paradise. ¹³⁶
• He relates by sense that a man told the Prophet he likes his clothes and sandals to be good, and the Prophet said God is beautiful and loves beauty, and that arrogance is rejecting the truth and despising people, and he explains rejecting the truth as refusing it and looking down on people because of a family one belongs to. ¹³⁷
• He says arrogance is the father of the major sins and the first sin by which God was disobeyed, when God told the angels to prostrate to Adam and they did except Iblis, who refused and was arrogant. See al-Baqara, verse 34. ^{138 139}
• He gives the example of a man arrogant toward his wife, whom he regards as deficient and worthless, and toward in-laws and relatives with less knowledge and wealth, and calls it a great calamity. This is his description of an attitude he criticises. ¹³⁹
• He says noble lineage is good but it is better that the family's character shows in one's dealing, and relates by sense that Abu Dharr taunted a man with his mother and the Prophet told him there is in him a trace of the Jahiliyya, and that Bilal stood on the roof of the Kaaba to call the prayer. ^{140 141}
• He promises that the next episode will be on the cure for arrogance. ^{141 142}

• He recalls that the previous episode was on arrogance and says its cure begins with the person being convinced that he is arrogant and being frank with himself, as a patient accepts his illness. ^{143 144}
• He says removing arrogance from the heart is an individual obligation and that its cure is not by wishes but by treatment, and reports from the scholars that the cure has two stations: cutting the tree of arrogance from its root, and repelling the causes by which a person grows proud. ^{145 146}
• He makes cutting the root both knowledge and practice: the person knows that God is the one who provides for him, that he is the weak servant and God the gentle and majestic Lord, and that greatness and pride suit only God. This is his explanation. ^{146 147 148}
• He says the arrogant person is ignorant because he gives himself what is not his: every rich man has someone richer and every strong man someone stronger, and a person should boast only in his servitude to God. This is his opinion. ^{149 150}
• He advises reminding oneself that wealth, effort, honour and lineage are all from God and that one is made of clay and of a despised fluid, so none of it justifies pride. See al-Sajda, verse 8. ^{151 152}
• He says the world is a day for you and a day against you, and that treating the symptoms and then the disease puts humility in the heart in place of arrogance. ^{152 153}
• He says the arrogant will be trampled by people on the Day of Resurrection, and prays that God give humility and make us humble toward the believers and mighty toward the disbelievers. See al-Ma'ida, verse 54. ^{153 154}

• He begins with a prophetic saying by sense that every son of Adam sins and the best of sinners are those who repent. ¹⁵⁵
• He says it is established in the two Sahihs that God rejoices more at the repentance of His believing servant than a man whose mount was lost in a desert with his food and drink on it and who despaired of it and then found it; part of the telling is lost in an automatic repetition. ^{156 157}
• He relates from Ibn al-Qayyim a tale of a knower of God who saw a boy driven from the house by his mother; the boy stood weeping, then came back, laid his cheek on the threshold and slept, and she came out, embraced him and said "where will you go from me, and who have you but me", and he makes it an image of God's mercy to the repentant servant. ^{158 159 160}
• He says whoever sins with his limbs or his heart must hurry back, because God is more merciful to us than our fathers and mothers. This is his explanation. ^{160 161}
• He mentions by sense a sacred saying that if a servant's sins reach the clouds of the sky and he comes to God not associating anything with Him, God meets him with forgiveness as great. ¹⁶¹
• He says God changes the repentant person's evil deeds into good deeds and conceals him in this world so that he is not exposed before the witnesses, and that Abu Bakr used to pray that God not expose on the Day of Resurrection one He had concealed in this world. See al-Furqan, verse 70. ^{162 163 164}
• He gives four conditions of repentance: stopping the sin, regret, resolve not to return, and giving rights back to their owners, material or moral, and lists sins of the limbs such as looking at the forbidden, backbiting, slander, false accusation, cursing and obscenity. ^{164 165 166}
• He says leaving sins is more obligatory than repenting of them, and that hurrying to seek forgiveness is a condition for repentance being accepted. This is his opinion. ^{166 167}

• He recalls that the previous episode was on repentance, and that God rejoices at a servant's repentance though creation's obedience adds nothing to His kingdom and its disobedience takes nothing from it. ^{168 169}
• He sorts a person's traits and conduct under four branches: lordly, such as pride and loftiness; devilish, such as envy, hatred, scheming, deceit, trickery, fraud, hypocrisy and commanding the wrong; bestial, such as gluttony and greed for the desires of belly and sex, and what branches from them; and predatory, such as anger, rancour and attacking people by killing, beating, harming or taking property. ^{169 170 171 172 173}
• He criticises the Muslim who is mighty over his relatives, neighbours and wife and humble before others, and calls on viewers to examine themselves under these four branches. This is his opinion. See al-Ma'ida, verse 54. ^{170 173 174}
• He mentions by sense that whoever has an atom's weight of pride in his heart does not enter Paradise and that envy eats good deeds. ¹⁷⁴
• He distinguishes sins of the limbs, which are easy to repent of (the tongue is shut except for good, the eye is closed to the forbidden), from sins of the heart such as arrogance, rancour, envy, showing off and conceit, which he says breed innovation and hypocrisy and make the person put repentance off. ^{175 176}
• He warns against putting repentance off, as in "I will repent when I marry or when I perform the pilgrimage", and says haste is blameworthy in everything except five, among them repenting from sin, praying on time and paying a debt, citing what Moses said. See Ta Ha, verse 84. ^{177 178 179}

• He tells that a man came to one of the Salaf scholars and said that whenever he wanted to repent he went back to the sin, and the scholar gave him five counsels: disobey God where He cannot see you, do not eat of His provision, disobey Him in a land not His, tell the angel of death "delay me until I repent", and say on the Day of Resurrection "I did not disobey"; and the man repented. ^{180 181 182}
• He makes repentance begin with two things: strengthening faith's immunity through the gatherings of the righteous, reading the Qur'an, keeping up acts of worship and night prayer, and keeping oneself away from places of disobedience. This is his explanation. ^{182 183}
• He relates that al-Hasan al-Basri left his maidservant in the market and she went home before him and said that he had left her in a place where God was not remembered and she feared His wrath would fall on those in it and she be with them. ^{183 184 185}
• He lists means of repenting: a truthful intention while asking God for lasting sincerity, seeing the sin as a poison that eats one's good deeds, and fearing a bad end, and likens the heart to a bottle filled with the remembrance of God or with something else. See Yusuf, verse 24. ^{185 186 187}
• He says a sign of accepted repentance is that doors of obedience open before one without walking toward them and doors of disobedience shut even if one heads toward them. This is his opinion. ^{187 188}
• He advises taking account of oneself every night before sleep as companies account for profit and loss, and watching oneself through the day, especially lowering the gaze, and says whoever looks at other people's women, others look at his women. This is his opinion. ^{188 189}
• He advises reproaching the self after watching it, saying "O soul, repent, for death has come", and recites verses to that effect. ¹⁹⁰
• He recalls the day when neither wealth nor sons avail except to the one who comes to God with a sound heart, and says sins efface blessing from life, provision, spouse and children. See al-Shu'ara, verse 89. ¹⁹¹
• He advises withdrawing from places of doubt and keeping the company of the righteous, noting that the dog of the people of the cave is mentioned in the Qur'an because it accompanied them, and that Abu Lahab was sealed with a bad end through bad company. See al-Kahf, verse 18. ^{191 192}

• He takes up the viewers' question whether God has accepted their repentance and whether it has signs, and answers that the first is that the sweetness of the sin turns to bitterness and obedience, once heavy, becomes light, so one loves the dawn prayer, gatherings of knowledge and the Qur'an. ^{193 194}
• He makes the second sign a strong fear of going back to the sin, so one avoids those who were a cause of one's disobedience and keeps company with those who remind one of God, and cites the verse giving good news to those who stay upright that they need not fear or grieve. See Fussilat, verse 30. ^{194 195 196}
• He makes the third sign that one regards a sin as grave however small, citing the verse that they thought it light while with God it is great. See al-Nur, verse 15. ¹⁹⁶
• He gives a phrase that there is no minor sin with persistence and no major sin with seeking forgiveness, and says the one who makes light of a small sin sees it like a fly that landed on his face. ^{197 198}
• He counts among the signs a heart that is humble before God, so one pities the sinner and prays for him and does not taunt him with his sin, lest God heal him and test oneself. ^{198 199}
• He says another sign is that the tongue stops at lying and backbiting and speeds to good, and that the doors of obedience open and the doors of disobedience close. ²⁰⁰
• He relates of Sahl ibn Abd Allah al-Tustari that he had a vein in his hand that throbbed whenever his hand reached for something doubtful or forbidden, and says that whoever eats doubtful food for forty days, his limbs disobey. ^{200 201}
• He warns against putting repentance off, asking who can guarantee that I will live to next Ramadan or to the pilgrimage, and tells that al-Hajjaj invited a Bedouin to eat and he said he was fasting, and when told it was a hot day said that a day's fast is hotter still, and then asked "will the governor guarantee me that I live until tomorrow". ^{201 202 203}

• He counts contentment among the wonders of hearts that are content with God's decree and measure, says not everyone attains it, and says faith has four traits: patience for the truth, contentment with the decree, sincerity in work, and reliance and surrender to God. ^{204 205}
• He gives the example of a man hoping for a son who is given a daughter and another and another, and tells him to be content with God's decree, for he will have three families, and that a daughter's provision is double a son's. This is his opinion. ^{205 206}
• He gives the example of someone deprived of health who is told he has several illnesses, and calls him to patience with God's wisdom. ^{206 207}
• He says contentment is the shortest road to God's pleasure, and relates from Ali that whoever is struck by a calamity and is patient has the reward and God's command is carried out, and whoever is not patient bears the burden and God's command is carried out. ^{207 208}
• He asks whether a husband is content with his wife and she with him, imagines children kissing their parents' heads before sleep and asking "are you pleased with me", and sees the widespread pride as what blocks contentment among people. This is his opinion. ^{208 209}
• He says contentment after the decree is the real contentment, since contentment before it is only a resolve, and cites a saying asking God for contentment after the decree without its speaker being known. ²¹⁰
• He says contentment is valid only on three conditions: that God is the most beloved of things to the servant, the most revered and the most worthy of obedience. This is his explanation. ²¹¹
• He says the sign of thanks is contentment with God's decree and submission to it, and relates a wise man's advice to his son to worship God without partners and to be content with His decree in what he likes and dislikes. ^{212 213}
• He asks why our grandparents were content with few means while we, with many, have lost contentment, and ends with a prayer that God make him content with His decree so that he does not love hastening what He delayed or delaying what He hastened. ^{213 214}

• He presents the Prophet as the model of the contented, and tells that at al-Ta'if the boys threw stones at him and he sat in the shade of a garden praying, and the angel of the mountains offered to close the two mountains on them, but he refused and prayed that God guide his people or bring from their loins those who would affirm God's oneness. ^{215 216}
• He gives a supplication he relates from the Prophet on that day, complaining of the weakness of his strength, his lack of means and his lowliness before people, saying that if God is not angry with him he does not mind, taking refuge in the light of His face from His anger, and leaving reproach to God until He is pleased. ^{217 218 219 220}
• He explains that the supplication is a perfect example of contentment, since the afflicted person seeks God's pleasure before the end of the trial. This is his explanation. ^{218 219}
• He relates by sense the Prophet's forbidding anyone to wish for death because of harm that befell him, and that if he must, he should say "O God, keep me alive as long as life is better for me, and take me when death is better for me". ²²¹
• He tells that Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas, in old age, lost his sight, and was told he is answered when he prays so he should ask God to restore it, and said that God's will is better than his own. ²²²
• He tells that Umar said the Islam of al-Abbas was dearer to him than the Islam of al-Khattab, because the Islam of al-Abbas would please the heart of the Messenger of God. ^{222 223}

• He presents gratitude as a virtue in the believer's heart, limbs and deeds, says that in language shukr is the appearance of the effect of a blessing and that the Arabs call an animal "shakur" when the effect of its fodder shows on it, and asks the Muslim whether the blessing of Islam shows on him in his prayer, fasting and keeping of kinship. See Saba, verse 13. ^{224 225 226}
• He says gratitude causes blessings to increase, that one must link the blessing to the Giver, and that the greatest blessing, Islam, is one none of us asked our Lord for, being born in Muslim homes. ^{226 227}
• He quotes al-Shafi'i by sense in a prayer that God gave him Islam without his asking, so let Him give him Paradise as he asks for it. ^{227 228}
• He says gratitude is built on contentment and on seeing the blessing, and criticises those who see only the empty half of the glass and recall only moments of illness, calling on viewers to see God's blessings and feel shame before Him. This is his opinion. ^{228 229 230}
• He cites verses that gratitude is the opposite of unbelief, that bid eating of God's provision and thanking Him, and that promise increase to the grateful. See al-Baqara, verse 152, Saba, verse 15 and Ibrahim, verse 7. ^{230 231}
• He says real gratitude is turning blessings into obedience, and gives the examples of someone given money who spends it on intoxicants and tobacco, someone given health who ruins it, and someone who wastes his life on what displeases God. ^{231 232}
• He relates from the righteous that the grateful has the reward of the fasting person seeking reward and the healthy grateful person the reward of the patient sufferer. ²³³

• He recalls that the previous episode was an introduction to gratitude, and says the scholars divided it into three: gratitude of the heart, of the tongue and of the limbs. ^{234 235}
• He explains gratitude of the heart as picturing blessings such as health, wealth, Islam, cover, a righteous wife, dutiful children, a home and a mount as gifts from God, after which this picture turns into gratitude of the tongue. This is his explanation. ^{235 236}
• He gives examples of gratitude of the tongue: a prayer when drinking water, praising God who made it sweet by His mercy and did not make it salty because of our sins, and a prayer when putting on clothes, praising God who clothed him with what covers his nakedness and adorns him among people and asking for good character as He made his form good. ^{236 237 238}
• He explains gratitude of the limbs as each part having its thanks: the eye does not look at the forbidden and looks at the Qur'an and at the faces of parents and reflects on the dominion of heaven and earth; the ear listens to the Qur'an, gatherings of remembrance and good speech; the hand gives charity, strokes orphans' heads, shakes hands with Muslims and with the wife, and writes in defence of the faith. ^{238 239 240}
• He says gratitude of the foot is not to go to a place where God is disobeyed and not to walk to spoil relations between people, but to walk to reconcile people, to do good and to give lasting charity. This is his explanation. ^{240 241}
• He says gratitude for wealth is not to use it to harm people or in programmes that harm Muslims or the state one lives in, but to spend it to help the weak and build mosques, shelters and homes for the elderly and orphans. This is his opinion. ^{242 243}
• He tells that Moses said "my Lord, how can I thank You when thanking You is itself a blessing that needs thanks", and God said "now you have thanked Me", and says that inability to comprehend is itself comprehension. ²⁴⁴

• He says God's blessings on the servant are many and that if he prostrated to God on embers he would not fulfil their due, and divides blessings into three: worldly, religious and of the next life. ²⁴⁵
• He lists among worldly blessings health, wealth, righteous children and lawful food, says the supplication of one who eats the forbidden is not answered, and tells that a woman Companion would say to her husband as he left, "fear God for us and do not feed us what is forbidden, for we can bear hunger but not the heat of Hell". ^{246 247}
• He says some people despair when struck by a chronic illness, and mentions by sense that God created no disease without creating a remedy except the disease of old age. ^{247 248}
• He quotes a famous sentence he ascribes to "Ata", probably meaning Ibn Ata Allah, that whoever wants to know his station with God should look at what God has stationed him in: one found in lawful work knows he is dear to God, one found in forbidden work knows he is of little worth to Him. ²⁴⁹
• He says that if someone misses the dawn prayer and prays it after sunrise he should know he is of little worth to God, since he did not honour himself by standing before Him, comparing it to an invitation from a ruler that goes only to someone who has done something. This is his opinion on what missing the prayer signifies, not the museum's judgement. ^{249 250 251}
• He lists among blessings of the next life a good end, acceptance of the righteous deed, contentment with a small deed and the multiplying of a good deed, and that God made faith beloved to people. See al-Hujurat, verse 7. ^{251 252}
• He says God's blessings are outward and inward, general and particular, such as the sun, light and air, that one thanks God for blessings and for trials, since when God wants good for someone He tries him and the prophets are tried most, and prays to be among the servants of beneficence and not of trial. ^{252 253}

• He repeats the picture of the heart as a bird whose head is love of God, one wing hope and the other fear: fear restrains the heart from sins and hope flies it toward God. This is his picture. ^{254 255 256}
• He refers to words of Ibn al-Qayyim on God's mercy, but the text is lost in an automatic repetition. ²⁵⁶
• He distinguishes hope from wishful thinking: hope is a wish that turns into action, citing the verse that whoever hopes to meet his Lord should do righteous work. See al-Kahf, verse 110. ²⁵⁷
• He mentions by sense a sacred saying that as long as the servant calls on God and hopes in Him, He forgives him whatever he did and does not mind. ²⁵⁷
• He says hope must rest on sincere action, and quotes of people deluded by wishes that they say "we think well of God", whereas had they thought well they would have done well. ²⁵⁸
• He asks why we tire of supplication, and says the servant moves his limbs in obedience hoping for acceptance and does not give up supplicating. ^{259 260}
• He says a servant worships God by fear at times and by hope at times, and relates by sense that if the believer knew what punishment God has no one would covet His Paradise, and if the unbeliever knew what mercy He has no one would despair of it. ^{260 261}
• He relates from Abd Allah ibn Mas'ud that the verse of greatest joy in the Book of God is the one in al-Zumar that God forgives all sins. See al-Zumar, verse 53. ²⁶¹
• He tells the story of the three men shut in a cave by a rock, each of whom pleaded with God by a righteous deed, and makes it an example of real hope. ^{262 263}

• He opens with verses condemning rancour and praising a sound breast, saying an Arab poet said them. ^{264 265 266}
• He says rancour is a heavy worry and a fruit of envy: the rancorous person planted the tree of envy, looked at what others hold and was not content with what God apportioned him, so he lives in constant tension and wants revenge. ^{266 267 268}
• He likens rancour to a fire that eats firewood, so it consumes the virtues in the heart, and says it makes its owner plan revenge, love no one and look down on people, for instance saying of a colleague "I don't know why they made him manager when I am cleverer and my degree is better". This is his description. ^{268 269 270}
• He says the believers have pure hearts and pray that God put no rancour in their hearts toward those who believe, and that the Ansar loved those who emigrated to them and preferred them to themselves. See al-Hashr, verse 10 and al-Hashr, verse 9. ^{271 272}
• He tells of Habib al-Najjar of Surat Ya-Sin, who came from the far side of the city urging his people to follow the messengers and was killed and trampled until his entrails came out, and that when told "enter Paradise" he said "would that my people knew what my Lord forgave me", and he gives by sense a prophetic saying "God have mercy on Habib the carpenter". See Ya-Sin, verse 20 and Ya-Sin, verse 26. ^{272 273 274}
• He cites a line he ascribes to Abu Firas about dying thirsty, and says this is not the character of believers. ²⁷⁴
• He promises that the next episode will be on the cure for rancour. ²⁷⁵

• He recalls that the previous episode was on rancour, and says it grows on the tree of envy and then of anger, so the first step in the cure is to control one's anger and swallow one's rage. ^{276 277}
• He gives from the scholars advice for when one is angry: change one's state, standing if sitting and sitting if standing; perform ablution, since anger is from Satan, Satan is from fire and fire is put out with water; ask God to protect one from the fire of one's anger; and learn patience. ^{278 279}
• He tells that Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan called a servant boy in anger and said "does the boy not eat, not drink, not sleep", then smiled and said something about the character of servants and masters. ^{279 280}
• He tells that Harun al-Rashid's servant spilled water on his hand and cut it, and the servant said "O Commander of the Faithful, and those who restrain their anger", he said "I have restrained my anger", the servant said "and those who pardon people", he said "I pardon you", the servant said "and God loves the doers of good", and he said "you are free". See Al Imran, verse 134. ²⁸¹
• He relates that Umar's servant, asked about his anger, said he is all good except when he is angry, and was told that if he were with him he would recite the Qur'an to him and his anger would subside. ²⁸²
• He says the basic cure for rancour is to do good to the person one resents, drawing near to him and praying for him, not to egg oneself on in rancour but to calm oneself and make love and fellowship last. This is his opinion. ^{282 283 284}
• He says rancour corrupts the heart and worship and cuts love in society, and quotes rhymed popular sayings that make relatives scorpions. ^{284 285}
• He says the sincere believer gives rancour no road into his heart because he is content with what God apportioned, and that rancour breeds ill opinion and enmity. See al-Zukhruf, verse 32. ^{285 286}

• He relates from Anas ibn Malik (may God be pleased with him) from the Prophet that whoever has three things finds the sweetness of faith: that God and His Messenger are dearer to him than anything else, that he loves a person only for God, and that he hates returning to unbelief as he hates being thrown into the Fire. ^{287 288}
• He quotes righteous scholars that no good is left in the world except the gatherings of those who love one another in God, other gatherings being full of backbiting, tale-bearing, lying and talk about people's honour. ^{288 289}
• He relates by sense a sacred saying that when God wants to punish the people of the earth He looks at those who visit one another for Him and love one another for Him, and lifts the punishment. ^{289 290}
• He says part of loving God is letting Him choose for one, alludes to the verse that your Lord creates what He wills and chooses, and describes the prayer for guidance (istikhara) as two units, reading al-Fatiha and al-Kafirun in the first and al-Fatiha and al-Ikhlas in the second, then asking God to choose what is good in one's religion and life. See al-Qasas, verse 68, al-Kafirun, verse 1 and al-Ikhlas, verse 1. ^{290 291 292}
• He gives as an example of love of God the Companion who was hammering with a mallet or an axe and put down what was in his hand on hearing the call to prayer. ^{292 293}
• He says love is the pillar of worship upright, and calls on viewers to collect from the Qur'an what God loves and hates and see which side they are on. This is his opinion. ^{293 294}
• He asks whether one's love of God is real, says it shows in the effects of one's deeds so that whoever sees one is reminded of God, and that it is translated into charity, relieving distress and caring for an orphan. See Al Imran, verse 31. ^{295 296}
• He says the servant's rank is that he loves them and they love him, and the wonder is not that they love him but that He loves them, as the wonder is a strong rich man who shows affection to a poor one. This is his explanation. See al-Ma'ida, verse 54. ^{297 298}

• He recalls that the previous episode was on the Prophet's truthful servitude, asks whether servitude has ranks, and answers that the first is the tongue saying "there is no god but God", then the heart's belief that there is no true object of worship but God, then the heart's action. ^{299 300}
• He says that someone who fears a manager at work, or a relative with influence who might harm him, with fear and panic has in his heart no rank of servitude, since God is more worthy of being feared. This is his opinion. ^{300 301}
• He tells that Abu al-Hasan the ascetic gave Ahmad ibn Tulun strong advice, that he grew angry and ordered him stood in a courtyard with a lion let loose on him, and that the lion came and rubbed against his clothes; when Ibn Tulun asked what he was thinking, he said he was asking himself whether a lion's saliva is pure or impure. ^{301 302 303}
• He relates that Ibn Abbas walked in Medina and found the streets empty because a lion had come in, and said to the lion "if you believe in God and the Last Day, go back where you came from"; asked whether the lion understands, he said "we are people who feared God, so God made creatures fear us". ^{304 305}
• He lists the heart's acts of servitude: love of God, reliance on Him, turning back to Him, fear of Him, making religion sincerely His, and patience with harm, with commands and with prohibitions. ^{306 307}
• He says what is required is that one know one's Lord truly, that love of Him is the happiness of both abodes, and that following His Messenger opens true servitude, and notes that a Muslim says at least seventeen times a day that he worships none but God and asks help of none but Him. See al-Fatiha, verse 5. ^{307 308}
• He prays that limbs, hearts and tongues all be in servitude to God, and calls that pure tawhid and pure love. ³⁰⁸

• The machine transcript of this episode matches episode 27 almost word for word, so it is recorded here briefly with its own timestamps. ^{309 310}
• He repeats his question on the ranks of servitude and its answer, the tongue's saying, then the heart's belief, then the heart's action, and repeats that one who fears a manager or an influential relative has in his heart no rank of servitude. This is his opinion. ^{310 311 312}
• He repeats the story of Abu al-Hasan the ascetic, Ahmad ibn Tulun and the lion that rubbed against his clothes. ^{312 313}
• He repeats the report of Ibn Abbas and the lion that entered the streets of Medina, his telling it to go back where it came from, and his saying "we are people who feared God, so God made creatures fear us". ^{314 315}
• He repeats the heart's acts of servitude and that a Muslim says seventeen times a day that he worships none but God and asks help of none but Him. See al-Fatiha, verse 5. ^{316 317 318}

• The machine transcript of this episode, the last, matches episodes 27 and 28 almost word for word. ^{319 320}
• He repeats the question on the ranks of servitude and the answer on the tongue, the heart and the heart's action, and the story of Abu al-Hasan the ascetic, Ahmad ibn Tulun and the lion. ^{320 321 322 323 324}
• He repeats the report of Ibn Abbas and the lion, and here says that he spoke two words to it and the lion turned round. ³²⁵
• He repeats the heart's acts of servitude and what is asked of a Muslim, to know his Lord, to love Him and to follow His Messenger, and then his prayer that limbs, hearts and tongues be in servitude. See al-Fatiha, verse 5. ^{326 327 328}