How Do I Revive a Heart That Feels Spiritually Numb?
Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
Question
This is not me saying I am depressed or apathetic in the sense of illness, but rather asking with the intention to perfect my own character.
I see and read about believers who can weep and get really emotional in their belief, and I used to have some fire in my worship, but now it feels more ritual-based rather than out of zeal.
Many students and scholars must have experienced similar moments, where a believer becomes firm and then, after a month or two, slips back. How can I regain this passion I held, or better understand it?
Answer
In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate.
What you are describing is not a fault. It has a name in this tradition, and the people who mapped it thought it was often the better of the two states.
Here is the reassurance first, because it is the answer and not a preface to it: worship carried out without sweetness is frequently weightier than worship carried by feeling. When the sweetness is there, something in you is being fed.
When it is go,ne and you pray anyway, nothing is holding you up, but obedience — and that is precisely what servanthood means.
The States Have Names
What you are calling fire and its absence, the masters of this path call bast and qabd — expansion and contraction. They are neither achievements nor failures. They are visitations, and they alternate.
Imam Qushayri places them carefully. Fear and hope look to what is to come, while contraction and expansion concern something present in the moment: the one who fears and hopes has his heart attached to what lies ahead, while the one in contraction or expansion is seized by his moment.
And he adds that these two are states that come after the servant has risen beyond fear and hope — contraction standing to the knower as fear stands to the beginner, and expansion as hope does. [Qushayri, al-Risala al-Qushayriyya]
Read that again, because it bears directly on you. On this reckoning, what you are experiencing may not be a fall from a higher state at all. It may be the mark of having moved past the beginner’s register.
Why the Darker State May Be the Richer One
Ibn Ata’illah writes: “He expanded you so as not to leave you in contraction, and contracted you so as not to leave you in expansion, and took you out of both so that you would not belong to anything besides Him.” [Ibn Ata’illah, al-Hikam]
Both states are His doing, and neither is where you are meant to settle. Then, more directly still: “Perhaps He has given you in the night of contraction what you did not receive in the daylight of expansion.” [Ibn Ata’illah, al-Hikam]
The commentators press the point. Ibn Abbad al-Rundi notes that the knowers actually prefer contraction, because in it the lower self takes no share; what is there instead is brokenness, lowliness, and need before the Lord of the Worlds.
In expansion, he warns, the self takes its portion by way of delight. [Ibn Abbad al-Rundi, Ghayth al-Mawahib al-Aliyya]
He quotes al-Wasiti more bluntly: “Finding acts of obedience sweet is a killing poison.” [Ibn Abbad al-Rundi, Ghayth al-Mawahib al-Aliyya] The meaning is not that sweetness is bad. It is a man who worships for the taste of it, who has already been paid.
Your Heart Is Not Yours to Steady
There is a mercy here that is easy to miss. The state is not in your hands, and it was never meant to be.
The Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, “The hearts of all the children of Adam are between two of the fingers of the Most Merciful, like a single heart; He turns it however He wills.” [Mishkat al-Masabih, no. 89; Muslim]
And he — who did not need it — asked constantly. Umm Salama (Allah be pleased with her) was asked what supplication he made most often when he was with her, and she said it was: “O Turner of hearts, make my heart firm upon Your religion.” [Tirmidhi, who graded it hasan]
If he asked, the asking is the practice. Make that supplication your own.
What to Actually Do
Do not chase the feeling. Chasing it is how people end up performing a state rather than living one.
Keep the practice steady and small. The Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, “The most beloved of deeds to Allah is the most constant of them, even if little.” [Bukhari and Muslim] Constancy is what is being asked of you. Intensity was never the standard.
And keep going in the dry season without grading yourself. You wrote that a believer becomes firm and then slackens after a month or two. That is not a special weakness in you. It is the shape of the road, and the ones who arrive are simply the ones who kept walking on the days it gave them nothing.
May Allah make your heart firm, and give you in the night what the day withheld.
And Allah knows best.
[Shaykh] Faraz Rabbani
Related SeekersGuidance Answers
How Can I Overcome Spiritual Fatigue and Sustain Worship Energy? — Shaykh Faraz Rabbani — on the exact cycle you describe, of firmness followed by slackening, and how to sustain worship through it.
How Do I Renew My Commitment to Islam? — on what to do when faith feels thin, and why the renewal is in the practice rather than in the feeling.
What Is the Meaning of Khushu and Its Importance? — Shaykh Dr. Muhammad Fayez Awad — on the presence of the heart, what it actually is, and how it is cultivated.
How Can I Maintain Focus and Concentration in My Prayer? — the practical means, for when you want something to do rather than something to understand.
Am I a Hypocrite for Losing Focus in Prayer? — useful against the suspicion that a flat heart is a sign of something worse.
Shaykh Faraz Rabbani is a recognized specialist scholar in the Islamic sciences, having studied under leading scholars from around the world. He is the Founder and Executive Director of SeekersGuidance.
Shaykh Faraz stands as a distinguished figure in Islamic scholarship. His journey in seeking knowledge is marked by dedication and depth. He spent ten years studying under some of the most revered scholars of our times. His initial studies took place in Damascus. He then continued in Amman, Jordan.
In Damascus, he was privileged to learn from the late Shaykh Adib al-Kallas. Shaykh Adib al-Kallas was renowned as the foremost theologian of his time. Shaykh Faraz also studied under Shaykh Hassan al-Hindi in Damascus. Shaykh Hassan is recognized as one of the leading Hanafi jurists of our era.
Upon completing his studies, Shaykh Faraz returned to Canada in 2007. His return marked a new chapter in his service to the community. He founded SeekersGuidance. The organization reflects his commitment to spreading Islamic knowledge. It aims to be reliable, relevant, inspiring, and accessible. This mission addresses both online and on-the-ground needs.
Shaykh Faraz is also an accomplished author. His notable work includes “Absolute Essentials of Islam: Faith, Prayer, and the Path of Salvation According to the Hanafi School.” This book, published by White Thread Press in 2004, is a significant contribution to Islamic literature.
His influence extends beyond his immediate community. Since 2011, Shaykh Faraz has been recognized as one of the 500 most influential Muslims. This recognition comes from the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center. It underscores his impact on the global Islamic discourse.
Shaykh Faraz Rabbani’s life and work embody a profound commitment to Islamic scholarship. His teachings continue to enlighten and guide seekers of knowledge worldwide.
النصوص
[ابن عطاء الله السكندري، الحكم العطائية]
«بَسَطَكَ كَيْ لَا يُبْقِيَكَ مَعَ الْقَبْضِ، وَقَبَضَكَ كَيْ لَا يَتْرُكَكَ مَعَ الْبَسْطِ، وَأَخْرَجَكَ عَنْهُمَا كَيْ لَا تَكُونَ لِشَيْءٍ دُونَهُ».
[ابن عطاء الله السكندري، الحكم العطائية]
«رُبَّمَا أَفَادَكَ فِي لَيْلِ الْقَبْضِ مَا لَمْ تَسْتَفِدْهُ فِي إِشْرَاقِ نَهَارِ الْبَسْطِ».
[الواسطي، نقلاً عن ابن عباد الرندي، غيث المواهب العلية]
«استحلاء الطاعات سموم قاتلة».
[مسلم]
«إِنَّ قُلُوبَ بَنِي آدَمَ كُلِّهَا بَيْنَ أُصْبُعَيْنِ من أَصَابِعِ الرَّحْمَنِ كقلب وَاحد يصرفهُ حَيْثُ يَشَاءُ».
[الترمذي]
قالت أمُّ سلمة رضي الله عنها: كَان أكْثَرُ دُعائِهِ: «يَا مُقَلِّبَ القُلُوبِ ثَبِّتْ قَلْبِي عَلَى دِينِكَ».
