The hearts of the arifs hold the treasure of Allah. In the hearts of the arifs, Allah has placed the sacred relics of His secret, the graces of His hikmat (wisdom), the haqiqah of His muhabbat, the noor of His ilm, the evidences of His divine marifat which no angel, no prophet, no human can be aware of without His permission.
The arif should be aware of what is proper for his heart and what is corruptive to his heart. He should be sincere and true in all his affairs and behavior, he should be aware of what is useful and what is harmful to him and he should protect himself from the traps of the enemy. He should always be taking refuge in Allah from anything else.
The heart is the mansion of Allah; therefore, nothing other than Allah should be residing in this mansion.
Hz. Prophet (saws) commanded:
‘As long as the heart of the qull (servant) is not straight, his actions cannot be straight. As long as his tongue is not straight, his heart cannot be straight.’
He also commanded:
‘Be careful! There is such a piece of flesh in the body that if it is healthy, all of the body is healthy. If it is corrupted, the whole body is corrupted. That piece of flesh is the heart.’
The affairs of the heart follow a route with ten steps:
-Memories (the messages which arrive to the heart)
-Words belonging to the essence
-Inspiration (the meaning and information which come to the heart through divine grace)
-Ideas (contemplating on the blessings of Allah)
-Will (the fire of love in the heart which create a positive response to the call of the truth)
-Contentment (the state of being content without complaint before the painful manifestations of fate)
-Choice (choosing what al-Haqq has chosen)
-Intent (the beginning and the end of every action)
-Perseverance (complying with the divine command without any concern for the wishes of the nafs)
-Purpose (reaching the level of intention to act only for Allah)