بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

 يَوْمَ لَا يَنفَعُ مَالٌ وَلَا بَنُونَ – 26:88

The Day when there will not benefit [anyone] wealth or children

إِلَّا مَنْ أَتَى اللَّهَ بِقَلْبٍ سَلِيمٍ – 26:89

But only one who comes to Allah with a sound heart

What is a sound Heart?

It is a heart that has attained goodness in and of itself. A heart that harbours no ill feelings and always wishes good for the creation. A heart that has no desire to harm and only sees good in every situation. This type of heart is living according to the teachings of Allah. As Allah has created humankind and placed them on earth so that they may be purified (i.e achieve goodness), as stated in suratul Ma’eda, verse 6;

 ۚ مَا يُرِيدُ اللَّهُ لِيَجْعَلَ عَلَيْكُم مِّنْ حَرَجٍ وَلَٰكِن يُرِيدُ لِيُطَهِّرَكُمْ وَلِيُتِمَّ نِعْمَتَهُ عَلَيْكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَشْكُرُونَ

Allah does not intend to make difficulty for you, but He intends to purify you and complete His favor upon you that you may be grateful.

This heart realizing this state, will automatically be connected with its lord and will be filled with love for Him. This is a heart that is qalb Salim (قلب سليم). Note that goodness in the heart leads to attaining love of God. This is the shortest way to be with Him (s.w.t). A longer way would be starting with the intention of wanting to love Allah. This commitment to love and a conscious effort that is made by an individual to try and attain that love, will pave the way for the heart to slowly self purify. Getting rid of all evil and making room for the Love of God to shine through. I say this path is slow because our God is pure and hence His love will only reside in a heart that is pure as shown in the Qur’anic verse below;

هُوَ اللَّهُ الَّذِي لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ الْمَلِكُ الْقُدُّوسُ السَّلَامُ الْمُؤْمِنُ الْمُهَيْمِنُ الْعَزِيزُ الْجَبَّارُ الْمُتَكَبِّرُ ۚ سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ عَمَّا يُشْرِكُونَ – 59:23

He is Allah, other than whom there is no deity, the Sovereign, the Pure, the Perfection, the Bestower of Faith, the Overseer, the Exalted in Might, the Compeller, the Superior. Exalted is Allah above whatever they associate with Him

To explain this further, i will like us to look into the life of Umar (r.a) before he accepted Islam. It was reported that Umar  (r.a) before accepting Islam hated the Muslims and took part in their persecution. However, he was known to be a proponent of goodness and was someone who stood by the truth come what may. So, because he possessed a heart that is sound, upon accepting Islam, he became one of the closest companions to the Messenger and to Allah (s.w.t). This was the case with most of the prophets and earlier companions. However, looking at our situation today, most of us are born into Islam and so are made to commit to loving  Allah right from childhood when our hearts are still naive and easily influenced by either good or bad. Although we might be worshiping from that time until present, our growth and connection with Allah remains very slow until we achieve a state where our hearts are purified which is not the case with most reverts who first have to acquire a basic level of purification before acquiring faith.