Chapter 1

Quote from the Holy Quran:

“Tell all of them It is Allah Who created you, Bestowed upon you the capability to hear and see and put in your hearts the sense to think and understand still you seldom thank Him for His Kindness upon you”(Al-Mulk.23).

Human personality comprises two portions. In fact, it will not be appropriate to call them portions because despite being interconnected with each-other through an intricate system, these keep on functioning independently as well. These two parts are the brain and heart which are simultaneously autonomous as well as dependent upon each other.

The relationship between brain and heart in human personality can be considered analogous to two sovereign states upon earth both having equal hegemony upon the material resources. Both states may be having their separate currency, defense and system of governance but one may be dependent upon the other for oil while the other for iron. During the development process of human personality, both mind and heart remain interdependent upon each other. The mind has the capability to see, hear and create novel ideas while heart possesses the lofty treasure of human sentiments. In spite of fully understanding the pros and cons of the entire perspective, the mind is unable to accelerate human body into action without emotional impulse of the heart.

But this is a peace time strategy. There can be a war between the two states, resulting in one’s victory and the other’s defeat. The human personality is mutilated when mind and heart clash against each other. In such a situation, each one endeavours to dominate the other to attain unqualified subjugation from its adversary. This is an alarming eventuality and the domination of one constituent disrupts the congenial relationship and destroys their mutual balance. It brings about such a drastic change within the human personality which eventually results in its perdition.

These two constituents of human personality not only depend upon each other, rather keep an intimate coordination between themselves. For a dignified individuality, it is imperative to understand and visualize the nature and mode of interaction between mind and heart and that how one affects the other.

Basically, the heart induces the brain with a passion to do something or inhibits it to desist from action under some fear. The desire to attend a function is created with heart’s passion while the fear of erupting fire is also inculcated within the heart. The desire of attending a function and the fright of a lurking fire exists within the heart but if the brain fails to attain the mode of entering a gathering or acquiring safety measures against a probable fire break out, the person can-not make any move. On the contrary, if all the facilities are ensured but heart does not have the passion to go for it, the person keeps on lying idle indoors.

When a person is over-powered by extreme desperation and considers the fire to rid him of this agony, he will have the desire to jump into flames, rather will let him be burnt by fire despite knowing the safety exits. It is interesting to note that an ordinary human being can easily know the interaction and coordination between his or her mind and heart. Recalling the daily occurrences of various episodes around you, the following questions may be answered about each of these events.

Question 1: Under such a situation, was there any role left for you to play? Could you have learnt anything or could you have done something practically?

Answer: This question relates to your mental alertness.

It would indicate how much you could be affected by the events happening around you. For example, any one in your office or home got injured and started bleeding. It appeared as though he would conk out within a short while. You had every intention and sympathy to help him but could do nothing. Eventually, someone else from office or home came to his rescue. Such like circumstances are usually confronted by those who get much higher position than they actually deserve. The lady luck got them seated on higher chair, or else a new technology entered their domain but despite all their wishes, they were not competent to benefit from the same.

Question 2: The second question relates to their heart. Keep any one incident before you and think whether you had the capability to act but you did not.

Answer: In other words, it can be assumed that you knew how to stop bleeding the injury but you were getting late for an important meeting, and you left the injured person in someone else’s custody or left him to fate.

On your way, you felt the remorse of not helping the injured but you consoled yourself that someone from such a wide world might definitely have come to his rescue. You can raise such questions about many of the events happening around you, which were directly related to your own self, your family, office or neigbhours. There are some other questions relevant to mind and heart by which you can assess the extent of feelings with someone. You can know which situations arouse sentiments that overpower the barriers erected by brain and under what circumstances you succeed in keeping an equilibrium.

Some people can keep outside the entire night to help a friend. They simply can-not afford to enjoy sound sleep at home while their friend is in agony. They will be fully aware that their wife will have to take the ailing son to hospital but they would just give a lip sympathy or at best may make a phone call to the doctor. Their wife keeps awake the whole night in attending the sick child but on return from friend’s house, they would prefer to have a good slumber on the excuse that they will have to work the long day in office. It is really thought provoking that a person very considerate for a friend may adopt such a callous attitude towards his wife and children. In the same manner, the people in western countries have a blind faith in their media reports and form a hard opinion on various incidents taking place around the world, without bothering to ascertain the facts.

The probable reason may be that such incidents neither affect them directly nor harm their personal interests. On the contrary, if the subject of criticism is their department or company, you will see that the concerned individual would probe all avenues to get correct information from learned people, from knowledgeable colleagues and from the available books, literature etc., to ensure that his personal interests are secure and non-vulnerable. It indicates that the importance of any particular person or thing greatly depends upon the extent of either the sentimental attachment or disinterest with the object concerned. The matters affecting us may be personal, social, national or global. We usually give first and foremost preference to our own personal affairs. The social and national issues obtain secondary importance. The international issues are not of much concern and we usually rely upon the media reports and accept their analytical views without hesitation. We usually adopt a similar attitude about social and national issues also but when our personal matters go wrong, these disturb our peace and tranquillity and we consume all our mental and passionate faculties to put the cart back upon the rail. Of course, there may be a few exceptions as there are some people who would try to dig out the truth regarding national and international issues and may make endeavours to form a correct opinion over such matters.

The Holy Quran has termed the heart as an “instrument of generating novel ideas” because heart emerges dominant in the clash between mind and heart. The heart chalks out a plan of action for the mind (brain) which uses its senses of smell, sight, hearing, taste and touch in accordance with the dictates of heart. The mind does not question heart’s dictates to suggest that a matter under consideration needs further investigation or there are still more avenues to probe into the crux. Has it ever happened to you that you fail to finalize a project despite having the compatible capability and adequate resources, or you can-not concentrate to consider all aspects of an issue? Such a situation indicates an imbalance between mind and heart and to find a remedy, it has become imperative to understand functioning of mind and heart separately.

Of mind and heart, if any one constituent predominates the other, then both get stuck up. The healthy function of each is mutual inter-dependence and no sooner does one dominate the other (particularly the heart), than the other one’s progress is retarded. Resultantly, the first one also gets impaired, bringing about eventual degeneration of both. In case of heart’s domination, the mind loses its function as its main job was to review the heart’s passions and sentiments but after its subjugation, it gives an unqualified obedience to heart and acts upon heart’s dictates. Such a low profile of mind further emboldens the heart as it has no fear of any reprimand. The entire system gets violent stormy jolts and at last, the human personality faces a destruction analogous to an inundated river breaking through and overflowing its embankments.

It shall be a matter of interest that till late the western psychologists believed the mind (brain) to be the main controlling force of entire body system while heart’s function was only to supply the vital blood. After 1970 when passionate and sentimental complications assumed alarming proportion, they were compelled to search for the nucleus of passions. The research divulged that heart was the centre of passions, probably three times stronger than the brain. Before this study, the importance of heart was never taken into account and naturally, no statistics were available for comparison between mind and heart. Upon realizing the importance of heart in the development of human personality after 1980, the western psychologists are working to find out its exact role. This day many of the eminent psychologists believe in equal magic qualities of mind and heart in resolving clashes within the human personality. It is more surprising to note that poets all the world over have since long emphasized far greater importance of heart upon human life. A verse from the poem of famous Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib is reproduced:

O stupid heart, what have you done unto yourself? If you keep on proceeding unabated what shall be the remedy for this disorder?

Follies of the heart entangle a person in such psychological, sentimental and physical ailments which usually become incurable. In his famous poem “Aql-o-dil” (mind vs heart), Allama Iqbal, the great philosopher poet of the Indo-Pak sub-continent, has presented a comprehensive commentary regarding conflicts between mind and heart under different situations, the glimpses are as under:-

« The wisdom (brain) claims:

It provides guidance to a wanderer, it elevates sky high, it inculcates leadership qualities and it possesses knowledge of the book.

« The heart’s answer is:

It possesses power of imagination, has the knowledge of the world within, can have the approach to spiritual world far above, it has the power to cure the ailments of wrong knowledge and it has the technique to fly beyond heavens. In other words, it is almost the seat of Supreme Holy Power.

Heart is the centre of lofty fancies. It has the courage to confront lurking dangers without bothering to know the outcome. But when heart trespasses moderate limits, the expedient brain enforces a check upon it, explaining the pros and cons of the issue. Passions of love emanate from the heart while intelligence originates from brain.

Explanation of Iqbal’s verse:

When Abraham prophet hurled himself into blazing flames prepared by orders of King Nemrud, the intellect was still stunningly watching this act of fanaticism and precarious situation.

The entire acts of bravery and prominence committed from the very inception of this lively world are due to the impetus given by heart. For this reason, Iqbal has suggested the mind to occasionally let the heart to do some noble errand without checks and balances:

Explanation of the above verse:

It is quite desirable that brain keeps an appropriate control over the heart but on some important occasions the heart be left free to determine its own destiny.

Coordination between Mind and Heart

A deep thinking reveals that main object of Islamic devotion is to foster better coordination between mind and heart. While offering prayers, we tie our hands together and think ourselves standing before Allah Almighty, thus severing our connections with the brain and heart. The two main factors that misguide our mind and heart are the stomach and sex. When we tie our hands five times a day, thinking ourselves present before Allah, our mind and heart get free to interact with each other. During this process of training, these two play a see-saw game bringing one up and the other down, thus forging an equilibrium. When the Holy Quran is recited, the brain is the first to absorb and understand the message which it passes on to the heart. During the process of recitation of the Holy Quran, brain is prevailing but on bowing down our head for ‘Raku’ (kneeling), heart attains an equal status with the brain. When our head touches the ground in ‘Sajda’ (extreme prostration) heart subjugates the mind. Repetition of this process in each ‘Rakat’ helps to create congenial mutual relationship between mind and heart. The comparison between spiritual transformation and materialistic entertainments has been very beautifully described by the poet of the East, Allama Iqbal, in this verse:

Freedom of heart is great might while greed of material gains brings devastation. Now, the option lies with you whether to go for heart or for material gains.

The entire spiritual, theological, anthropological, psychological, and metaphysical sciences have all along declared heart as the main controlling force of human personality but on the contrary, the medical science considered heart as a mere pumping station for supplying blood. Medical science is still adamant in its beliefs, though they have seen that artificial hearts transplanted into various patients have badly failed because those were completely devoid of inbuilt qualities which Allah has implanted in a human heart. These circumstances have compelled the cardiac surgeons to wait for availability of a natural heart for transplantation into a patient’s chest. The day is not far off when medical science shall be compelled to accept the miraculous powers of the small piece of flesh called heart and may attribute many of brain’s functions to heart. Even otherwise we have seen that under the influence of pleasure, grief, anger, fear, love and hatred when human sentiments are aroused, it is always the blood circulation system which gets affected and we all know the duty of blood circulation has been entrusted to the heart ever since its creation.