Know that the treasures of Allah in the world are the hearts of the arifs. In their hearts, Allah has placed the sacred relics of His secret, the graces of His hikmat, the haqiqah of His muhabbat, the noor of His ilm, the proofs of His divine marifat which no angel, no prophet, no human can be aware without His permission.
The arif should know what is proper for his heart and what corrupts it. He should be honest in his affairs and behaviour, he should perceive what is useful and what is harmful to him and he should protect himself from the trap of the enemy. And he should take refuge in Allah from everything.
As the heart is the mansion of Allah, nothing other than Allah should be present in it.
Hz. Prophet (sa) commanded:
‘As long as the heart of the qull (servant) is not straight, his action cannot be straight. As long as his tongue is not straight, his heart cannot be straight.’
He also commanded:
‘Be careful! There is 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 (spiritual messages that come to the heart, that are revealed inside)
-The words of the nafs (the words actually belonging to the essence)
-Inspiration (special meaning and information which come to the heart through divine grace)
-Ideas (contemplating on the verses and the blessings of Allah)
-Will (the fire of love in the heart which requires a positive response to the call of the truth)
-Contentment (the state of being content without complaints when seeing the painful manifestations of fate)
-Choice (preferring what al-Haqq prefers for oneself)
-Intent (the beginning and the end of the action)
-Perseverance (behaving in compliance with the orders and the prohibitions without regard for the wishes of the nafs)
-Deliberation (reaching the level of being able to act)