person’s heart to the extent they lose the ability to hear or understand Allah’s commands.^[1]

Whoever wants to fix their heart should save themselves from jealousy and be happy with what Allah has given them. He should not look at what bounties others were blessed with, nor should he begin loving wealth. Instead, death should always be on his mind. 

Hastiness

Hastiness is the third main reason for a person’s heart to become hard and for any attempt to rectify it fall short of the mark. This means to do something without thinking about it beforehand. This hardens the heart in two ways.

Firstly, amending the heart takes time. One must work very hard for this to happen. Good deeds slowly purify it, but if the heart is dark with sin, building a habit of performing righteous actions takes an extended period of time. A hasty person does not have patience for this. He puts effort in for a couple of days, sees no tangible benefit and just gives up. In this way, purifying and amending the heart is very difficult for him.

If a person seeks to amend his heart, he must not be hasty; instead, he should put in effort into performing good deeds consistently.

The second way hastiness hardens the heart is by making a person act without thinking beforehand. The heart is fixed with piety and through avoiding sin, and both dictate a person to be thoughtful, considerate, to think carefully before doing anything and to be patient. When a person acts hastily without doing any of this, there is grave possibility of him falling into sin instead.

For example, if someone is accustomed to speaking without thinking, they may lie or backbite. If he is used to eating without thinking, he may