“The heart is like a mirror. When it is polished, it reflects everything clearly. When it is rusted, it distorts everything it sees. The rust of the heart is heedlessness and sin. Its polish is dhikr and repentance.”
Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah
Scholar of the 14th century, student of Ibn Taymiyyah
From 'Madarij al-Salikin' — one of the most profound works on the spiritual stations of the heart. Ibn al-Qayyim spent his life studying the Quran and Sunnah through the lens of the heart's condition. He believed all spiritual practice was ultimately about restoring the mirror's clarity — not achievement of status, but removal of what obscures.
What is currently rusting your mirror — what heedlessness, what sin, what habit — that is distorting how you see yourself, others, and Allah?
Pick one dhikr phrase today and repeat it 100 times — not as a ritual, but as a cloth on the mirror. Notice what shifts in how you see things by evening.
“The rust of the heart is heedlessness. Its polish is dhikr. You already have the cloth.”
— Taqwa Daily