of great worth and possesses a noble virtue. Through the remembrance of Allah, Mighty and Majestic, that he performs, he is alive in both body and spirit because of the lights that envelop him and the rewards that reach him. By contrast, one who abandons remembrance, though physically alive, has a life of no account; rather, he resembles the dead.”1

In this hadith, the noble Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—likened the house of one who remembers Allah to the house of a living person, and the house of the heedless person to the house of a dead person—that is, the grave. In the first wording, he likened the person who remembers Allah himself to the living and the heedless person to the dead. Taken together, the two wordings of the hadith therefore indicate that the heart which remembers Allah is like a living person in the houses of the living, while the heedless heart is like a dead person in the houses of the dead. Accordingly, the bodies of the heedless are graves for their hearts, and their hearts within them are like the dead in their graves. Hence it has been said:

Neglecting the remembrance of Allah is death to their hearts …
Their bodies, even before the grave, are graves.
Their souls are estranged within their bodies …
Until the Resurrection, they have no resurrection.

And it has been said:

Neglecting the remembrance of Allah is death to their hearts …
Their bodies are weather-worn graves.
Their souls are estranged from their Beloved …
Yet with the vile one they are at ease.2

For this reason, it is authentically reported in a hadith that the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—forbade making homes into graves—that is, places in which prayer is not performed and Allah Most High is not remembered. In the two Sahih collections, Ibn Umar—may Allah be pleased with him and his father—reported that the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—said: “Offer some of your prayers in your homes, and do not make them graves.”3