for someone towards whom his desires draw him, he may do something forbidden for that person’s sake, or perform something he is commanded to do for Allah, but do it to satisfy his desires rather than for Allah. Such diseases abound in souls. A person may hate something and consequently hate many other things merely through illusion and imagination. Likewise, he may love something and consequently love many other things through illusion and imagination, as their poet said:

Out of love for her, I love black people—
So much that, for love of her, I even love black dogs.

He loved a black woman, and so came to love blackness itself, even in dogs. All of this is a disease of the heart affecting its perception and its will. We therefore ask Allah Most High to grant our hearts freedom from every disease, and we seek refuge in Allah from reprehensible character traits, desires, and diseases.

The heart was created solely for “love of Allah Most High.” This is the innate disposition upon which Allah created His servants, as the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“Every child is born with the innate disposition. Then his parents make him a Jew, a Christian, or a Magian, just as an animal gives birth to an animal whole and sound: do you see any mutilation in it?”

Then Abū Hurayrah, may Allah be pleased with him, would say: “Recite, if you wish: ‘The natural disposition Allah has instilled in mankind. There is no altering Allah’s creation.’”

Reported by al-Bukhārī and Muslim.