Shaykh al-Islām—may Allah sanctify his soul—was asked:

A man studied Islamic jurisprudence and learned what Allah has commanded and forbidden. He then embraced renunciation, abandoning worldly life, wealth, family, and children, fearing unlawful and doubtful earnings and resurrection in the Hereafter, and seeking the pleasure of Allah and His Messenger. He wandered through Allah’s earth, from land to land. Is it permissible for him to sever ties of kinship and wander about as described, or not?

He answered:

Praise be to Allah alone.

“Renunciation as prescribed by Islam” means leaving everything that brings no benefit in the Hereafter and placing one’s heart’s trust in what is with Allah. As stated in the hadith recorded by al-Tirmidhī:

“Renouncing worldly life does not mean declaring lawful things forbidden or squandering wealth. Rather, renunciation means having greater confidence in what is in Allah’s hand than in what is in your own, and desiring the reward for a calamity that befalls you more than you would desire to have retained what you lost.”

For Allah Most High says:

“So that you may not grieve over what you have missed, nor exult in what He has given you.”

This, then, describes the state of the “heart.”