164 – Ḥasan ibn Maḥbūb related to me; al-Fayḍ ibn Isḥāq Abū Yazīd al-Raqqī narrated to us; Hudhayfah—meaning al-Marʿashī—informed us; ʿAmmār ibn Sayf, from al-Aʿmash, who said:

“We were sitting with Mujāhid when he said, ‘The heart is like this,’ and he spread out his palm. Whenever a man commits a sin, he said, ‘like this,’ and he curled one finger. If he sinned again, he curled two fingers, then three, then four. On the fifth sin he folded the thumb over the other fingers, and the heart is sealed. Mujāhid then asked, ‘Which of you can claim that his heart has not been sealed?’”