that it concerns moral soundness and corruption. He had no answer to this except to say: “Had he meant that, he would have said, ‘Indeed, within the human being …,’ rather than ‘the body’!” I said: “That does not follow, for the two expressions have one meaning, and the scholars have explained them as such. We must therefore refer back to them, not to physicians!” At that time, I was unaware of the wording he had rejected, so, as soon as I came across it, I hastened to trace its sources, perhaps this would help him and others like him return to what is correct. Allah is the Guide.
Our discussion then led us to speak about the heart and the fact that it is the seat of reason and understanding. He rejected this, claiming that reason is in the brain and that the heart has no function other than pumping blood to the body’s extremities. I said: “How can you say this when Allah says concerning the disbelievers: ‘They have hearts with which they do not understand,’ and says: ‘Have they not travelled through the land, so that they may have hearts with which to reason, or ears with which to hear? For it is not the eyes that become blind, but the hearts within the breasts that become blind’?”
He then attempted to give this a figurative reinterpretation, in the manner of certain deviant sects that negate the implications of the revealed texts. I said to him: “Doctor, this is Qarmatian-style esoteric reinterpretation, and it is impermissible. Our Lord says, ‘the hearts within the breasts,’ not within the heads!”
I now say: Among the benefits of the hadith is what al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar said in Fath al-Bari (1/128–129): “It draws attention to the immense importance of the heart and urges that it be made sound. It also indicates that wholesome earnings affect it; what is meant is the faculty of understanding connected to it, which Allah has placed within it. It is cited as evidence that reason is in the heart. Among the proofs for this are Allah’s saying, ‘so that they may have hearts with which to reason,’ and His saying, ‘Surely in that is a reminder for whoever has a heart.’ The exegetes said: that is, an intellect. It was expressed as ‘heart’ because it is the place where the intellect resides.”
Moreover, the addition rejected by the physician mentioned above is supported by many verses in