This is an article written by a good friend of mine ☺☺☺
 
Bismillah

Be aware O reader 'may Allah have mercy on you', it is obligatory upon you to treat the matters of the heart with much importance and care, constantly keeping its state in check, cleaning it from impurities and diseases,thus preventing its death, as it has been said by the scholars,the heart occupies a great position over the other parts of the body.

The prophet صلى الله عليه و سلم said "Indeed there is in the body a lump of flesh,if it becomes sound,then the whole body is sound, and if it gets corrupt, the whole body gets corrupt. Indeed it is the heart." —Bukhari and Muslim.
     Al Haafidh Ibn hajar رحمه الله said: The heart has been singled out for this because it is the leader of the body and through the purification of the leader, the subjects become purified and with his corruption,they become corrupted.

The scholars have made us understand: من عرف قلبه عرف ربه
"He who knows his heart,knows his lord",and as Ibn Qudaamah mentions,'knowing the heart is an integral part of the religion and a basis for those who seek the right way to Allah'..
    Thus this was the understanding of our pious predecessors as sheikh muqbil said: 'By Allah for our bodies to have diseases is more beloved to us than for our hearts to die',and May Allah have mercy on Ibn Al qayyim as he mentions;'A real man fears the death of his heart not the body' and 'The slave is not afflicted with a punishment greater than the hardening of the heart and being distant from Allah,for the heart was created to melt the hardened heart.The most distant heart from Allah is the heart which is hardened,if the heart becomes hardened,the eye becomes dry.
        In the book mukhtasar  minhajul qaasideen,Ibn Qudaamah رحمه الله states:“The heart is like a fort and the devil is like an enemy who seeks to enter this fort to own and control it.The best way to protect a fort is to safeguard its gates.”

SETTING RIGT THE AFFAIRS OF THE HEART
أَلَمْ يَأْنِ لِلَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَنْ تَخْشَعَ قُلُوبُهُمْ لِذِكْرِ اللَّهِ وَمَا نَزَلَ مِنَ الْحَق

As Allah says in the holy Quran
"Has not the time come for the believers that their hearts should be humble for the remembrance of Allah and that which has been revealed of the truth..[Hadid vs 16]
   Ibn Al qayyim said,"The keys to the life of the heart is in reflecting upon the Qur'an,being humble before Allah in secret and leaving sins.
  And here the criterion (the qur'an) had been mentioned as it encompasses complete guidance by which the slave would attain success, and imam muhammad ibm uthaymeen رحمه الله said: “The best advice that can be given for healing the heart is to pay attention to the Qur'an”
leaving sins and seeking forgiveness –
"When a servant commits a sin, a black spot appears on his heart,and if he seeks forgiveness this black spot is removed, and if he returns to sin,the black spot grows until his heart becomes black.– Muhammed صلى الله عليه و سلم"
Making regular istigfaar helps purify the heart,and man is prone to mistakes and errors as verily he has been created weak.It has been reported by muslin that the prophet peace be upon him said; I seek forgiveness hundred times a day.
If this is the case with the best of mankind, what about us??!!.
May Allah rectify our affairs

KINDS OF HEARTS —Ibn Al Qayyim رحمه الله
The hearts of man can be divided into two kinds,the first of which is the heart of those who incline to The Beneficent, which is the source of brightness,life,happiness, pleasure, delighted blessings. The second one is the throne of the devil where narrowness, darkness, death, sorrow,distress and grief are settled therein,this heart is obsessed by sorrow for the past and grief & distress for the present
At tirmidhi and others narrated, “The prophet said 'If the heart is overwhelmed by the brightness(of faith), surely it will be opened and delighted.'They said; O messenger of Allah, what is the sign in that?,he replied 'Resorting to the  eternal dwelling (I.e Paradise), being averted from the dwelling of deceit (I.e the worldly life),and being prepared for death before its arrival.”
In brief the brightness ,which overwhelms the heart as the impact of being close to Allah, the Almighty and obtaining his blessings of serenity and guidance. This feels the heart with.pleasure, while lacking such feelings that are from knowing Allah and loving him, makes it a gloomy and narrow place.

REMEMBRANCE OF ALLAH

All praise is due to Allah alone and peace and blessings be upon the messenger of Allah.
Ibn Taymiyyah wrote “remembrance of Allah is to the heart what water is to fish. What happens to fish when it is taken out of water?” Remembrance of Allah is one of the easiest forms of worship, the mercy and honor that it brings cannot be achieved by any other means. Remembrance of Allah is remedy for hard hearts. A man once told al Hassan “O Abu sa’id, I complain to you about the hardness of my heart”, he said “soften it with the remembrance of Allah”. Makhul said “remembrance of Allah is (a sign of)health, while remembrance of people is like a disease. A man once asked salman, “which deeds are the best?” he said “haven’t you read in the Quran {and the remembrance of Allah is greatest (29;45)}.
Continual remembrance of Allah increases a servant’s good witnesses on the day of resurrection. It is a means which prevents him from talking in the wrong way. There are several types of remembrance of Allah; remembrance of the Names of Allah, praising HIM, thanking HIM. They can take the form of saying, for example “subhaanallah” “Alhamdulillah”. One can also remember Allah by talking about His blessings and mentioning what He has commanded and what He has forbidden. The messenger of Allah said in an hadith which is agreed upon  by bukhari and Muslim “2 statements are light on the tongue but heavy on the scale and loved by Ar Rahman ‘subhaanallahi wa bihamdihi’ ‘subhaanallahi al adheem’ hence we can gain lots of reward by saying such statements and also ‘subhaanallah walhamdulilllah wa laa ilaha illa Allah wa Allahu akbar’ while walking to the lecture hall, waiting on the queue, waiting for the next lecturer to come in, while in the bus or even while cooking or picking beans.
NOTE>>>>> THE BEST TYPE OF REMEMBERANCE IS THE RECITATION OF THE QURAN FOR IT IS A HEALING AND MERCY FOR THOSE WHO BELIEVE.
Lastly, I want to beseech us to discipline ourselves and try our best to be consistent upon remembering Allah for “surely in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find rest” (13:28). May Allah forgive me my shortcomings and may He have mercy on the one who shows me my faults. May HE also make this to benefit us in both worlds (Aameen). WASSALAAMU ALAYKUM WAROHMATULLAH.

Most of this write up was gotten from the book PURIFICATION OF THE SOUL, a book compiled from the words of ibn Rajab al hanbali, ibn al qayyim al jawziyyah and abu hamid al ghazali.
                                                                                                              AmatuLlah

WHY ARE WE HERE?

All praise is due to Allaah alone and peace and blessings be upon him after whom there is no other prophet.

    Firstly, how did we get here?
We all did not just exist here by chance or because our parents wanted kids but we are existing because Allaah[may He be exalted] wants us to exist and made us to exist. Allaah[may He be exalted]says “has there not been over man a period of time when he was nothing to be mentioned?  Verily We have created man from nutfah drops of mixed semen(discharge of man and woman) in order to try him, We made him hearer,seer”[Quran76vs1-2]. Allaah[may He be exalted], Al-Hakeem does not create in vain, exalted  be Allaah far above such a thing. That takes us to the purpose of our existence.
     Secondly, what is our purpose?
Know! May you be honeyed by Allaah that you have not been created in vain neither have you been created for mere play.
Allaah says “did you think that We had created you in play (without any purpose) and that you would not be brought back to us?, so exalted be Allaah, the True King: Laa ilaaha illa Huwa (none has the right to be worshipped but He), the Lord of the supreme Throne!”[Quran23vs115-116].  Allaah[may He be exalted] created us to worship Him alone . Allaah[may He be exalted] says in Quran51vs56 “and I(Allaah) created not the jinns and humans except that they should worship ,Me(alone)”
    Now, how do we worship Allaah?
We must firstly strive to gain knowledge about islam which entails knowledge about Allaah and knowledge about establishing His commandments as well as how to avoid falling into what He has made forbidden. But then, how do we get to know Allaah? We get to Allaah by:
Pondering over that which He has revealed upon us , the Quran and the Sunnah
Pondering upon the signs in His creations, whereby He the Most High says: ”and on the earth are signs for those who have faith with certainty, and also in your own selves. Will you not then see? and in the heaven is your provision and that which you are promised  then, b y the Lord of the heaven and the earth it is truth(i.e what has been promised to you), just as it is the truth that you can speak”[Quran51verses20-23]
Flowing from this, the will and desire to worship Allaah becomes settled in the soul of a slave. Why? Because he has knowledge about his Lord and he is well aware of what is upon him-WORSHIP.
But how do we worship Allaah?
    We worship Allaah the way He commanded us to which is the way the prophet(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) worshiped Allaah without being deficient nor extreme. We are also to worship Allaah based on love and veneration, love generates hope and veneration generates fear. Allaah says “they used to hasten on to do good deeds and they used to call on Us with HOPE AND FEAR”[al-Anbiya’verse90]
    Finally I want to beseech us to learn about our deen from the correct source and worship Allaah alone the way He is pleased with without associating partners in HIS worship, also fearing Him and having total reliance on HIM alone for He alone is sufficient for us ALL.
May Allaah guide us to that which HE is pleased with and forgive me my shortcomings
Wasalaam alaykum warohmatullah wabaarokaatuh.

Footnote: We or Us in the verses quoted above shows magisterial plural, so We or Us in the verses mean Allaah.

Some part of this write up was gotten from islamqa.info/en.