What is Ghafla?

The Arabic word Ghafla, coming from ghayn-fa-laam (غ ف ل) explains an illness that is that occurs in many of our hearts today. It gives the meaning of being unmindful, neglectful, and heedless, and many times is an intentional turning away. So in the case of Islaam, what does one turn away from, and what symptoms, causes and losses arise from such a state?

Turning Away from…

To be in Ghafla, one turns away from and is heedless and negligent of the duties towards Allah and what is required of us. In other instances as it shows in the Qur’aan, it means one who is heedless of the remembrance of Allah. They contain no dhikr of Allah in their hearts, be it Qur’aan or any general form of Dhikr. Alongside those meanings are also those who do not pay attention to their end in the Hereafter, who neglect the accounting to come on the Day of Judgement and do not see the Ayaat (signs) of Allah. Allah describes them in the Qur’aan as even worse than cattle, as they have hearts and yet they do not understand, they have eyes and yet they cannot see what’s right, and they have ears and yet to they do not hear the truth.

And surely, We have created many of the jinns and humankind for Hell. They have hearts wherewith they understand not, they have eyes wherewith they see not, and they have ears wherewith they hear not (the truth). They are like cattle, nay even more astray; those! They are the heedless ones. [7:179]

Just as there are physical illnesses, Ghafla is an illness of the hearts. And this illness is one which becomes a gateway into all wrong things. It creates love and attention only on the life of this world, and removes the striving towards the Akhirah. It makes people unaware of the accounting to come and the sins they are committing. This is what causes this disease to be of the worst types one can contract.

As a person who is a sinner may commit sins night and day and one day become tired of them, or they may see the truth and then return to Allah with Tawbah (repentance), becoming better than they were before out of fear of their sins. Yet, a person when they are heedless, will never become sick of their sins, as they do not see them, or believe they are doing them, or due to their neglecting, have no idea of right and wrong! And what a dangerous situation this becomes, when one does not see their sins, and consequently will not repent of them. Furthermore for the cause of their sinning is when, Allah says in the Qur’aan that He seals their hearts, ears and eyes:

They are those upon whose hearts, hearing (ears) and sight (eyes) Allah has set a seal. And they are the heedless! [16:108]

Thus this seal makes it so that no good goes in, and thus a person becomes inclined towards wrong - and one step at a time they go towards it, and yet now that they can no longer make use of their most important faculties, they are not able to then realize they are doing wrong. Thus Ghafla is what leads a person to sinning, and it is the reason for continuing it as well.

Amazingly, though this disease  has such ill effects, and is so prevalent in our societies, so little do we often do to prevent it. When physical diseases come out into notice, we rush to find their symptoms, their causes and cures. Yet often when we are told of such a disease of the heart we do not seem to take the same precautions. Therefore, to counteract this act of heedlessness - Let’s look into this disease of Ghafla:

Certain Symptoms of Ghafla

• When doing an action, you neglect the intentions or are devoid of them - Imam Ahmad rahimahullah before doing any action would say to hold a few moments before doing it, simply to bring the right intentions
• Shaytaan will freely enter your house/area (though this cannot be seen, its effects may manifest)
• Being devoid of the Dhikr

Causes

• Belief in the longness of Life - The ulama would say that one of the big soldiers of Shaytan is “Future”, believing that one will do something in the future, that they will do good actions/repent at some point later.
• Being away from Gatherings of Rememberance / Knowledge
• Not remembering Death
• Being emersed in the enjoyments of Life
• Following desires
• Associating and being friends with those who are in Ghafla
• Failing to judge/interrogate ourselves
• Not doing Dhikr

Treatments

• We should constantly interrogate our Nafs, and see what we are doing wrong. Doing thus, we should question why cant we do better?
• One should always remember to do Dhikr - at all times and specifically one should do the morning and evening adkhaar. And doing this is not simply in performing the Dhikr, but understsanding what you are saying and what it means.  Like learn: What is Tasbeeh?
• Visit Graves to remember death (According to most opinions, this is only allowed for men)
• Seek refuge within your Duas from falling in ghafla
• Praying Qiyaam ul-Layl with at least 10 ayaat
  • The Prophet sallahu alayhi wa sallam said, “Whoever spends the night by reciting 10 ayahs is not deemed to be among the heedless…” [Sihah Sita, Vol. 9, Hadith no: 3003; Abu Dawoud, Salat 326 (1398)]
• Seek repentance after sinning, and even if one has not sinned they should repent
• Make friends with those who keep you in remebrance of Allah
• Read the Qur’aan with understanding - It is a cure for the heedless hearts, but only when they take the time to understand it.
  

Losses

• When one is in Ghafla they are unable to understand the Qur’aan
• The mercy of Allah is not upon those who are heedless
• It prevents the acceptance of Dua
  • The Prophet (sallahu alayhi wa sallam) said: “Call upon Allaah when you are certain of receiving a response, and remember that Allaah does not answer a du’aa’ that comes from a heedless heart.” [Narrated by al-Tirmidhi (3479); classed as hasan by al-Shawkaani in Tuhfat al-Shaakireen (68) and by al-Albaani in al-Silsilah al-Saheehah (594).]
• Shaytaan is with the one who is heedless
• In the Akhirah one will regret what they missed in heedlessness

The above outlines some of the basic parts of this disease. But ultimately it’s up to us to rectify our situation, if and when we fall into heedlessness.

As a story to exemplify: A man is on a journey, and whilst walking he passes a forest. All of a sudden he is confronted by a lion which then begins to race towards him to attack him. The man seeing this begins to run for his life, but soon got tired. At that point he saw a tree and quickly climbed it, however the lion, refusing to give up, was still present beneath the tree waiting for the man to fall. The man felt himself losing strength, but knew if he fell that he would be eaten, so he turned to the other side to jump off the tree. However, there he found a hole with snakes. So now he had 2 choices of what could happen. He looked down and found two beavers eating away at this tree, one black and one white, and noticed this tree was about to fall. And then, in the  midst of this all, he saw some bees, and realizing there was honey, began to eat the honey.

The man and the journey represents us. The lion is our fate, whatever accidents, sicknesses which can cause our life to end abruptly. The tree is our life, and the beavers of two colors are the day and night, meaning the time which eats away at our life. The snakes and the hole represent our grave, even if we miss sudden death, our graves till wait for us and the end of our lives. And lastly, the bees and the honey represent the sweetness of life, it represents all that causes us to forget our surroundings and the situation we are in. It represents the Ghafla which cuases us to become so concentrated on its sweetness, that we forget the reality.

May Allah protect us from all that which makes us heedless. Ameen

(( Sorry for the long post - Jazaakallah khayr for reading ))