The sign denoting that the heart's tongue has been released...

The sign denoting that the heart's tongue has been released is that the tiredness and the hardship of the invocation are removed and replaced by animation and pleasure. It is like a baby, who has not yet started talking, its tutor feels tired and bored before it speaks. No sooner the baby starts prattling than his tutor's fatigue goes away and the teacher follows up the child's utterances without tiredness or trouble. Similar is the heart.

It is a mere infant at the start, knowing not how to speak. It is to be taught, and the invocations and the recitations are to be placed on its tongue. Then, as it begins talking, man begins to be its follower, and there will remain neither pain of teaching nor any tiredness of invocating. This discipline is quite necessary for the beginners.

It must be noted that one of the secrets of repeating the invocations and benedictions and continuing the remembrance and worshipping is that the heart's tongue gets untied, and the heart becomes an invoking devotee. Without observing this discipline the tongue of the heart would remain tied up. Some noble Hadiths refer to this.

The noble al - Kāfī , quoting Imām as-Sādiq (' a ), who quoted Imām 'Alī (' a ) who, referring to some disciplines of recitation, said: ”…But strike with it (the Qur'an) your hardened hearts, and do not be eager to get to the end of the sūrah .” [^2] In another hadīth in al - Kāfī , Imām as-Sādiq (' a ) told Abū Usāmah: “O Abū Usāmah, call your hearts [ qulūb ] to remember Allah, and avoid what displeases Him.” [^3] Even the most perfect godly men (' a ) used to observe this discipline.

A hadīth relates that Imām as-Sādiq (' a ) (once) was subject to a fit during the Salat and fainted. When he came to his senses and he was asked about the reason, he said: “I kept repeating this āyah to my heart until I heard it from the one who spoke it, and so, my body could not bear to see His power.” [^4] Abū Dharr is quoted to have said that the Messenger of Allah ( s ) was one night repeating this Qur'anic verse: “ If you should torment them, then they are, indeed, your servants, and if you should forgive them, then you are, indeed, the Mighty, the Wise.” [^5] In short, the reality of invocation and remembrance is the invocation of the heart, without which the invocation of the tongue will be futile and worthless.

This is referred to in a number of Hadiths .