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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Faith and Reason Question 2: Free Choice & Divine Seal & Lock upon the hearts of the Perverse Question: Isn’t there a discrepancy between Islam’s view of the human being as a creature endowed with free choice and assertation of the Qur`an that Allah (awj) shuts the hearts, ears and eyes of some to the truth? At the outset, we will consider two Qur`anic verses, thereafter elucidating the answer to the above question.

In the first verse, we read: “As for the faithless, it is the same to them whether you warn them or do not warn them, they will not have faith.

Allah has set a seal on their hearts and their hearing, and there is a blindfold on their sight and there is a great punishment for them.” [^1] In the second verse we read: “Allah has set a seal on their hearts, so they do not know.” [^2] The meanings of Khatm, Tab’, and Qalb Khatm is contrasted to fath (to “begin” or “start”) and means “to complete something” or “to reach the end”. The reason why khatm is translated as “sealing” is that the seal in a letter indicates its end.

A letter is sealed when it is finished, barring the addition of new material. [^3] Tab‘ also denotes the act of sealing (in which sense it is close in meaning to khatm ) as well as sketching, imprinting, and forging metals into coins. ^4 Qalb is employed in the Qur`an in different senses, such as soul, heart, self, intellect, knowledge, etc.[^5] Nevertheless, it can generally be said that the human being possesses two types of heart: the corporeal heat and the spiritual heart.

The corporeal heart is, in physiological terminology and in the vernacular, a muscular organ with the peculiar shape, whose function is the circulation and purification of blood, and in most human beings rests in the left section of the chest. The spiritual heart is one and the same with the spirit and the psyche of the human being.

However in the ethical and gnostic terminologies and also in the vocabulary of the Qur`an and the hadiths, heart is used in the latter sense, and as such is the conduit for the conveyance of Divine inspirations and Revelation and the means of achieving Divine knowledge and witnessing the epiphanies of the Truth. It is the locus of human emotions and the root of the exalted human intentions and aspirations. The point in common between the two usages of qalb (heart) has been expounded as follows.

Qalb literally means change and transformation.