the heart is the infinity stone

friends, we are back!

Last night I watched guardians of the galaxy which is about the guardians of the galaxy protecting these infinity stones which has the power to destroy the world and what not.

I asked Z if he thought the qutb had one of the infinity stones

then I started thinking about the place of magical objects in islam.

But first, who is the qutb?

the qutb is definitely my favorite part of islamic lore. The best description I have heard of the qutb is like the most pious person in existence right now, who is granted the spiritual secrets and is also responsible for the “spiritual health” of the whole world. When Allah says that the human being was created as a vicegerent, the qutb is the sort of the big boss of them all.

The lore goes deeper because there’s people under the qutb like the 40 abdaals, who, according to the hadith, are mostly in syria. And whenever a qutb dies, another person takes it’s place.

Something akin to the spiritual white house?! sorry that’s a terrible analogy. But you get the idea.

Holding the office of the qutb, the qutubiyya, is an extremely taxing endeavor. They say the reason Imam Nawawi passed away so young was because of the weight of being the qutb and that Imam al-Haddad of the wird-al-latif, ratib al-haddad, and book of assistance fame was the person who held the office of qutb the longest.

You’re probably wondering, who is the qutb right now. My teachers have some guesses but we can’t be sure.

So it would make sense if the infinity stones existed, they are probably with the qutb. Except they probably don’t.

I just binged five seasons of this really dumb tv show called warehouse 13 which was about protecting magical objects and it got me thinking about how very few magical objects exist within islam. There’s the black stone but even Umar ﵏ said :

I know that you are only a stone which can neither bring benefit nor cause harm. Were it not that I had seen the Prophet ﷺ kiss you, I would not have kissed you.

But the reason this is because the real magical object is actually the human heart.

I think about this hadith a lot and it is worth thinking about a lot, where in a hadith qudsi, Allah says

Everything in the heavens and earth cannot contain Me, but the heart of my believing servant can contain Me.

In a qawwali rendition that references this hadith, it says

The Kaaba is but a building built by Ibrahim, the son of Azar
The heart is where the All-Powerful Lord truly resides

In a world steeped in materialism, the real secret is that the most valuable object is no object at all. The most valuable object is not stuck in some remote island that you have to go fight dragons to obtain (hello lord of the rings!).

But it’s something you contain in yourself. And as the Quran says,

Successful indeed are those who purify themselves – Quran 87:14

Or when Hafez talked about this idea:

For years my heart inquired of me
Where Jamshid's sacred cup might be,

And what was in its own possession
It asked from strangers, constantly;

Begging the pearl that's slipped its shell
From lost souls wandering by the sea.