"In Sufism, where the heart is compared to the Ka‘bah, it has been said that the heart of fallen man is like the Ka‘bah before the coming of Islam, when it was full of idols. When the Prophet entered Mecca triumphantly, he first went to the Ka‘bah and asked Ali ibn Abi Talib and Bilal al-Habashi to break all the idols therein and to purify the House of God built by Adam and rebuilt by Abraham to honor the one God. Through initiation and spiritual practice, the person who aspires to reach God must break all the idols in his heart and sweep away everything in it so that God alone can be present therein. God is one and therefore does not manifest His Presence where there are idols. Alas, the heart of how many of even believers is like the Ka‘bah during the Age of Ignorance (aljâhiliyyah), full of all kinds of idols. Those who seek to follow the spiritual path in Sufism are taught at the time of initiation, when first embarking upon the path, that they must reserve their heart for God alone, for He alone is the master of the house of the heart. As the Arabic poem says, in response to someone knocking on the door of a Sufi’s heart:
There is no one in the house except the Master of the House.
(Laysa fi’d-dâr ghayrahu’ d-dayyâr)"
Nasr S.H., Paths to the heart-Sufism and the Christian East
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