From washingtonpost.com:
Peter Houghton is grateful for his artificial heart. After all, it has saved his life.
He’s just a little wistful about emotions.
He wishes he could feel them like he used to.
Houghton is the first permanent lifetime recipient of a Jarvik 2000 left ventricular assist device. Seven years ago, it took over for the heart he was born with. Since then, it has unquestionably improved his physical well-being. He has walked long distances, traveled internationally and kept a daunting work schedule.
At the same time, he reports, he’s become more “coldhearted” — “less sympathetic in some ways.” He just doesn’t feel like he can connect with those close to him. He wishes he could bond with his twin grandsons, for example. “They’re 8, and I don’t want to be bothered to have a reasonable relationship with them and I don’t know why,” he says.
He can only feel enough to regret that he doesn’t feel enough.
Could the poets have been right all these millennia? Could emotions be matters of the heart?
yursil on 
Andrew Hasin on 
Aaminah on 
Hmmm, that’s really interesting. Perhaps psychological? I wonder what he was like before.
100% psychological
The human heart also gives off its own hormones that connect it will the rest of the body through the three branches of the nervous system. That’s part of why we “feel” emotion in the chest area.
He may not “feel” emotions there any longer and this complicates the psychological process of closeness of relationships. People who have had a heart transplant don’t report this kind of unfeeling, as far as I know, because they have a real heart.
Allah knows the truth.
Ya Haqq!
No, that’s not true. The heart is not linked to emotions. Emotion is completely neurologic. The only link the heart has to emotions is if there is some sort of blockage and the blood supply to the brain is cut off. But the impairment wouldn’t be localized to emotion either. Regardless there is no scientific link between emotions and the heart.
SubhanAllah,
Whether scienctific theory is able to explain this or not, it is what Muslims have know for centuries; The heart plays an important role in the emotions of man. Love, fear etc. all emanate from there.
As the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasalam said:
At-Taqwa hahuna, wa isahara ila sadrihi thalatha marraat.
Taqwa, Consciousness/Fear of God is he e, and He SallAllahu Alaihi Wasalam pointed to the heart three times.
It is the state of the heart which determines whether one is indifferent to sin, open and willing to accept divine guidance.
Interesting indeed. Perhaps its psychological, or perhaps its not.
Interesting, but hardly conclusive. Also, who is to say what the exact interpretation of the “heart” mentioned in ahadith is?
Asalaamu alaikum,
I have just found your blog and look forward to reading your work.
Yes, following mujahid7ia’s point, I have this hazy recollection that the Arabs felt the seat of the emotions was in fact the liver, and so all those hadith that are translated as heart are referring to the liver. Certainly that is the case in Malay, where all the expressions associated with the heart in English, like heartless and hard-hearted and so on, are expressed with the liver [hati in Malay]. The heart is just an unimportant blood-pump, around here. I assumed the Malays got that from the Arabs but I could be totally wrong about that. Can an Arabic speaker help us out here?
More on the Liver as seat of the emotions found here:
http://biliaryatresia.blogspot.com/2006/08/it-sounds-like-flower-etymology-of_22.html
Asalaamu alaikum.
I think everyone is taking this too literal and missing the greater point. This is not about where the seat of emotions is necessarily, so much as that when we rely so much on technology that we lose a portion of our human-ness.
To say that this man, who seems uncomfortable about the change he sees in himself, is just being “psychological” implies that it is all in his head. What an un-compassionate stance that is, to belittle his discomfort and question if he was just an unfeeling person anyway.
Even so, to say unequivically that the heart is NOT the seat of emotions is assumptive. Please explain to me why we talk of purifying the heart, not the liver? Why do we talk of the heart being dead, not the liver? Why are we told that the Prophet salalahi alahi wa salaam had his heart (not liver) removed by an angel and the small black speck being cleansed? Do all of you mean to tell me that our shaykhs and scholars, such as Hamza Yusuf and Faraz Rabbani have been “misinterpreting” when they translate texts?
100% psychological? I think not.
Please avail yourself of the great resources on this site:
http://www.heartmath.org/
Don’t miss this page:
http://www.heartmath.org/research/science-of-the-heart/index.html
“For centuries, the heart has been considered the source of emotion, courage and wisdom. At the Institute of HeartMath (IHM) Research Center, we are exploring the physiological mechanisms by which the heart communicates with the brain, thereby influencing information processing, perceptions, emotions and health. We are asking questions such as: Why do people experience the feeling or sensation of love and other positive emotional states in the area of the heart and what are the physiological ramifications of these emotions? How do stress and different emotional states affect the autonomic nervous system, the hormonal and immune systems, the heart and brain? Over the years we have experimented with different psychological and physiological measures, but it was consistently heart rate variability, or heart rhythms, that stood out as the most dynamic and reflective of inner emotional states and stress. It became clear that negative emotions lead to increased disorder in the heart’s rhythms and in the autonomic nervous system, thereby adversely affecting the rest of the body. In contrast, positive emotions create increased harmony and coherence in heart rhythms and improve balance in the nervous system. The health implications are easy to understand: Disharmony in the nervous system leads to inefficiency and increased stress on the heart and other organs while harmonious rhythms are more efficient and less stressful to the body’s systems.”
And don’t miss the research publication abstracts (with some full version available as free PDFs):
http://www.heartmath.org/research/research-publications.html
Sorry for all the comments, but I forgot to mention that that “Introduction” that I quoted from above consists of 10 pages, don’t miss them either.
http://www.heartmath.org/research/science-of-the-heart/index.html
And these 7 pages are just as amazing (if not more!):
http://www.heartmath.org/research/science-of-the-heart/soh_20.html
That site has some serious things to think about. And they are not the only ones that have done this research and written books about it. Clearly some commenters above have only read one side of the story (if even that).
From the 7 pages that I just mentioned:
“Traditionally, the study of communication pathways between the “head” and heart has been approached from a rather one-sided perspective, with scientists focusing primarily on the heart’s responses to the brain’s commands. However, we have now learned that communication between the heart and brain is actually a dynamic, ongoing, two-way dialogue, with each organ continuously influencing the other’s function. Research has shown that the heart communicates to the brain in four major ways: neurologically (through the transmission of nerve impulses), biochemically (via hormones and neurotransmitters), biophysically (through pressure waves) and energetically (through electromagnetic field interactions). Communication along all these conduits significantly affects the brain’s activity. Moreover, our research shows that messages the heart sends the brain can also affect performance.
The heart communicates with the brain and body in four ways:
• Neurological communication (nervous system)
• Biophysical communication (pulse wave)
• Biochemical communication (hormones)
• Energetic communication (electromagnetic fields)”
AMAZING stuff!
Ahhhh… I can’t stop!
This has MAJOR implications for the Shaykh-Murid relationship, and for “suhba” in general (whether good or bad) as well:
= = = = =
http://www.heartmath.org/research/science-of-the-heart/soh_25.html
The Role of Physiological Coherence in the Detection and
Measurement of Cardiac Energy Exchange Between People
Rollin McCraty, PhD, Mike Atkinson and William A. Tiller, PhD. In: Proceedings of the Tenth International Montreux Congress on Stress, Montreux, Switzerland, 1999.
Key findings: When two people are at a conversational distance, the electromagnetic signal generated by one person’s heart can influence the other person’s brain rhythms. When an individual is generating a coherent heart rhythm, synchronization between that individual’s brainwaves and another person’s heartbeat is more likely to occur.
[ A few pages later ... ]
This study’s findings have intriguing implications, suggesting that individuals in a physiologically coherent state become more sensitive to the subtle electromagnetic information encoded in the heart signals of others around them. Interestingly, this also supports extensive behavioral data and experience with a HeartMath communication technique called Intuitive Listening. This technique involves focusing on the heart and maintaining a neutral or appreciative attitude while listening to another person. When individuals apply this tool, they often not only report hearing the speaker’s words with more clarity and focus because of a reduction in their own internal dialogue, but also acknowledge becoming more aware of deeper and more subtle aspects of the communication that are not contained in the words alone. This is often described as an increased sensitivity and intuitive awareness of the other person’s underlying feelings and the ‘essence’ of their communication. The results shown above support the concept that this deeper, more sensitive form of communication, which establishes a heartfelt connection between people, may occur based on the increased heart rhythm coherence generated by the listener (receiver) when using the Intuitive Listening technique.
In conclusion, this study represents a further step in uncovering the physiological underpinnings of subtle, ongoing energetic forms of communication between people. Results have countless implications, and invite continued scientific exploration of the relationship between emotions, physiology and human interactions.
= = = = =
Shaykh Hamza Yusuf did tell us once that Arabs considered the seat of emotions to be the heart. However, all the hadith I have read in Arabic refer to the qalb (heart).
But a lot of hadith that talk about the qalb aren’t necessarily dealing with emotions. For example, when we talk about “purification of the heart” we are not talking about purification of emotions, but rather a purification of the vices of our nafs. So perhaps though liver referred to emotions, the heart was something even greater?
The heart has always fascinated me. Especially in light of the fact that it is self sustaining in the sense that it does not receive commands from the brain to pump. There are nodes (I believe that is the correct term) that cause the heart to pump. This is why hearts can beat on their own outside of bodies.
One more thing, science does not know how these nodes make the pump heart or what makes them pump. At least since I last took biology in high school 5 years ago
With all due respect, heartmath.org is a very poor source choice….laughable…
“Heart Intelligence is the intelligent flow of awareness and intuition that we experience once the mind and emotions are brought into coherent alignment with the heart. It can be activated through self-initiated practice. Heart Intelligence underlies cellular organization and guides and evolves organisms towards increased order, awareness and systems coherence”
Yeah, Zafar, your right, all those PhD’s have no clue what they are talking about and it is all totally baseless.
I am not claiming that HeartMath has all the answers or that they are all correct, of course not!, but I am claiming that your claims are incorrect, the first being that it is 100% psychological. I could share with you a bunch of other studies by more “reputable” sources if you like.
Oh, and with regards to HeartMath once again, I guess these alliances and names don’t mean anything to you either (setting aside all of those PhD’s in those studies):
http://www.heartmath.org/alliances.html
“Do all of you mean to tell me that our shaykhs and scholars, such as Hamza Yusuf and Faraz Rabbani have been “misinterpreting” when they translate texts?”
I don’t think anyone was implying that. The word means heart, so it was translated as such, but there can be different interpretations of what was meant by that. However, it’s really a moot point as the goal of those statements is what we should be concentrating on.
Heart is second name of soul. As Amjid Mahmood said that consciousness….. is here And prophet pointed to the heart three times and we when say “I’ or “Me” always point to the heart or chest thousand times. And what Aaminah said about heart of prophet was cleansed is fabric hadith and absolutely untrue.
The only point I am trying to make is that, the Washington Post article maybe a cute story, but surgically implanting a Jarvik 2000 doesn’t cause a person to not feel emotions.
kanan, that is a real hadith. There is debate over when that event occurred, but the majority of Ahl al-Sunnah has accepted it as a mu’jizah (miracle) of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, and the Qur`an alludes to it as well. See al-Shifa`.
Thank you, Danya, for that helpful clarification.