The Meaning of the Hadith: "Indeed, Allah does not look at your forms..."

Question:
The honorable Shaykh, here a questioner says: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: , and some people claim, based on this hadith, that the only important thing is the heart. You see him saying that his heart is filled with faith, but he does not perform the rituals required of him and the like. What is your comment on that?

Answer:
This is a question about what came in the authentic hadith: that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . He says that some people cling to this and say: "The reliance is on the heart, and deeds are not to be relied upon." For this reason, when he is advised and told: "Fear Allah," he says: "Faith is in the heart." This is what some people say. So, when you advise him about the sins he commits, such as being lax in prayer, or stinginess with zakah, or something else, or shaving his beard, or letting his garments hang below the ankles, or consuming intoxicants, or the like; he says: "Faith is in the heart."
And this argument with this statement is a Satanic, invalid argument. Indeed, the heart is the foundation. So, when the heart is sound, the deeds become sound, as you heard in the other hadith. If the faith in the heart were sound and present, it would have prevented you from these sins. But it is weak or nonexistent.
Then, in the same hadith, he said: , so he made the deed alongside the heart. This is how Muslim narrated it in "Sahih." He did not say "deed"; he said: .
And in the hadith of al-Nu'man mentioned earlier, he said: with righteous deeds. So, when the heart is sound, the body is sound, and the limbs submit to the obedience of Allah and refrain from the prohibitions of Allah. This is the soundness. So, if the body is not sound, this is a sign that the heart is not sound, and that the faith in it is nonexistent, or sick, compromised, and weak.
And faith increases and decreases, and it is speech and deed according to the people of the Sunnah and the community. And Allah says: [al-Tawbah: 105], and He says: [al-Nahl: 32]. He did not say "by your faith only"; He said: . So, faith is speech and deed, and prayer is a deed, and zakah is a deed, and so on. The obligations that Allah has made obligatory are part of faith, and leaving the prohibitions is part of faith.
So, it is obligatory for the servant to fear Allah, and to beware of the attachments that harm him and anger Allah against him. If your faith is sound in your heart, it will carry you to perform the obligations and to leave the prohibitions. And when there is a defect in some of the obligations on your part, or committing some of the prohibitions, that is evidence of the weakness of your faith. And as the weakness increases, the danger becomes greater, and it may continue until faith is removed entirely.
And so it is with sins: as they increase, the heart weakens, and faith weakens, and it may lead him to falling out of faith by one of the nullifiers of Islam. Indeed, sins are the messenger of disbelief, just as illness is the messenger of death.
So, it is obligatory for the Muslim to fear Allah, and to beware of Satan and desire, and to distance himself from the prohibitions of Allah and beware of them, and to strive to perform what Allah has made obligatory. This is the evidence of the soundness of the heart.