بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Shaykh Uthaymeen warned:

If you see your time and life pass by, and you have not produced anything worthwhile or beneficial, and you do not find any blessing in your time then be wary that the statement of Allah has overcome you:

“And obey not him whose heart We have made heedless of Our Remembrance, one who follows his own lusts and whose affair (deeds) has been lost.” Al-Kahf: 28 [Ref 1]

And in this ayah is an indication of the importance of the heart’s presence when performing dhikr of Allaah. And that the person who remembers Allah with [only] his tongue and not his heart, [then] the barakah [blessing] is removed from his actions and his time to the extent that his deeds become lost.[Ref 2]

Imam As-Sa’di -rahimahullah- said about this verse in his tafseer. [The one who is] heedless of Allaah then his recompense is that Allah has made him heedless of His remembrance. “Who follows his own lusts” – whatever his soul desires he does and he strives in its attainment, even if it was to his destruction and loss. [If that occurs] then verily he has taken his desires as his god, as Allah the Most High said:

“Have you seen him who takes his own lust (vain desires) as his ilah (god), and Allah knowing (him as such), left him astray, and sealed his hearing and his heart, and put a cover on his sight. Who then will guide him after Allah? Will you not then remember?” Soorah Al-Jathiya:23[Ref 3]

[Ref 1] http://www.sahab.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=123941

[Ref 2] Shaykh Uthaymeen ‘s Tafseer of Soorah Al-Kahf Page 62

Ref 3] Tayseer Al-Kareem Ar-Rahmaan by Imam As-Sa’di page 546