Process self-purification:
As we said before self-purification
consists of two processes; expelling and adorning.
We expel the ailments of our soul
and its immoral manner, and we adorn them with the noble manners after we take the
immoral ones out.
Immoral manners are like;
polytheism, hypocrisy, conceit, arrogance, hate, envy, stinginess, anger, being
keen on life and loving it for what it is more than caring for our afterlife,
prying on others and not taking life seriously.
Noble manners are like; monotheism,
patience, relying on Allah, repentance, gratitude, fear, having constant hope
in Allah, courtesy to people, having mercy on others, enjoining others to
goodness and forbidding them from evil, being beneficial to people… etc.
So each and every one of us must
realize first their bad qualities and the causes for these bad qualities and
then we must strive to get rid of them. If we never realize our bad qualities
we will never be able to cure them. After that we must put together a plan of
action made out of three phases:
1. Not being too easy on ourselves.
Rasulullah ﷺ who was infallible never
took himself too easy.
2. Not waiting for others to
rectify us. We must do this process ourselves because our souls are ignorant.
Allah says,
“whoever is patient and forgiving,
acts with great courage and resolution."
(TMQ, 42:43),
and, “Repel evil with what is best…
(TMQ, 23:96).
3. Blaming it the whole time. If we
don’t blame it, it will tempt us and lead us to perdition. We have the choice
to direct our “souls” wherever we want to, so if we let our souls take the lead
and we walk behind we will be driven to the lowest of the low, but if we take
the lead and drive our souls we will can take them to the highest status ever.
Our souls are like the babies like Al-Buseiri says,
“The soul is like the baby, if you
keep him suckling he will never get over it and if you wean him he will be
weaned.”
So if we lead our souls we will
have the upper hand and we will be able to direct our souls towards goodness,
if we call them to worship they will surrender to worship and they will never
obey us to evil even if we invite them.
As for those who do not tend to
their souls and do not exert the effort needed in bending their souls away from
what they crave for; if they call their souls to worship their souls' recoil and
if they find them going for an act of obedience they stray like a camel. We all
know that a camel is either obedient or willful and obstinate. Same for the
soul; if we accustom our souls on rejecting bad manners they become like the
obedient and subservient camel and if we loosen the bridle they just stray and
become obstinate till it becomes impossible to control them. Once they feel any
loads on their backs they buck so we must always keep watching them to see how
willing they are to follow our orders. Those who hear the call to prayer
saying,
“Hasten to worship, hasten to
success!”
and they just feel sleepy are the
ones who have souls that need to be cured. As for those who wake up in the
middle of the night and are not able to fight their own demons to get up and pray,
they too are also suffering from heart ailments that need to be cured. Those
who cannot bring themselves to fast (voluntary fasting) or to spend money in
charity are also suffering from illnesses that need to be cured before it’s too
late. We must always keep our souls at check otherwise they will lead us astray
to perdition.
1. Al-Dhilal, part 2, page 3893.2). Ighathat Al-Lahfan, Ibnul-Qayem, part
1, page 75 to 78. 3). Ihya’Ulum Al-Din, part 3, page 4. 4). Abu-Dawood and
Al-Tirmidhi.
5. Ighathat Al-Lahfan, part 2, page 75., 6). Al-Dhilal, part 6, page
3893. 7). Madarij Al-Salikin,
2/356. 9). Ighathat Al-Lahfan, part 2/
49.
10. Al-Bukhari, 538. Muslim, 283. 1)1. Muslim, 284. 12.)Tafsir Al-Saadi, 3/293. 13). Al-Majmu’, 10/269. 14). Ighathat
Al-Lahfan, part 1/49. 13) . Madarij
Al-Salikin, 2/576. 16). Muslim, 2722.
17). Ihya’Ulum Al-Din, part 4, page 382. 1819. Ighathat Al-Lahfan, part 1, page
80. 19). Ihya’Ulum Al-Din, part 4, page
382.
20. Ihya’Ulum Al-Din, part 4, page 386. 21).
TahdibMadarij Al-Salikin. 22).
TahdibMadarij Al-Salikin. ]23. Ahmad and others.
