The concept of self-purification
Linguistically: The word ‘tazkiya’
in Arabic comes from cleansing and purifying. Allah Rabbul Jallaluh says;
“He who purifies it will indeed be
successful,"
(TMQ, 91:9).
Sayidina Ali Ibn Abu Talib RA said,
“Knowledge is purified by spending
in charity.”
Here “purified” means increases. So
in language it means; increase, growth, blessed, purified, educated and
refined… etc. Sheikh Al-Ghazali said,
“Self-purification is education and
any nation that is not ‘educated’ has no good in it.”
In language it has two meanings;
first, purification and second increase or growth. Idiomatically it can be
summarized just the way Imam Al-Ghazali put it,
“Complementing the human self
through suppressing its basic instincts and releasing its higher characteristics.”
Ibn Kathir said in explaining the
above verse,
“He who purifies his soul through obeying Allah and who purifies it from the sins and immoral manners. Self-purification is about clearing out all the sordid tarnishing of the basic - self with all its ugliness and evil and adding in all the good morals and noblest manners.”
Self-purification includes two
things:
1. Out with the bad. Everything bad
and evil.
2. In with the good. Everything
noble and high.
From the light of the above meanings we can understand these verses from the Qur’an:
“He has certainly succeeded who
purifies himself and mentions the name of his Lord and prays.”
(TMQ, 87:14-15).
“By the soul and how He formed it,
then inspired it to understand what was right and wrong for it. He who purifies
it will indeed be successful, and he who corrupts it is sure to fail.
(TMQ, 91:7-10).
As for the self it was defined in
the Qur’an as having three qualities; reassured, self-reproaching and
evil-enticer. People differed if these were three different types of selves or
if they are three different definitions for the same self in different phases.
The majority of scholars went to the first interpretation and the majority of
Sufi scholars went to the latter one saying that it is only one self but that
it has three characteristics; reassured by being close to its Creator and
obeying Him. So it is reassured with the fate of Allah and with the fact it can
never survive even a blink of an eye without Him. The self-reproaching is the
one that keeps reproaching its owner and blaming him for any evils committed.
And the evil-enticer is the one that entices its owner to do evil and to follow
his whims; if he obeys it, it will take him to obscenity and evil. It acts that
way because it was originally ignorant and evil whereas justice (or knowledge)
where only inspired to it by its Creator.
Allah says,
“And if not for the favor of Allah
upon you and His mercy, not one of you would have been pure, ever, but Allah
purifies whom He wills, and Allah is Hearing and Knowing."
(TMQ, 24:21). [2]
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
