Brothers and sisters! The topic of today’s khutbah is “Purification of the Soul,” or Tazkiyat un-Nafs as it is called in Arabic. One of the most important tasks for which our beloved Prophet Muhammad (S) was sent was to purify the souls of people. Speaking about this, Allah (SWT) says in the Qur’an:
هُوَ الَّذِي بَعَثَ فِي الْأُمِّيِّينَ رَسُولًا مِنْهُمْ يَتْلُو عَلَيْهِمْ آَيَاتِهِ وَيُزَكِّيهِمْ وَيُعَلِّمُهُمُ الْكِتَابَ وَالْحِكْمَةَ وَإِنْ كَانُوا مِنْ قَبْلُ لَفِي ضَلَالٍ مُبِينٍ
“It is He who has raised among the unlettered people a messenger from among themselves who recites His revelations to them, and purifies them, and teaches them the Book and wisdom, for they had formerly been clearly misguided.” (al-Jumu’ah, 62:2).
The Qur’an tells us that the success or failure of a servant of Allah is linked with the purity or corruption of his or her soul.
قَدْ أَفْلَحَ مَن زَكَّاهَا وَقَدْ خَابَ مَن دَسَّاهَا
“He who purifies it will indeed be successful. And he who corrupts it is sure to fail” (al-Shams, 91:9-10).
This illustrates that Allah created the human soul with both evil and good inclinations, and gave man the ability to distinguish between the two. Falah or eternal success is achieved by choosing good instead of evil and striving to make it prevail. Allah says in Surat al-Shu’ra,
يَوْمَ لَا يَنْفَعُ مَالٌ وَلَا بَنُونَ () إِلَّا مَنْ أَتَى اللَّهَ بِقَلْبٍ سَلِيمٍ
“On that Day, neither wealth nor children will be of any benefit. Only he will be saved who comes to Allah with a sound heart” (al-Shu’ara, 26:88-89). Thus, the only people who will be saved from punishment on the Day of Resurrection are those possessing sound hearts.
Purification of the heart or Tazkiyat un-Nafs is the basis for development and improvement of the personality. It is a long, pro-active, and uphill task. It is not a quick-fix formula. It is not something that can be achieved over night. It must be based on the good and sincere intention to please Allah and draw near to Him. Tazkiyah can be a difficult process especially at the start. The person undertaking Tazkiyah must be true to himself, to others and to Allah. All human effort at Tazkiyah should always be accompanied by supplication or du’a for Allah’s intervention without which human effort will bear no fruit. Allah says,
أَلَمْ تَرَ إِلَى الَّذِينَ يُزَكُّونَ أَنْفُسَهُمْ بَلِ اللَّهُ يُزَكِّي مَنْ يَشَاءُ وَلَا يُظْلَمُونَ فَتِيلًا
“Have you not seen those who consider themselves pure? It is indeed Allah who purifies whoever He pleases and none shall be wronged by as much as a hairs breadth” (al-Nisa’, 4:49).
On the other hand, it is wrong for a human to make no effort and passively expect Allah to intervene. Humans must play their role before expecting Allah’s help. The human can do a lot to refine the soul (Nafs). Useful knowledge is one of the primary means to purify the soul. Any knowledge that brings man closer to Allah, increases man’s consciousness of Allah, and guides man to do good deed is useful knowledge. The Prophet (S) used to make a du’a seeking refuge with Allah (SWT) from four things.
اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنْ عِلْمٍ لاَ يَنْفَعُ وَمِنْ قَلْبٍ لاَ يَخْشَعُ وَمِنْ نَفْسٍ لاَ تَشْبَعُ وَمِنْ دَعْوَةٍ لاَ يُسْتَجَابُ لَهَا
“Oh Allah, I seek your refuge from knowledge that is not useful, from a heart that does not humble, and from a soul that is not satisfied and from a supplication that is not granted.”
Imam Ibn Rajab Al-Hanbali said: “A sign of the people of knowledge is that they are humble, they hate admiration and people’s high remarks of them. They do not look down on people. They are always seeking the hereafter taking from this world only what they need and they are constantly worshipping Allah. The more knowledge they have, the more fearful, the more humble, and the more submissive to Allah they become.”
Some of the effects of useful knowledge in purifying the soul are: correct and firm belief, fulfillment of acts of worship, avoiding the forbidden, being conscious of the Creator, and constant reflection upon the creation. This is followed by personal development and improvement.
Knowledge helps wipe out the sins because knowledge is from the greatest of good deeds. Allah says,
إِنَّ الْحَسَنَاتِ يُذْهِبْنَ السَّيِّئَاتِ
“Good actions drive away bad actions” (Hud, 11:114).
Knowledge helps the believer to long for the hereafter and to take only what he needs from this worldly life. So, we should all help one another to acquire useful knowledge through learning and teaching. This way, Tazkiyah or soul purification is collective and continuous until we meet Allah (SWT).
Purification of the soul is based upon two principles: (1) Faith and (2) Righteous actions. Corruption in faith and corruption in righteous actions corrupts the soul. We should know that faith or iman is in general related to things of the unseen. The unseen that we believe in is something that which the mind cannot perceive. For example, we can’t perceive the nature of angels, and we can’t perceive the qualities of how paradise and hell are. We can’t see Allah and the mind can’t perceive the nature of Allah, and the only way we know something about Allah is through the Qur’an and authentic Sunnah.
Likewise, righteous action which Allah loves and rewards us for, and evil actions that Allah dislikes and may punish us for, can only be known by knowing what Allah and the Prophet (SAW) have commanded and what they have prohibited. Therefore purification of the soul is to be undertaken within this Prophetic manner of faith and righteous action.
As for the human soul, there are, according to Imam Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, four aspects of a person that signify his or her spiritual identity. These are the nafs, the aql, the rooh, and the qalb. All of these are intertwined and influence man in his behavior.
The nafs has been likened to an animal, that if it is untrained, it may not be very pleasant. However, if one were to train an animal it can be of service to its master. From the Islamic perspective, the nafs is not inherently bad. If it learns good habits, then it will be of service to the individual. Only if it learns bad ones, it can be a barrier to one’s growth. The three types of nafs are the nafs-al-ammarah (the unruly animal self that dictates evil), the nafs-al-lawwamah (the self-reproaching soul), and the nafs al-mutma’innah (the satisfied soul).
The aql is the rational faculty of man. It is home to logic, reason, and acquired intellectual beliefs. The rooh is the spirit of man that, if kept healthy, it allows one to live a meaningful and wholesome life. Finally, the qalb is the heart, also called the soul. The heart is where the effects of the other three elements manifest. The heart may also contain hidden faults such as jealousy, envy, and pride, which are results of the evil inclinations of the nafs. To remove these sicknesses of the heart, one must work toward changing the inclinations of the nafs toward good, restructuring and acquiring positive thoughts in the aql, and feeding the rooh (spirit) through remembrance of Allah.
The person who strives towards excellence or ihsan begins with the challenge of freeing himself from the influence of Satan, and the nafs-al-ammarah, which commands one to sensual pleasures and lusts and pulls the heart (qalb) in a downward direction. It is the resting place of evil and the source of blameworthy morals and bad actions. In its primitive stage the nafs incites us to commit evil. The Qur’an tells us that Yusuf (A) said:
وَمَا أُبَرِّئُ نَفْسِي إِنَّ النَّفْسَ لَأَمَّارَةٌ بِالسُّوءِ إِلَّا مَا رَحِمَ رَبِّي
“I do not claim to be blameless, for man’s very soul incites him to evil unless my Lord shows mercy…” (Yusuf, 12:53).
Here Yusuf (A) is explaining the circumstances in which he came to be falsely blamed and imprisoned for being seduced by the wife of the king’s minister. If the soul undertakes this struggle it then becomes nafs-al-lawwamah. This is the stage where the conscience is awakened and the self accuses one for listening to one’s ego. The sense of the word lawwamah is that of resisting wrongdoing and asking Allah’s forgiveness after we become conscious of wrongdoing. Our misdeeds now begin to become disgusting to us. The Qur’an explains how one can achieve the state of the satisfied soul in Surat al-Ra’d.
الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَتَطْمَئِنُّ قُلُوبُهُم بِذِكْرِ اللَّهِ أَلَا بِذِكْرِ اللَّهِ تَطْمَئِنُّ الْقُلُوبُ
“Those who have iman and whose hearts find peace in the remembrance of Allah. Only in the remembrance of Allah can the heart find peace” (al-Ra’d, 13:28). May Allah make us among believers whose hearts find peace in His remembrance.
أَقُولُ قَوْلِي هَذَا وَأَسْتَغْفِرُ اللَّهَ لِي وَلَكُمْ وَلِسَائِرِ المُسْلِمينَ وَالمُسْلِمَاتْ فَاسْتَغْفِرُوهْ إِنَّهُ هُوَ الْغَفُورُ الرَّحِيمُ
الحمد لله رب العالمين والصلاة والسلام على سيد المرسلين وعلى آله وأصحابه أجمعين
Brothers and sisters! The aim of Tazkiyah is to attain falah or success by attaining the nafs al-mutma’inna. On this level one is firm in one’s faith and leaves bad manners behind. The soul becomes at peace. The individual’s knowledge is founded on such firm belief that no distress or pain; no comfort or pleasure can alter his trust in Allah and his expecting only good from Him. Instead, he remains pleased with Allah and satisfied with Allah’s decrees. No temptations whether in adversity or in prosperity, whether in fear or in hope removes him from the path of Islam. Allah addresses the peaceful soul in the following words:
يَا أَيَّتُهَا النَّفْسُ الْمُطْمَئِنَّةُ () ارْجِعِي إِلَى رَبِّكِ رَاضِيَةً مَرْضِيَّةً () فَادْخُلِي فِي عِبَادِي () وَادْخُلِي جَنَّتِي
“O soul at peace. Return to your Lord, well-pleased and pleasing [to Him]. Join my servants. And enter my Paradise“(al-Fajr, 89: 27-30).
The initial awakening to purification of the soul refers to the recognition that the spiritual search is more important and meaningful than our worldly goods and ambitions. The process of Tazkiyah un-nafs starts with the hadith: “Verily deeds are according to intentions” and ends with the station of perfect character or Ihsan. If man travels the path of purification, Allah will aid and guide him.
وَالَّذِينَ جَاهَدُوا فِينَا لَنَهْدِيَنَّهُمْ سُبُلَنَا وَإِنَّ اللَّهَ لَمَعَ الْمُحْسِنِينَ
“We will surely guide in Our ways those who strive hard for Our cause, Truly, Allah is with the righteous” (al-Ankabut, 29:69). Our beloved Prophet (SAW) is reported to have said, “The Mujahid is he who makes jihad against his nafs for the sake of obeying Allah.” May Allah (SWT) make us among such people who strive to purify themselves; outwardly and inwardly; physically and spiritually. Allahumma Ameen.
