Topic
Purification of the Heart
purification of the self
35 entries
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Can a disciple follow more than one shaykh?
Going from one shaykh to another retards the progress of the seeker, and the rule that keeps a disciple with one guide is called Tauheed e Matlab. Usually there are many doctors in a town, but a sick person would only consult one. All the Mashaikh are honoured and respected, but training and purification are taken from one guide, and another shaykh is visited only with the permission of one's own.
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What are the sins of the heart?
There are two kinds of action from which one should abstain, disbelief and disobedience. The major disobedience of the heart includes lack of sincerity, vanity, pride, boasting, haughtiness and despair of Allah's mercy.
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What is Tazkiya, and how is the self actually purified?
Tazkiya is the cleansing of the carnal self from worldly evils, a cleansing of thoughts and deeds, of the heart and the soul. The heart is cleansed through remembrance, and the self is then rectified through rigor.
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Should the nafs be broken through hunger and sleeplessness?
The earlier Sufis did practise extreme rigors of hunger and sleeplessness. The way to restrain the nafs is constant effort: allow it what it wants within the boundaries of the Shariah, and make it serve you.
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What is the greater jihad?
Striving against one's own desires in the obedience of Allah. The perfect mujahid is the one who struggles with his desires.
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Is “do whatever makes you happy” an Islamic idea?
The common saying "do as you please or do whatever you feel like doing" is the way of the followers of Nafs e Ammara, not the way of Islam, and Nafs e Ammara indulges in the worldly pleasures and takes a man to the valley of desires, tempting yet barren. For those who put their nafs through rigor in this world, Paradise is promised as a refuge.
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What are Nafs e Ammara, Nafs e Lawwamah and Nafs e Mutmainna?
When the nafs, which carries anger, pride, envy, greed and discontent, indulges in darkness and surrenders to the devil, it is called Nafs e Ammara, and it is heedless and disobedient to Allah. Nafs e Lawwamah may bring a person to sin, but then it incriminates itself and repents, and Nafs e Mutmainna, rather than indulge in its desires, finds peace in obedience to Allah. Through a systematic course of training and rigor the carnal self becomes Nafs e Lawwamah, and with constant training and rebuke it turns into Nafs e Mutmainna.
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What does the word Nafs mean in the Qur’an?
One meaning of nafs in the Qur'an is the self. The other is a specific part of the self which represents worldly desire, lust, anger, greed, ego and other blameworthy traits, which some scholars call the carnal or egotistic self.
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What happens to the heart when a person sins?
A black spot appears on it. If he desists and repents, the heart becomes clear again. If he persists, the marks accumulate until they overshadow the heart, and that is the rust the Qur'an speaks of.
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What is Qalb e Saleem, a sound heart?
A pure heart free from disbelief, hypocrisy, pride and jealousy, and filled with faith and sincerity. The Qur'an says that on the Day when neither wealth nor sons will benefit anyone, only the one who comes to Allah with such a heart will benefit.