TAZKIYA NAFS-Purifying the Soul

In the name of Allah the most Merciful Beneficent most Forgiving Mighty Wise!

TAZKIYA NAFS-Purifying the Soul.

“He indeed will be successful who purifies himself, and magnifies the name of his Lord and pray”(87:14-15) “ And the soul and Him Who made it perfect. Then He inspired it to understand what is right and what is wrong for it; He will indeed be successful who purifies it, and he will indeed fail who corrupts it.”(91:7-10) The above verses from the holy Quran-the book of wisdom and light explain the fundamentals of success and failures. In simple words success lies in purification of soul for His sake and the failure is destiny of those who make their souls corrupted and forget their Lord towards Whom we have to return very soon. The Nafs of man always incline towards base and perishing objects of desire. Its thirst never quenches , the more it drinks the material drinks of sins , the more it wants to drink. The who have spent their entire lives in the search pleasure of material objects could never be satisfied, after satiation of a desire they would want more , in this way the thirst of desires never let them arouse from their eternal sleep, they could never raise themselves above the temporal pleasures and could never understand and perceive the purity of souls and the pleasures derived from His remembrance and His affinity. The corruption of soul makes us forget Our Lord and that we have to very soon return to Him and that all our deeds will be presented before our eyes and we will be made to pay the price for our misdeeds. When we forget Him and the Last day, we further more and more on the path of our desires which takes us towards the destruction of life in this world and the next. Our Imam Ali Ibn Husain says in one of his prayers about the treacherous tendencies in our souls : “My Lord , to You I complain of a soul , commanding to evil, rushing to offenses , eager to disobey You, and exposing itself to Your anger. It takes me on the roads of disasters , it makes me the easiest of perishers before You; many its pretexts, drawn out its expectations; when evil touches it, it is anxious, when good touches it grudging; inclining to sport and diversion, full of heedlessness and inattention, it hurries me to misdeeds and makes me delay repentance…..My Lord , to You I complain of a heart that is hard, turned this way and that by tempting thoughts, clothed in rust and seal, and of an eyes too indifferent to weep in fear of You and eagerly seeking that which gladdens it..” The above Dua describes the reality of human Nafs which is always like treacherous enemy ready to deceive us and make us do sin against the commands of Our Lord. The basic cause for this is the domination of material desires on ourselves. If we could control these desires and make them confined in the bounds of Halaal and Haram of our deen , we can achieve the promised success. Our Imam Amirul Momeneen (AS) presents the way to salvation and contentment of soul in the following words: “the best riches is abandonment of desires” As human desires are unlimited and this material world makes us more and more trapped into the quagmire of desires, as a result we get more and more absorbed with this world and forget the ultimate purpose this life and birth on this earth. As the thirst for material goods has no end, we always feel short of resources to satisfy our ever-increasing desires. Our Imam says that if we control our lust for this material world and we abandon our desires we can be rich, as here being rich is not about having millions of rupees but it is about of a mental state when one feels contentment and GHANI in his heart. In the same vein his saying : “contentment is the wealth that does not diminish” explains the basic of human happiness. Tazkiya Nafs is about making our soul pure and free from the filth and dirt of Haraam desires. There are various stages of Nafs : Nafs-e-Ammara :commanding soul, the sate of the soul described in the prayer above which commands man for sins and misdeeds. Nafs-e-lawwama: self-accusing soul, this state of soul makes man repent after doing any sin. This the soul which makes him uncomfortable after any sin and compels him for Tawba. Nafs-e-Zakiya : the purified soul, this soul is pure and is not polluted by sins or evils. Nafs-e-Mutma'inna :satisfied soul, this soul is last stage of evolution of soul when one is fully satisfied with His Decree and commands, this is the highest level of soul. The purpose of Mesengers (S) of Allah has been to purify corrupted souls and make the people walk again on the path of Allah after deviation. Ayatullah Ibrahim Amini in his book on “Self Building” describes the purpose of prophet hood was to cleanse the evils in man’s moral character : ““God did confer a great favor on the believers when he sent among them an apostle from among themselves rehearsing unto them the signs of God, sanctifying them and instructing them in scripture and wisdom, while before that, they had been in manifest error.” -the Holy Quran (13: 164) Therefore, it is obvious that the subject of human education and training was of such vital importance that God-Almighty sent Divine Messengers especially for this purpose thus, conferring a great favor ul1on the believers. The individual as well as collective personality, prosperity or cruelty (of this world and Hereafter) of a human being depends upon how much efforts he had already made or is still making for self-building. It is from this consideration that self-building is regarded something of such vital importance because it determines ones eventual destiny. The Divine Messengers came to teach human beings regarding the path of self-building, nourishment, and perfection of self, as well as to accompany them as their guide and helper in this vital and determinant task. They came for cleansing and sanctifying human selves from their indecent moral characteristics and animal instincts, and bestowing upon them superior spiritual virtues. The prophets lectured human beings about the self-building program, acted as helper and knowledgeable guides in identifying the ugliness in their moral conducts, and showed them the ways and means for self-control against their selfish whims and passions. By timely issuance of warning and intimidating they succeeded in sanctifying the human selves from the moral obscenities and indecencies. They came for plantation of sapling of higher moral virtues within human souls, nurtured and protected it for its eventual blooming, and in doing so acted as guides, friends, and helpers of the people by encouraging and pursuing them towards the desired sublime' objectives. The Holy Prophet (S) has said: "I emphasize the importance of good morals for you because God-Almighty has sent me especially for this purpose.” -Bihar al-Anwar vol. 69, p-375” The human self is very much liable for training and education, if we educate ourselves and raise it above the level of animal passions we can really achieve the success and accomplish the purpose for which we have been sent in this world. The Commander of the Faithful Imam Ali (A) about the self said: “Self is like a precious jewel, whoever strives for his protection, he will help him attaining exalted positions, and whoever acted negligently in his protection he shall pull him towards humiliation." "Whoever knows the worth of his self will never allow himself to be indulging into passing worldly amusements and shameful deeds.” "Whoever discovers the nobility of self shall guard him against lowness of passions and false desires." "Whoever possesses the nobility of self will become free from Wants." The above traditions from Imam Ali(as) shows that human self has great potential and great capacities for progress and success, what is required is self-control through Islamic means and abandonment of low desires which take us to destruction. Ayotollah Amini quoting above traditions in his book says : “From the above quoted verses and narrations whose examples are frequent, it can be derived that human self is a valuable and precious jewel which should be carefully guarded protected and nourished.” Again there are another aspect of our self, it is heedlessness and waywardness. This path is the path of desires and lusts, too much indulgence and thus making us forget the Remembrance of His and the purpose of life. This path is path of darkness and ignorance leading to destruction in the both worlds. Imam 'Ali (A) said: "Self commands you continuously to indulge into evil deeds, therefore, whoever trusted his self -he will deceit him, whoever believed his self -he will destroy him; and whoever is satisfied with his self –he will lead him to face worst kind of disasters.” Our Lord says in His book of guidance : “And if they answer thee not, then know that what they follow is their lusts. And who goes farther astray than he who followeth his lust without guidance from God? Lo! God guideth not wondering folk.” -the Holy Quran (28:50) “Already have we urged unto Hell many of the Jinn and humankind, having hearts wherewith they understand not, and having eyes wherewith they see not, and having ears wherewith they hear not. These are as the cattle -nay but they are worse! These are the neglectful." -the Holy Quran (7: 179) The above tradition from Imam Ali(as) and the verses of the holy Quran talk of the people who have made fulfillment of their low desires their ultimate purpose and have forgotten the real purpose of life. The too much and unending indulgence makes us so hard that we deny the very message of Our Lord and refuse to accept all the calls of reason. The Holy Quran further says that Allah has left those in utter darkness and has sealed their hearts and hearing and sight. It because they have made their desires their god and have forgotten the Real Absolute Lord Who is Their Creator: "Hast thou seen him who maketh his desire his god, and God sendeth him astray purposely and sealeth up his hearing and his heart, and setteth on his sight a covering ? Than who will lead him after God (hath condemned him) ? Will you not then heed ?" -the Holy Quran (45: 23) The Commander of the Faithful Imam' Ali (A) said: "Whoever becomes involved into world's allurements, thus giving up his gains from his immortal life in the Next World -has indeed been cheated." "What a bad trade it is that one exchanges his self for this world instead of trading it with whatever is available with God-Almighty (in the Next- World).” -Nahjul-Balagha, sermon 32. Therefore the result of all this discussion is to heed our life, its purpose and control our low desires. Any body who is able to do will get benefits in the both world: "But as far him who feared to stand before his lord and restrained his soul from lust, Lo ! The garden will be his home." -the Holy Quran (79:40-41) Imam Ali(as) says: "Self-consciousness is one of the most profitable assets of a person." This is self-consciousnesses which shows the path, it makes us realize our mistakes, it makes us confess our sins and it makes us understand His status. But this self-consciousness is not possible without purification of soul and with out avoidance of Haraam. Our Lord has given us mental faculties to choose the way, and so now it’s our responsblity to make our self choose the right path and avoid the wrong one: “Whoso doth right, it is for his soul. and whoso doth wrong, it is against it. And afterward unto your Lord ye will be brought back.” -the Holy Quran (45:15) "And whoso doth good an atom's weight will see it then, and whoso doth evil an atom's weight will see it then.” -the Holy Quran (99:7-8) "And that man hath only that for which he maketh effort and that his effort will be seen.” -the Holy Quran (53: 39-40) "And whatever of Good ye send before (you) for your souls, ye will find it with God." -the Holy Quran (2:110) “The day when wealth and sons avail not (any man). Save him who bringeth unto God a whole heart.” -the Holy Quran (26: 88-89) The Holy Prophet (S) said .to one of his companions: “Oh Qais! You will have no other choice except to live with a companion in your grave. He is alive and you will be buried with him. If he is good and honorable, will make you honorable, and if he is low and mean, you will become low and mean as well. After that on that on the Day of Resurrection you will be associated with him and will be reprimanded. Therefore, be careful and try to select a righteous companion for yourself; because if he is righteous -you will develop affection for him. If he is corrupt be assured that all the fear and punishment inflicted upon you will be through his existence. That companion is nothing but your actions and deeds in this life." Hence, what remains are good deeds done for His sake, His pleasure. So this must be the purpose of every living soul to be conscious of what is right and what is wrong and choose the right path as this life or ours is too short and too hasty but the Hereafter is for ever and will never end, the path to success in the both worlds lies in the purification of soul: “He indeed will be successful who purifies himself, and magnifies the name of his Lord and pray”(87:14-15) Be praised the holy name of Our Merciful Lord Creator Who gave us faculties to comprehends and judge and also arranged for our guidance the system of Devine Guidance through His prophets(S)! Our Salaam and His blessings be upon our Leader and Maula our Prophet Mohammad and his chaste Ahlebait who sacrificed everything but saved the purity of His message for our guidance!