Spiritual Health and Purification of the Soul (morals, punishment, reject)

[Cordoba]

Diseases of the soul are of two kinds: The first kind contradicts the normal stations of the heart which we shall deal with. Showing off and idolatry contradict Tawhid and servitude to Him. Love of authority and power contradict asceticism.

The second kind of disease contradicts adopting Allah's Attributes and emulating the Messenger of Allah. For example, anger for an unjust cause contradicts magnanimity ...

The First Subject: Disbelief, Hypocracy, Wickedness and Innovation

The first thing man should concentrate on is purifying his soul from disbelieving in Allah and His Messenger, peace be upon him. ... Disbelief is a form of darkness with which no deed is meritorious.

Then one should purify his soul from theoretical and practical hypocracy. Theoretical hypocracy entails believing in the reality of Islam in a way that is contrary to what it has clearly proclaimed. ...

Then the servant should purify his soul from rebellion against the commandments of Allah and acts of disobedience. He should not violate prohibitions nor should he shun commandments. He should further eschew the vices that are both manifest and concealed.

( ... to be continued In-Shaa-Allah ... )

[Cordoba]

The Second Subject: Idolatry and Showing Off

Idolatry is one of the most henious diseases with which humanity has been afflicted, as it gives lordship to that which does not deserve it.

It disperses the heart in many directions so that it does not offer the acts of worship nor does it receive guidance or light from its due source. ...

The Muslim who believes in Tawhid has freed his soul from all this, but he is, nevertheless, vulnerable to the hidden idolatry, i.e. hypocracy. You may see such a person behaving as if he worships another individual. This is the source of hypocracy that has injurious effects on its owner and the society as a whole as it is a form of deception and is fatal to the soul in this life and in the life to come.

The Remedy of Showing Off and the Way to Cure the Heart

In order to liberate one's soul from showing off, one must first uproot it from one's heart, and then repel it if it emerges at a later time. This can be achieved through two means:

The First Means: Love of authority and love of fame are both sources of showing off. This can be attributed to three causes: a love of [other] people's praise, a hatred of their criticism and a covetous desire for the possessions of others. ...

The Second Means: The servant should repel the passing temptations of Satan while performing acts of worship. Satan does not despair of misleading the one who struggles against his soul, and has uprooted all forms of showing off from his heart. ...

The effective remedy lies in repelling the idea before the desire to follow through strengthens it. ...

( ... to be continued In-Shaa-Allah ... )

[Cordoba]

The Third Subject: Love of Authority

When someone initiates a deed for the sake of authority or fame, the result will be full of flaws. Authority and fame lead, most often, to unlawful measures.

Man's impetuous nature in this affair causes him to fall short from doing good deeds when he cannot achieve what he wants.

Competing with others for authority and fame leads to conflict - besides defiling one's intention - thereby spoiling the reward for the deed. For this reason, this disease is considered dangerous and must be cured

Remedy for Love of Authority

Know that he whose heart is bent on love for authority is keen to please the people. He treats them in an extremely courteous way; he continually seeks to raise his status among them with every act and utterance. This is the seed of showing off and the essence of corruption.

This necesarily leads to neglecting acts of worship and showing off in order to reach a firm place in people's hearts. For this reason, the Messenger of Allah likened their love to two wolves that corrupt one's religion. Love of authority plants the seed of showing off. Showing off is to utter or do what contradicts one's convictions. ...

Thus, love of authority is destructive: one should extirpate it from the heart. This is an instinct from man's nature just as the love of wealth. ...

Thus, he who is keen for this passing life should cure his soul from the love of authority by realizing the defects of the ephemeral world. One way to achieve this is to reflect on the dangers that face the dignitaries and celebrities. Each dignitary is an object of envy that people desire to harm. He is ever fearful lest he should lose his authority or lest his public opinion drops ...

As for practice, one should forget about people's praise. One way to acquire this state is to perform blameworthy deeds. Although this may degrade him in the eyes of people, Allah would accept them.

( ... to be continued In-Shaa-Allah ...)

[Cordoba]

The Fourth Subject: Envy

The envious person is he that becomes pleased when the person blessed with the object of their envy loses this blessing. Some forms of envy are considered forms of sins.

Immagine the case where envy has prevailed, and each envier has plotted against the one they envy: in this case plots and machinations abound. No one is safe as all are plotting against all. Imagine how life would be ...

Envy has proven to be desctructive to humanity: any society is vulnerable to decay because of it. This is the very case of the ruin of those of old. ...

Causes of Envy and Competition That Incite Hatred

1- Enmity and Hatred
2- Dislike of Good for Others
3- Arrogant Pride
4- Fear of Missing an Object or an Aim
5- Greed for Fame and Authority
6- Miserliness of the Human Self

Remedy for Envy

Envy is one of the most serious diseases of the heart. It cannot be cured without knowledge and action. ...

Envy harms your faith because it is a sign that you object to divine preordainment (Qadar), that you dislike the favors people have received from Allah, and that you denied Allah's Justice and Mercy which are part of His wisdom
Denying Allah's blessing on others is a major sin and it negates the core of your true belief in Allah. ...

The effective remedy to purify the soul from envy is to force yourself to behave in a way that contradicts the behavior associated with envy ... If your soul is incited not to offer goodness to the envied one, you should compel it to do more goodness to him. In this way, envy will be severed and uprooted from the heart

( ... to be continued In-Shaa-Allah ... )

[Cordoba]

The Fifth Subject: Self-Admiration

The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, said:

"When you see people responding to niggardliness, following whims, prefering life [to the Hereafter], and each one is deluded by his opinion, care only for your business."

(Hadith Related by Al-tirmidhi)

The vices mentioned in this hadith are diseases and whenever these diseases exist, life and the loving spirit that prevails in teamwork is impossible to attain...

From this point we realize the dangerous effects of pride and miserliness, following one's whims, love of the worldly pleasures, and niggardliness towards humanity in general and the Muslim community in particular. Self-admiration results in feelings of self-satisfaction that leads to many shortcomings and diseases such as vain pride, contempt for others, claiming to have high status and so on. ...

Self-admiration can be cured through committing oneself to consultation, following whims can be cured through conforming to the commandments in the Qur'an and the Prophetic Sunnah; being niggardly can be cured through generosity; and love of life can be cured through remembering the Hereafter and exerting every effort to succeed in it....

Remedy for Self-Admiration

The remedy for each malady is to act in contradiction to its prime cause. The cause of self-admiration is utter ignorance. Thus its remedy is perfect knowledge, which is the opposite of ignorance.

Self-admiration of an action which is practiced of his own accord, [such as acts of worship, giving Zakah, good manners, ... etc] is more recurrent and visible than self-admiration concerning natural gifts, such as beauty, strength, ... etc.

Here we should say that the reason why one is disillusioned and admires his piety, chastity, worship and action is because he is the means through which they took place, or because they are being performed by means of his power and strength ...

When you look highly at your acts of worship and say, "Allah has guided me to the acts of worship for my love for Him ...", it should be said: "Who has created that love in your heart?" You would answer, "He [Allah]." It should be said: "Love and performing acts of worship are two favors from Him. He has provided you with them without any right owed to you. Thus one should wonder at His generosity due to the fact that He has granted you life, ability to act, and the causes which enable you to act.

Thus, admiring the worshipper for his acts of worship, the scholar for his knowledge, the beautiful person for his beauty, or a wealthy person for his wealth is nonesense, because it is Allah's bounty that chose him to be the means of carrying out such deeds. ....

( ... to be continued In-Shaa-Allah ... )

[Cordoba]

Categories of Self-Admiration and its Cure

Self-admiration arises from some characteristics by which man feels proud. It sometimes arises from other things such as admiration of his wrong opinion, which he thinks to be right.
There are 8 categories of self-admiration:

1- To be conceited with his beauty, strength, good form, good voice, etc. He is conceited about his physical constitution and forgets that it is a favor from Allah and is liable to be taken from him. The remedy for this category is to remember the origin of his creation, and its end. One should also remember how these physical constitutions scatter and become mere dust inside the grave

2- To be conceited with power and ability. Self-admiration concerning strength causes wars and leads people to destruction. The remedy for this category is to remember that a fever may afflict him and weaken his strengh. He should also remember that Allah might take it away

3- To be conceited with one's intelligence, shrewdness and knowing all the affairs of life and the Hereafter. This leads to obstinacy, abandonment of consultation, contempt for his oponent's opinions and turning away from listening to the scholars while depending on his own opinion. The remedy for this category is to thank Allah for this favor, and to know that he has little knowledge ...

4- To be conceited because of one's noble predecessors and lineage. The remedy for this category is to recognize that if he does not follow the way of his forefathers and thought that he would join them he is ignorant. If he was to follow them, he should remember that pride was not part of their character. Rather, they used to feel contempt for their souls. They adhered to acts of obedience, knowledge and every noble character ...

5- To be conceited because of being a follower of unjust rulers and their supporters and leaving out the people of knowledge and religion. This is utter ignorance. The remedy for this category is to remember their evil deeds and defective behavior such as oppressing people and corrupting the religion of Allah.

6- To be conceited because of the multitude of offspring, relatives, supporters and followers is also dangerous. The remedy is to remember that nothing benefits you except your good deeds and Allah's Bounty. How can your rely upon he who does not benefit or harm you, and forget Him Who is able to benefit you, harm you, give you life and cause you death?

7- Admiration of one's wealth is also dangerous. ... The remedy of this category is remembering the plight that may afflict wealth, its duties and what wastes it.

8- Admiration of one's opinion. The remedy for this category is accusing his opinion all the time except if it is a sound ruling from the Book of Allah, the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace be upon him) or a rational proof

( ... to be continued In-Shaa-Allah ... )

[Cordoba]

The Sixth Subject: Haughtiness

Haughtiness is a part of self-admiration. ...

The Prophet, peace be upon him, defined it as saying:

"It is contempt of people and a way to degrade truth."

The Facts and Harms of Haughtiness

Haughtiness is divided into two parts: internal and external. The internal part is characteristic of the heart. The external is the apparent deeds of the body.

Haughtiness comes under the first category. Acts are the result of that characterstic. Haughtiness affects deeds hence, when it becomes apparent on the body, one is described as haughty. If it does not appear, it is said that one has haughtiness in the heart.

Originally, haughtiness is implanted in the soul. It stems from seeing oneself as higher than others. Thus, haughtiness is shown towards people and in this way we distinguish haughtiness from self-admiration, for the latter only affects the individual himself. ...

The evil of haughtiness is great and its harm is severe. ....

The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, said:

"He that has an atom's weight of haughtiness in his heart will never enter Paradise" ...

It is impossible for a person to treat people kindly and sincerely, which are noble virtues of the pious people, as long as he has haughtiness or arrogance in his heart. ...
What Causes Haughtiness?

1- Knowledge
2- Practice and Worship
3- Haughtiness due to Lineage
4- Haughtiness due to Beauty
5- Haughtiness due to Wealth
6- Haughtiness due to Strength
7- Haughtiness because of a Multitude of Supporters, Students, Relatives and Sons

(Cure of Haughtiness ... to be continued In-Shaa-Allah ... )