Spiritual Health and Purification of the Soul

[Cordoba]

God's Justice

Throughout our lives, each of us has perhaps experienced and witnessed many people acting unjustly. Such behavior is routinely witnessed at work, while testifying, or making a decision. They constantly protect their own interests, or, at least, do not consider being just.

Justice is one indication that the person possesses moral excellence, as well as honesty and sincerity. Such people who practice justice even at their own personal loss will earn their community’s love and respect and, despite having different opinions on various matters, will be respected and even declared to be heroes.

Allah, the source of infinite justice, makes all of His judgments with precise justice. All people have received their portion of justice, and will continue to do so in the future. Every person will fully receive the reward of their deeds with Allah. The Qur’an tells us how His justice will be implemented perfectly in the Hereafter:

On the Day We summon every people with their records, those who are given their book in their right hand will read their book and will not be wronged by even the smallest speck. (Surat al-Isra’, 71)

Say: “Our Lord will bring us all together and then will judge between us with the truth. He is the Just Decider, the All-Knowing.’” (Surah Saba’, 26)

Being sure of receiving Allah’s justice, a person submits to Allah with boundless love and absolute trust. Subsequently, in all situations he knows that Allah’s justice is manifest in that incident and thus welcomes with absolute love and happiness any incident that our Lord creates.

http://www.harunyahya.com/books/faith/love/love_of_02.php

 

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To be Forgiving

Believers, who are very patient and forgiving, will not become angry and end their friendships just because of some minor mistakes and misgivings. Instead, they will give the other person another chance, remind them of the truth, and help them change their behavior.

Instead of feeling anger and animosity toward their friends in public, they attempt to fix their mistakes and misgivings by giving examples from the Qur’an. In sincere love, feelings of great understanding and tolerance reign supreme. Every situation will be resolved with love, understanding, and in peace.

http://www.harunyahya.com/books/faith/love/love_of_07.php

 

[Cordoba]

The Greatness of God

He governs the affairs of the various kingdoms and He commands and forbids, creates, sustains, gives death, gives life, gives power, strips power (to and from whom He wills) and alternates the night and day.

He gives varying fortunes to people and alternates governments (and states), destroying some and bringing some into existence. His Command and Power are dominant in the heavens and their zones, the earth and all that which is on and in it, in the seas and in the air. His Knowledge has encompassed everything and He counted everything.

He forgives an evil deed, makes depression vanish and brings reprieve from disasters, relief for whoever needs it, wealth for the poor, guidance for the misguided, light for the lost, help for he who is desperate, fullness for the hungry, cover for the barely clothed, cure for the ill and ease for he who suffers.

He accepts he who repents, gives reward for he who does good, gives aid for he who was dealt with injustice, destroys an arrogant person, covers mistakes, gives safety after fear end elevates some people and humiliates others.

If those who inhabit His heavens and His earth and all those whom He created, whether mankind or the Jinns, had hearts similar to the most pious heart, His Kingdom will not increase.

Source: http://www.islaam.com/Article.aspx?id=237

 

[Cordoba]

Mercy is something that we cannot live without

The reality for those seeking knowledge - as it is compulsory for us to seek knowledge of our religion - is that if there is not, along with that knowledge, a soft heart, then we cannot taste the beauty of that knowledge.

As Hassan Al-Basri had said, "If a man seeks knowledge, it will appear in his face, hands and tongue and in his humility to Allah."

What is most beneficial in this life is a soft heart. We should strive to achieve it because everything else would be meaningless and useless if we do not have softened hearts.

Source: http://www.islaam.com/Article.aspx?id=444

 

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Love for the sake of God

Love for the sake of Allah, and not for the sake of anything else in this life which is filled with greed, desires and interests, is very difficult, and none can attain it except the one who is pure of heart, for whom this world is as nothing compared to the pleasure of Allah.

It is not surprising that Allah should give them a status and blessing which is commensurate with their position in this world, above whose concerns they have risen. We find proof of this in the hadith of Mu'adh who said that the Prophet said:

"Allah said: 'Those who love one another for My glory, will have minbars of light, and the Prophets and martyrs will wish that they had the same." [Reported by al-Tirmidhi]

Allah gives to those who love one another for His sake a gift which is even greater than this status and blessing: that is His precious love which is very difficult to attain. This is proven by the hadith of Abu Hurayrah in which the Prophet said:

"A man went to visit a brother of his in another village. Allah sent an angel to wait for him on the road. When the man came along, the angel asked him, 'Where do you intend to go?' He said, 'I am going to visit a brother of mine who lives in this village.' The angel asked, 'Have you done him any favour (for which you are now seeking repayment)?' He said, 'No. I just love him for the sake of Allah.' The angel told him, I am a messenger to you from Allah, sent to tell you that He loves you as you love your brother for His sake."' (Muslim)

http://www.islaam.com/Article.aspx?id=562

 

[Cordoba]

Purifying the Heart

There is no doubt that the heart becomes covered with rust, just as metal dishes - silver, and their like - become rusty. So the rust of the heart is polished with the remembrance of Allah (dhikr), for dhikr polishes the heart until it becomes like a shiny mirror.

However, when dhikr is abandoned, the rust returns; and when it commences then the heart again begins to be cleansed.

Thus the heart becoming rusty is due to two matters: sins and neglecting remembrance of Allah.

Likewise, it is cleansed and polished by two things : seeking Allah's forgiveness and dhikr."

http://www.sunnahonline.com/ilm/purification/0035.htm

 

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Doing Good to Others

A wealthy man discovered that his six year old son had cancer. As his condition deteriorated, the doctors said the boy only had a few months left.

One day, as the father was driving back home and thinking of his son, he found a poor lady looking for food in dustbins, so he stopped and asked her what she was doing. The woman answered that she is looking for food for her children, as she had no money to feed them.

On hearing that, the man went with this mother and saw the children and decided he was going not just to help them with one payment, but for his help to be on-going. So he went to the nearby grocery store, and agreed with its owner to give this family all food they needed and that he would pay him in advance on a monthly basis. He did the same with other needs for the children like clothes, ... etc.

Within a few days, to his surprise he found his son's condition getting better. So he took him to the doctors, and they could not believe the results of the new tests: the cancer was starting to recede, and within a few months the boy started to recover and to come back to normal.

Doing good to others is a sign of mercy in the heart, and is the way forward towards a better society and towards the love of God. As they say, "do unto others as you would have them do unto you".

All the best.

 

[Cordoba]

Kindness to Parents

Kindness to parents in Islam, is a top priority, which is so important that it comes as a second priority straight after belief in God:

"For a Muslim, being kind to parents is much more than remembering them on their birthdays or Mother’s or Father’s Day. Being kind to them means listening respectfully to their opinion and obeying them in everything that is not disobedience to God. For an adult child it means to see that they have the necessities of life and whatever more one can afford; to keep them under one’s roof when they are elderly without grudge; to never speak unkindly to them or physically abuse them."

http://www.islamonline.net/english/...article02.shtml

Kindness to parents is a reflection of mercy in the heart.

Those who deserve most mercy are parents who took care of their children when they were young, with love, care and affection.

Without this mercy in the heart, a believer will not attain God's Love, and will therefore never reach a state of complete spiritual health.

 

[Cordoba]

Striving against the soul:

Our human nature often makes us want to take the "easy way out". If left unchecked, the human soul will lead many to spiritual decline. That is why one needs to be aware of this danger and to do an effort to be in control, and not let desires of the soul take over.

Striving against the soul has several stages, including the following:

First Phase: To strive in learning guidance and the religion of truth, without which there will be no success. Indeed, there can be no true happiness, nor any delight in this world and in the Hereafter, except through it.

Second Phase: Striving to act upon what has been learnt, since knowledge without action will not benefit, rather it will cause harm. Once faith in God enters the heart, the new believer must act according to God's Guidance, by performing prayers and doing good in this world.

After that, the Path towards God is a gradual path of learning and purifying one's soul. In this journey, the human soul rises in rank from being a soul which wants to do evil (al-nafs al ammara bil sou'), to a soul which become partially aware when it does wrong and repents (al nafs al-lawwamma), .... and keeps on rising further till it becomes a tranquil and reassured soul (al nafs al-moutma'inna), mentioned in The Qur'an in verses (89:27-30):

"[to the righteous it will be said], "O reassured soul, return to your Lord, well-pleased and pleasing [to Him]. And enter among My [righteous] servants. And enter My Paradise".

 

[Cordoba]

Spiritual Development

Individuals or nations that develop materially without paying attention to their spirituality and morality cannot sustain their growth for too long. Material or economic growth without proper moral and spiritual values becomes a problem, and causes stress and pain.

Tazkiyah (Spiritual Development) is a very important part of development.

Tazkiyah is purification which is a pre-requisite for effective growth. There cannot be healthy growth unless purification also takes place. It is like the farmer who cleanses the ground of weeds, puts fertilizer, then seeds and waters his farm regularly and keeps removing any unwanted grass and weeds. Only after doing so will he be ready to have a rich and wholesome harvest.

Islam wants all of us to remove our sins and bad habits, nourish ourselves with wudu’, Prayers, dhikr, fasting and charity. We must keep learning and increasing our knowledge and establishing good deeds in our family and society, then we will see that slowly and surely good, healthy, and wholesome development will come.

http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?pagename=IslamOnline-English-Ask_Scholar/FatwaE/FatwaE&cid=1119503549144

 

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The Nature of Intention

The intention of a person is not his utterance of the words, "I intend to do so and so." It is an overflowing from the heart which runs like conquests inspired by Allah.

At times it is made easy, at other times, difficult. A person whose heart is overwhelmingly righteous finds it easy to summon good intentions at most times. Such a person has a heart generally inclined to the roots of goodness which, most of the time, blossom into the manifestation of good actions.

As for those whose hearts inclide towards and are overwhelmed by worldy matters, they find this difficult to accomplish and even obligatory acts of worship may become difficult and tiresome.

The Prophet (peace be upon him) said:

"Actions are only by intention, and every man shall only have what he intended."

http://www.jannah.org/articles/purific2.html

 

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Humbleness

Humbleness is the opposite of arrogance, and is an attitude and behavior that Allah and His Messenger have commanded us to have.

1- A Muslim is prohibited from claiming purity for himself.

God said in The Qur'an:

So ascribe not purity to yourselves. He knows best him who fears Allah and keeps his duty to Him. [53:32]

2- A Muslim is also prohibited from praising people in their presence, if they risk feeling proud and arrogant from being praised in public.

3- Another way to achieving humbleness is to extend greetings (Salam) to people, even those you don't know, as in this hadith:

A man asked the Messenger of Allah , “Which part of Islam is the best?” He said, “To feed the food (to the poor), and to extend As Salam to those whom you know and whom you do not know. ”

All the best.

 

[Cordoba]

Knowing One's Soul

Another very important piece of information the Qur'an gives us about man concerns his "soul" (an-nafs). The "soul," as commonly used in the Qur'an, means "ego" or "one's personality."

In the Qur'an, Allah explains the two aspects of soul: the one inspiring evil and wicked deeds, and the other, guarding against every inculcation of evil. The Qur'an explains this in Surat ash-Shams:

By the Soul, and the proportion and order given to it; and its enlightenment as to its wrong and its right; truly, he succeeds that purifies it, and he fails that corrupts it! (Surat ash-Shams: 7-10)

As is evident from the above verses, evil exists in every man's soul. However, he who purifies his soul will attain salvation. Believers do not surrender their selves to the evil in their soul; they simply avoid it with the guidance of Allah's inspiration. As the Prophet Yusuf said: "Not that I am free from sin: man's soul is prone to evil-except his to whom my Lord has shown mercy…" (Surah Yusuf: 53), provides the right manner of thinking for a believer.

Since the soul "is prone to evil," a believer must always remain vigilant about his soul. As the Prophet Muhammad also said, "the greatest struggle is the struggle against one's self (nafs)." The soul unceasingly tempts a person and never earns him Allah's approval. As it does all these things it tries to present alluring alternatives.

A believer, however, thanks to his fear of Allah, is not deceived by this "misleading" attribute of the soul. He always turns towards what is right to lead a life in compliance with Allah's Will. Such is the attitude of a wise person as opposed to a foolish one, as the Prophet said:

A wise person is one who keeps a watch over his bodily desires and passions, and checks himself from that which is harmful and strives for that which will benefit him after death; and a foolish person is one who subordinates himself to his cravings and desires and expects from Allah the fulfilment of his futile desires. (Tirmidhi)

Source: "Devoted to Allah",
A book by Harun Yahya
http://www.harunyahya.com/devoted01.php

 

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Conscience: The Key to God's Approval

It is by no means true that a believer is immune to the temptations of his self.

As the Prophet Yusuf said, "The self indeed commands to evil acts." (12:53) Accordingly, it will command the alternatives that are against Allah's Will.

A believer avoids the tricks of his soul by means of his conscience. Faced with a choice, a believer initially tends to select the one that first occurs to him, which is generally the one that pleases Allah most.

Then, the self intervenes: it tries to make other alternatives seem more alluring and finds pretexts to legitimise them. A believer must disregard these pretexts and comply with the initial and absolutely correct choice to which his conscience leads him.

http://www.harunyahya.com/devoted02.php

 

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Loving for Allah's sake

"Loving for Allah's sake" might be an incomprehensible concept for someone who is not well acquainted with true Islam. One who has remained distant from Allah throughout his life, and who has therefore not known Him, will be unaware of how to love Allah intuitively.

However, a believer who knows Allah and witnesses His mercy to him, who recognises that everything he loves is His blessing and that he owes his existence and life to His mercy, loves Allah and attains the noble spirit of loving for the sake of Allah.

http://www.harunyahya.com/devoted02.php

 

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Feeling hope with fear

Although a believer fears Allah, he should never forget Allah's compassion, mercy and forgiveness, or that He is the One Who due to His generosity accepts repentance. This will in turn be the reason for possessing a sincere sense of hope, whilst experiencing genuine fear.

A deep fear of Allah will give rise to a profound level of reflection on these attributes of Allah, enabling Allah's superiority and greatness to be even more keenly appreciated, resulting in a greater closeness to Allah. One will acquire a greater perception of Allah's mercy, His grace and His immense forgivingness.

http://www.harunyahya.com/books/deep_thinking/fear/fear3.php

A nice description of the path of a believer towards God is that of a bird: one wing is full of hope, the other wing is with fear from God, and the head of the bird which guides it on the journey is the Love of God.

 

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The Way to Real Happiness

Why does man recognize the value of boons and bounties only when he loses them?

Why does an old man lament the passing of his youth, while the young man fails to smile at his youth?

Why are we aware of happiness only when it is far from us?

Almost everybody is lamenting and yearning to his past! Why not think about the present before it becomes part of the past?

We may think that richness can be attained by possession of money alone. What can money alone give to man? You may have heard of the sick king who was brought the most delicious meals, but he was unable to eat any of them. Once, he was looking through a window of his palace, when his eyes caught a farmer eating brown bread with black olives: pushing one mouthful into his mouth, taking a second in his hand, and setting his eyes on a third. The king wished he had been a farmer and enjoyed such an appetite.

Why don’t you recognize the value of health? Is there no value for health? Who would agree to give up his sight for a hundred thousand dollars, or part of his nose for the riches of a millionaire? Why are we seeking gold anxiously though we possess ample gold? Isn’t sight as precious as gold? And health and time... and the human mind, too all these are treasures. Why don’t we make the best of our time. Why don’t we recognize the value of life? Why don’t we make the best use of our minds? Health, time and mind are an invaluable wealth that may lead man to happiness if he takes the right way.

But what is the right way to that goal which is pursued by man everywhere and at all times throughout history?

*There are several trends that describe the reality of happiness and the way leading to its attainment by man. The major trends can be summed up as follows:

1. Spiritualistic School, in which philosophers and theosophists believe that real happiness consists essentially in spiritual life.

2. Materialistic School or theory, which upholds that real happiness lies in materialism.

3. Rationalistic School, in which rationalists believe that happiness can be attained only by reason and logic.

4. Islamic Trend, which states that the three types of life: the spiritual, the material and the rational are together essential elements of happy life if they are ruled by the Islamic belief, practice and values.

That is because man is a combination of those very three ingredients: the body, mind and spirit: the body is nourished by food and drink, the mind by knowledge and experiments, and the spirit by faith and goodness.

But it is sound faith that builds up a healthy spirit and gives a realistic and truthful explanation of man’s position in this universe, Divine Reality and the basic concept of the Oneness and Perfect Attributes of God.

http://www.al-sunnah.com/happiness.htm

 

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Follow the path of virtue for a better tomorrow

God recollects some of the blessings he gave to men and explains the two highways of life, where he may enter.

The easy path referred here is, as we noted earlier, the life of a materialist who would prefer to enjoy the worldly glories without thinking about a day, where he will stand before God for judgement of his words and deeds.

The difficult path of virtue is defined as the path of charity or unselfish love.

Source:
http://www.witness-pioneer.org/vil/Articles/tazkiyah/default.htm

 

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Spiritual Peace

The faith in God, is a medicine for any spiritual ills, it helps regulate psychic urges which are themselves the mainspring of man's spiritual afflictions.

The faith in God gives a visage of perfect beauty to life, because when one has the conviction that everything does not come to an end with this life it creates an inner peace and makes him pass through the entire course of life with steadiness, strength, and moderation.

Qualities like greed and avarice, which are one of the reasons for anxiety, are moderated as a result of faith in God. The hope of great rewards and the fear of severe punishments make man refrain from rapacity and avoid unreasonable and uncontrolled passion for material things, glitter and ostentation. Thus, a desirable and serene equilibrium worthy of man's humanity is brought about within his soul.

Similarly, faith in the Day of Judgement and the hereafter removes the intolerable strain induced by the idea of absolute annihilation and extinction from the human spirit, for the person with such a faith is convinced that at the threshold of death the door to another world will open in front of him and he will enter an eternal life and its everlasting bounties that cannot be compared with the joys of this world. This faith results in eliminating another agent of mental anxiety which is the anguish of absolute nonexistence.

Faith not only cures anguish and anxiety from the human heart, it also protect it from being overwhelmed by agitation and agony.

Allah says in the Qur’an:

...In God's remembrance and reliance upon Him are at rest the hearts of those who have faith and do righteous deeds. Qur’an (13:28)

And in another verse of the Qur’an:

“It is He Who sent down tranquility into the hearts of the faithful...” Qur’an (48:4)

The Qur'an views steadiness and peacefulness to be the characteristics of those whose hearts are rich with faith

http://www.islamonline.com/cgi-bin/news_service/spot_full_story.asp?service_id=741

All the best.

 

[Cordoba]

Thoughts on Life

A Muslim will always have to acknowledge that the final outcome is in God’s hands. If we pray du`aa’ (personal prayer requests) for our sick and dying, and for the bereaved, it is never wasted; God always hears us, and something always ‘happens’, even if it not quite what the person has prayed for.

Umm Salamah, the Prophet’s wife (peace be upon both of them), reported the Messenger as saying: “Whenever you visit the sick or the dying, make supplication for good, because the angels say ‘Amen’ to whatever you say.” (Reported by Muslim)

We are human and limited in our understanding. Instead of telling God what we want, we should try to ask God what it is He wants for us, or wants us to do, in each situation.

Sometimes He gives a very clear indication of what it is He wants us to do—through inner conviction, through a verse of the Qur’an, or an insight given through another person. When we are less certain, we can pray for what seems to be the best solution, acknowledging that God’s wisdom is perfect.

We are not specks of dust drifting in space blown by random destiny. We are each of us unique—no two people are alike, not even identical twins. Each one of us is born for a specific reason and purpose, and each one of us will die when we have accomplished whatever it was to be accomplished.

True healing is not necessarily a cure, but a completion of God’s work in body, mind, emotions and spirits.

http://www.islamonline.net/English/introducingislam/Worship/Heart/article05.shtml