The initial awakening to purification refers to recognition that the spiritual search is more important and meaningful than our previously valued worldly goods and ambitions. The process of starts with "Verily deeds are according to intentions" and ends with the station of perfect character, , "Worship Him as though you see Him", the reference being to the first hadith in
Sahih Bukhari and the oft-referred hadith famously known as the hadith of Gibril in
Sahih Muslim. is the highest level of that the seeker can develop through their quest for reality. This is referred to as ; the reality of certainty and knowing that it brings true understanding and leads to , the true faith of witnessing the signs of Allah's Oneness everywhere. The only higher level of realization is . At this station of perfection, the seeker realizes that Allah is observing them at every moment. Saudi cleric Khalid Bin Abdullah al-Musleh listed seven obstacles in the way of in his book (reforming the hearts): • • Rejecting and following • Obeying the instinct and ego () • Doubt • Negligence () Ha also listed eight ways to maintain : • Reading the
Quran • Loving
Allah • Doing • and • Supplicate () for and purify • Remembering afterlife () • Reading the biographies of the • Company of good, honest and pious people
Maintaining the Professor A.J. Arberry, in his
Sufism said: "the is a stage of spiritual attainment on the pilgrim's progress to God, which is the result of the mystic's personal efforts and endeavor, whereas the is a spiritual mood depending not upon the mystic but upon God." The Muslim philosopher
Abd al-Karīm ibn Hawāzin al-Qushayri ( 986
Nishapur,
Iran, 1074) summarized the difference between the two concepts in his , where he maintained that, "states are gifts, the stations are earnings." is a continuous process of purification to maintain spiritual health. Similar to the process of maintaining physical
health, any lapse in the regimen can cause one to lose their previous gains, and thus caution must always be used to not deviate from the path. Regarding this, it has been related that Imam Muhammad al-Busayri asked Shaykh Abul-Hasan 'Ali ibn Ja'far al-Kharqani ( 1033) about the major seventeen negative psychological traits or (impediments) which the must avoid in their struggle towards purification. If the does not rigorously abstain from these aspects, their efforts will be wasted. Known as (the ruinous traits), they are also referred to as the Tree of Bad Manners:
Stages of (inner-self) There are three principal stations of or human consciousness that are specifically mentioned in the Qur'an. They are stages in the process of development, refinement and mastery of the . • : unruly animal self or soul that dictates evil. • : struggling moral self or self-reproaching soul. • : satisfied soul or the composed God realized self.
The animal () The Sufi's journey begins with the challenge of freeing oneself from the influence of
Shaytan and the .
Al-Kashani defines it as follows: the commanding soul is that which leans towards the bodily nature () and commands one to sensual pleasures and lusts and pulls the heart () 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 incites mankind to commit evil: this is the as the lower self or the base instincts. In the eponymous of the Qur'an, the prophet
Yusef says "Yet I claim not that my was innocent: Verily the of man incites to evil." Here he is explaining the circumstances in which he came to be falsely imprisoned for the supposed seduction of
Zuleikā, the wife of the King's minister (
ʻAzīz, Qur'an (12:30)).
The reproachful () If the soul undertakes this struggle it then becomes (reproachful soul): this is the stage where "the
conscience is awakened and the self accuses one for listening to one's selfish mind. The original reference to this state is in : The sense of the Arabic word is that of resisting wrongdoing and asking God's forgiveness after becoming conscious of wrongdoing. At this stage, one begins to understand the negative effects of a habitual self-centered approach to the world, even though they do not yet have the ability to change. One's misdeeds now begin to become repellent to them, and one enters a cycle of erring, regretting mistakes, and then erring again.
Tree of good manners • – good
character • –
truthfulness Tree of bad manners •
al-ghadab –
anger: considered the worst of all the negative traits. It may easily be said that anger is the source from which the others flow. The Prophet states in a hadith: "Anger (
ghadab) blemishes one's belief." Controlling anger is called
kāzm. •
al-hiqd –
malice or having ill-will toward others; grows from lusting for what someone else has. You must replace
hiqd with kindness and look upon your brother with love. There is a tradition that says "give gifts to one another, for gifts take away malice." •
al hasad –
jealousy or
envy; a person inflicted with this disease wants others to lose blessings bestowed on them by Allah. • '''al-'ujb''' –
vanity or having pride because of an action, possession, quality or relationship. •
al-bukhl –
stinginess: The cause of
bukhl is love of the world, if you did not love it, then giving it up would be easy. To cure the disease of miserliness, one must force oneself to be generous, even if such generosity is artificial; this must be continued until generosity becomes second nature. •
al-tama –
greed: excessive desire for more than one needs or deserves. Having no limit to what one hoards of possessions! Seeking to fulfill worldly pleasures through forbidden means is called
tama’. The opposite of
tama’ is called
tafwiz, which means striving to obtain permissible and beneficial things and expecting that Allah will let you have them. •
al-jubn –
cowardice: the necessary amount of anger (
ghadab) or treating harshly is called bravery (''shajā'at
). Anger which is less than the necessary amount is called cowardice (junb
). Imam Shafi says, "a person who acts cowardly in a situation which demands bravery resembles an ass." A coward would not be able to show ghayrat
for his wife or relatives when the situation requires it. He would not be able to protect them and thus will suffer oppression (zulm
) and depreciation (ziliat''). •
al-batalah – indolence or
Sloth (deadly sin):
batalah is inactivity resulting from a dislike of work. •
al-riya’ –
ostentation or showing off:
riya’ means to present something in a manner opposite to its true nature. In short, it means pretension, i.e., a person's performing deeds for the next world to impress the idea on others that he is really a pious person with earnest desire of the
akhirah while in fact he wants to attain worldly desires. •
al-hirsh – attachment and love for the material world, such as desiring wealth and a long life. • '''al-'azamah''' – superiority or claiming greatness: the cure is to humble oneself before Allah. • '''al-ghabawah wa 'l-kasalah''' –
heedlessness and
laziness; "the heart needs nourishment, and heedlessness starves the spiritual heart." •
al-hamm –
anxiety: this develops from heedlessness. The seeker must first understand that Allah is al-Razzaq (the Provider), and submit and be content with the will of Allah. •
al-ghamm –
depression: passion (
hawā) conduces to anguish (
ghamm) whenever reason is allowed to represent itself as grievous or painful the loss of the suitable or desirable and is, therefore, a "rational affection" that can cause the soul untold suffering and perturbation. •
al-manhiyat – Eight Hundred Forbidden Acts •
ghaflah – neglect and forgetfulness of God, indifference: those guilty of
ghaflah, the
ghāfilün, are those who "know only a surface appearance of the life of this world, and are heedless of the hereafter" (30:7). •
kibr –
arrogance or regarding one's self to be superior to others. The Prophet states in a
hadith: "A person who has an atom's weight of conceit in his heart will not enter Paradise." The opposite of arrogance is
tawādu’, which is a feeling of equality. •
hubb ul-dunya – love of the material world:
Materialism. According to a
hadith, Muhammed has said that "love of the world is the root of all evil." If this ailment is treated and cured, all other maladies flowing from it will also disappear. The
sālik must purify himself from these bad traits and rid his heart of the underlying ailments that are at their source. Outward adherence to the
five pillars of Islam is not sufficient: he must be perfect in behavior. This requires a program of self-evaluation, purification, seclusion and establishing a practice of remembrance and contemplation under the guidance of an authorized Shaykh of Spiritual Discipline (
shaykh at-tarbiyyah). In this way the seeker is able to achieve a state in which his heart is ready to receive Divine Inspiration and observe Divine Realities.
The nafs at peace (''nafs-i-mutma'inna'') The Qur'an explains how one can achieve the state of the satisfied soul in
sura ''
Ar-Ra'd: "Those who believe, and whose hearts find their rest in the remembrance of God – for, verily, in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find satisfaction (tatmainnu alquloobu
)." Once the seeker can successfully transcend the reproachful soul, the process of transformation concludes with nafs-al-mutma'inna
(soul at peace). However, for some Sufis orders the final stage is nafs-as-safiya wa kamila'' (soul restful and perfected in Allah's presence). The term is conceptually synonymous with
Tasawwuf, Islah al-Batini etc. Another closely related but not identical concept is
tazkiah-al-qalb, or cleansing of the heart, which is also a necessary spiritual discipline for travelers on the Sufi path. The aim is the erasure of everything that stands in the way of purifying Allah's love (
Ishq). The aim of
tazkiah and moral development is to attain
falah or happiness, thus realizing the ''nafs al-mutma'inna''. This is the ideal stage of mind for Sufis. On this level one is firm in one's faith and leaves bad manners behind. The soul becomes tranquil, at peace. At this stage Sufis have relieved themselves of all
materialism and worldly problems and are satisfied with the will of God. Man's most consummate felicity is reflecting Divine attributes. Tranquillization of the soul means an individual's knowledge is founded on such firm belief that no vicissitudes of distress, comfort, pain or pleasure can alter his trust in Allah and his expecting only good from Him. Instead, he remains pleased with Allah and satisfied with His decrees. Similarly, the foundations of deeds are laid in such firm character that no temptations, in adversity, prosperity, fear or hope, removes him from the shar'iah, so he fulfills the demands made by Allah and thus becomes His desirable servant. According to
Qatada ibn al-Nu'man, the ''nafs al-mutma'inna'' is, "the soul of the believer, made calm by what Allah has promised. Its owner is at complete rest and content with his knowledge of
Allah's Names and Attributes..." In sura
Fajr of the Quran, Allah addresses the peaceful soul in the following words: 89:27 يَا أَيَّتُهَا النَّفْسُ الْمُطْمَئِنَّةُ :
Yā ayyatuhā alnnafsu almutmainnatu : O thou human being that hast attained to inner peace! 89:28 ارْجِعِي إِلَى رَبِّكِ رَاضِيَةً مَّرْضِيَّةً : ''Irji'aī ilā rabbiki radiyatan mardiyyatan'' : Return thou unto thy Sustainer, well-pleased [and] pleasing [Him]: 89:29 فَادْخُلِي فِي عِبَادِي : ''Fāodkhulī fī 'aibādī'' : Enter, then, together with My [other true] servants 89:30 وَادْخُلِي جَنَّتِي :
Wāodkhulī jannatī : Yea, enter thou My paradise!" == Sufi views ==