Remembrance of Allah
Almost every person in the modern world is involved in some basic worldly activity like earning a living, going to school, eating, sleeping, and socializing. Naturally, we forget Allah and the obligations due to Him. When we forget Allah, this life and its worries become the central occupation of the human mind. Desires run wild. A person begins to ‘chase his shadow’, something he can never catch. For many, money becomes the sole goal of life. The more you make, the more you spend, the more you want.
Allah has set times to break regularly from the daily chores of life for a few minutes and worship Him. First thing in the morning before we begin our day, in the middle of the day, in the late afternoon, in the evening, and at night before we go to sleep. When done with concentration and properly, it awakens and stimulates the soul. A Muslim reminds himself that Allah is in charge of everything, he is Allah’s faithful servant, and Allah’s pleasure is His aim. For a few minutes, five times a day, a Muslim leaves this world and meets His Lord:
“And establish the prayers (salah) in order to remember Me.” (Quran 20:14)
Taqwa (God-consciousness)
The prayers (salah) also makes a person God-conscious. When a person prays five times a day, he becomes accustomed to feeling the presence of God and develops the sense that Allah is watching Him at all times. He is never hidden from Allah, even when alone. A sense of God-consciousness keeps the heart suspended between fear and hope. Fear of Allah keeps a Muslim away from the prohibited and encourages him to do the obligatory; a mix of divine love and devout reverence that keeps him religiously observant. Regular performance of the prayers increases one’s awareness of Allah.
Seeking Forgiveness
To err is human, and even the most pious of Muslims sin and need to repent. We all need to constantly ask for Allah’s forgiveness and try our best not to repeat our mistakes. Without regular contact with Allah, a person is unlikely to feel guilty for his sins and repent. Sometimes if a person has not asked Allah to forgive him in a long time, he might become insensitive to sinning and may even forget that he fell into it, thus not even seeking forgiveness for it. Certain prayers in the formal prayers (salah) reminds the Muslim of his sins and makes him seek forgiveness for them This in turn causes Muslims to feel guilty for their sins and seek repentance as soon as they are committed. A Muslim learns to constantly seeks forgiveness for his sins and never feels too distant from his loving Lord. The prayer places man directly before Allah seeking pardon for his short-comings.
The prayer itself is a means of erasing sins, albeit the lesser ones[1].
Messenger of Allah, may the mercy and blessings of Allah be upon him, asked:
“What do you think if there was a river by the door of any one of you and he bathed in it five times a day, would there be any trace of dirt left on him?”
They (his companions) said, “No trace of dirt would be left on him.”
The Prophet said, “This is like the five daily prayers, through which Allah erases sin.” (Saheeh Al-Bukhari, Saheeh Muslim)
Control and Discipline
The prayer has the capacity to catalyze change for the better in people’s life. The fact that we give up whatever we are doing and line up behind a prayer leader (called imam) five times a day in the mosque, or find room to pray in at work or school by ourselves, instills discipline in life. People join the army to learn discipline and everyone admires it. Similarly, the prayer trains us to go through specific motions and utter special words at specific times. All the body parts are under control, obeying and worshipping Allah, and if this discipline is broken, the prayer may have to be repeated.
Islam recognizes that we are all different, so it allows flexibility in many cases. The prayer leader (imam) should keep the prayer short. Women are not required to attend the prayers in the mosque. A sick person may pray sitting, and if unable, he may even pray laying down. The discipline learned in the prayer is to be acquired in other aspects of one’s religious and mundane life as well. Just as we should not look around when praying, we should control our eyes outside of the prayer not to fall on forbidden objects. Just like we use our tongue to praise Allah, outside of the formal prayers we should not let it backbite or lie. Just as our hands and feet perform controlled motions, outside of the prayers we should not use them to steal, buy or eat what is forbidden. We should not walk towards the forbidden, but away from it. This is the essence of which Allah tells us:
“…Surely, the prayer (salah) prevents evil speech and bad deeds...” (Quran 29:45)
Calmness and Serenity by Developing Focus in the Prayers
A very important ingredient of the prayer is the state of calmness and tranquility coupled with humility achieved by deep concentration. Allah says in the Quran:
“Successful indeed are the believers, those who humble themselves in their prayers.” (Quran 23:1-2)
The purpose of the prayer is not just to fulfill an empty ritual. For the prayer to be acceptable, it must be done with a passion. Learn the meaning of the Arabic words used in the prayer, focus on their meaning and whatever portions of Quran you will recite. Know that Allah responds to prayers and He is listening to you. Focus your eyes on the place of prostration, or shut them if something present causes you to be distracted and can not focus otherwise. By concentrating on the words of the prayer said in different postures, by raising one’s consciousness of being in front of Allah, by choosing a comfortable, clean place with no distractions, one can increase their presence of mind in the prayer. There will always be room to improve it. Remove the clutter in the mind and focus on Allah’s blessings in life, feel your insignificance in front of the Magnificent Creator, feel guilty for your sins. It will help you reduce stress, worries, and anxiety. There is only so much our mind and body can take. The prayer is relaxing and will help regain lost focus in life. The prayer is healing for the soul. But for your salah to reach this state of concentration it requires patience, practice, and asking Allah for help. The postures of the prayer are important. For example, in prostration the believer is closest he can be to Allah, and thus he should feel this closeness and supplicate even more.
To reach a high level of concentration and humility in prayer requires constant work, and struggle. There will be lows - but one should never give up the prayers (salah). Remember! It connects you to your Creator. You don’t just pray while you feel it is working for you and easy to do. Frequently, a new Muslim is overcharged with zeal on accepting Islam, reading a lot, listening to tapes, surfing the web, talking to friends, but after some time they burn out. It is at that critical moment when the real test comes, one feels weak in faith and it is difficult to pray. Take some good advice for those times, and keep on praying.
Why Purify the Soul?
1. The Quran and Sunnah, the authoritative sources of Islam, emphasize purifying the soul repeatedly. If these divine sources emphasize something, it must be important for us because Allah wishes to guide us. Obviously, Allah and His Prophet would not waste our time! An example is the verse in which Allah tells us, “Prosperous are those who purify themselves.” (87:14)
2. One of the reasons why Prophet Muhammad was sent was to purify the souls so they could worship their Lord. Unlike what many Orientalists have said about Prophet Muhammad and all the negative images created by the media about Islam, one of the missions of Prophet Muhammad was to teach us, the believers, how to purify our souls. It is sad that whenever people talk about spirituality, most do not think of the profound spiritual legacy of Prophet Muhammad! Please remember that purifying you from the inside and turning you into a better human being, a purer Muslim, was the goal of your Prophet’s mission.
3. There are rewards to be obtained by purifying your soul. Rewards are promised by Allah to the person who purifies his soul by practicing obedient devotion and staying away from distractions (like sins and evil). “Gardens of lasting bliss graced with flowing streams, and there they will stay. Such is the reward of those who purify themselves!” (Quran 20:76)
How Do You Purify Your Soul?
You do not have to deprive yourself of specific foods or dress in special clothing. You don’t even have to climb into a cave or sit in meditation for hours. Spirituality is built into the very fabric of Islamic beliefs and practices.
1. To understand the pure Tawheed. The Quran says: “Devote yourselves to Allah and assign Him no partners, for the person who does so is like someone who has been hurled down from the skies and snatched up by the birds or flung to a distant place by the wind.” (Quran 22:31)
Your belief is fundamental. These days people think you can be spiritual by following any religion, or no religion for that matter! Islam teaches the opposite. You cannot truly purify your soul unless you hold the correct beliefs about the Creator of your soul. As a Muslim, you have accepted that only Islam provides you with the correct beliefs about your Creator. That is why the pure Tawheed is so important.
2. Practicing devotional acts of obedience and abandoning prohibitions and to endure in doing both of them. Repetition and routine have great spiritual value, therefore endurance is the key. Devotional acts enlighten the heart and energize the limbs, whereas prohibitions darken the heart and make a person lazy. Think about it: if you want to purify yourself, would you do it with spiritual practices created by men or with devotional worship prescribed by Allah?
What are many “spiritual” people into these days? They dance or whirl to get into a mystic trance. They listen to meditation music, relaxation music, or they do traditional yoga[1] or practice reiki. As a Muslim, try to find your comfort in the ritual prayer by learning them properly and focusing on Allah and what you are saying when you perform them. With persistence and practice, you will enjoy your prayers and learn to relax with it. Instead of mystical music, train your ears to listen to the Quran and train your tongue to recite it with the correct rules of recitation. It is far superior to any music!
3. Seeking religious knowledge at the hands of qualified scholars who are also well versed with the diseases of the heart and their cures according to the way of the prophets. Knowledge is the key. Ibn ul-Qayyim, a classical scholar recognized for his adherence to the Sunnah and his deeply spiritual writings, wrote, “Purifying the soul is harder than healing the body. The person who purifies his soul by spiritual exercises and sitting in isolation, techniques that the prophets did not teach, is like a sick man who treats himself. The prophets knew how to cure the hearts. There is no way to purify the soul or rectify it except through their way and submitting to it.” Good scholars will allow you to ask your questions and guide you with proper knowledge. It is important to follow the spiritual path of the Prophet that are found within the teachings of Islam. When one scrutinizes the method used by modern teachers like Deepak Chopra or the Dalai Lama they will surely realize the vanity and uselessness of their methods.
4. Keeping good company and being careful in selecting your friends. The company you keep will help you with purifying your soul and staying away from distractions. A person is greatly influenced by their surroundings. Good company will help you when you go through lows in your life in general or as a Muslim. A good friend will remind you when you forget and encourage you when needed. Being around like minded people, practicing Islam will not make you feel you don’t fit.
Benefits of Purifying the Soul
· Success in this life and in the life to come.
· Satisfaction and comfort of the heart.
· Steadfastness in practicing Islam and obeying Allah.
A soul that is strong and prepares itself with the remembrance of Allah, seeking forgiveness from Him and turning towards Allah, will be more able to overcome the hurdles of life.
The most important impediments to purifying the soul are:
1. Desires
2. Doubts
Harmful desires confuse one’s goals, leading a person to sin. Doubts, on the other hand, distort one’s beliefs, making a person question what is true.
A person can be enslaved by his desires if it becomes the controlling factor in his life. Anything that reaches that level in one’s life can take the role of a god or lord. Desires of the soul are of different kinds: power, authority, praise, wealth, sexual gratification, and others. Some are natural to every human being like the desire to have wealth and satisfy sexual pleasures. They must be restrained by the limits set by the Quran and the Sunnah.
“Have you seen him who takes his own lust (vain desires) as his god, and Allah knowing (him as such), left him astray, and sealed his hearing and his heart, and put a cover on his sight. So who will guide him after Allah? Will you then not be reminded?” (Quran 45:23)
Doubts come due to lack of true knowledge. Ignorance leads people to do acts displeasing to Allah. Doubts make a person weak in conviction and confidence, hence the person cannot truly sacrifice for Allah’s sake with the belief that His promises of success and pleasure are true.
Sins, Arrogance, Disbelief, and Shirk
Sins are of different types and degrees, but one thing for certain is that sins are harmful to the soul. The worst sins to avoid are the ‘major’ ones like murder, lying, stealing, backbiting, taking and giving bribes, cheating, disobeying parents, and fornication. ‘Lesser’ sins are also dangerous if they are repeated. Since sins are harmful to one’s relationship with Allah, a believer must be always cautious of major and minor sins.
A person should dislike all acts Allah has forbidden no matter how strong the temptation of the soul.
Sins of the heart are some of the worst. Part of the reason is that they contribute to so many other acts of disobedience of Allah. Arrogance is one of the most important sins of the heart. The Messenger of Allah, may the mercy and blessings of Allah be upon him, said, “Whoever has a grain’s weight of arrogance in his heart shall not enter Paradise.”[1]
Arrogance forms a barrier between a person and accepting the truth. For example, in some cases, a person will not accept the truth if it comes from people he does not like. Prophet Muhammad defined arrogance as “rejecting the truth and looking down on people.” (Muslim) Arrogance can be so strong that it prevents a person from embracing and implementing Islam in their life.
Disbelief (kufr) and shirk are the greatest sins any person can commit. They cannot be removed by prayers of another believer, good deeds, or hardships endured in life. At all costs, a person must avoid disbelief and shirk. In a hadith qudsi[2] the Prophet said, “O son of Adam, if you were to come to Me with sins that are close to filling the Earth and you would then meet Me without ascribing partners with Me, I would certainly (also) bring to you forgiveness close to filling it (the Earth).”[3]
Glitter of the World
The pleasure of this life can make a person forget about Allah and one’s true purpose in life. Allah has reminded us, “O you who believe, let not your riches or your children divert you from the remembrance of Allah. If any act thus, the loss is their own.” (Quran 63:9)
Islam guides a person to the proper way of living and how to maintain a healthy balance between the actions of this world and the Hereafter. It also warns against making this world our ultimate goal.
Bad Companions and Environment
Your company will affect you even if it is for a short period. Whoever thinks their friends don’t affect them is mistaken. Friends can make a person incline to sins, and being in constant company of sinful people will sooner or later tempt one to sin. In the modern age, the media has taken the role of companionship for many people. Like a bad friend, a person who cares about his soul must evaluate his relationship with the media.
Satan
Satan has an intense hatred borne out of envy and arrogance for all members of humanity. His goal is eternal damnation of mankind. Allah orders us, “O you who believe, do not follow the footsteps of Satan.” (Quran 24:21) Satan uses many means to achieve his goals. He encourages people to go to extremes, gives them false hopes, and makes them procrastinate and be lazy. The greatest scheme of Satan is making evil look good. It is thereby that he was able to deceive the first human beings, the parents of mankind. Allah has informed us of their story to warn us of Satan’s trick (see Quran 7:20-21). Satan plays the same trick on people today! Another way Satan leads people astray is making them believe that there are many paths that lead to God. People end up following their desire thinking they are following a ‘path to God.’ After the coming of Prophet Muhammad, there is only one path to God and it is the path shown by the Prophet himself. His path is wide and can accommodate all those who want to take it.
The first entity to show pride and arrogance was Shaytan or as he is often called especially in the story of Adam, Iblees. He was filled with pride and arrogance because he thought that he was better than Adam. He felt superior.
“…then We told the angels, ‘Prostrate to Adam’, and they prostrated, except Iblees, he refused to be of those who prostrate. (Allah) said: ‘What prevented you (O Iblees) from prostrating when I commanded you?’ Iblees said: ‘I am better than him (Adam), You created me from fire, and created him from clay’” (Quran 7:11-12)
That feeling of superiority is the root of all pride and arrogance. I am better than you. I make more money, my house is bigger, my intellect is greater, I have travelled more, my muscles are larger, I cook more delicious meals; the list goes on. One thing that all the things that we feel superior about have in common is that they are almost exclusively related to matters of the dunya. Love of the dunya and all its trappings actually push us further away from Paradise. Being, or appearing superior by dunya standards might just be more of a hindrance than a help. It is our God consciousness that makes a difference; being superior in that respect is the only superiority that counts.
You might make more money, but did you spend it to please Allah? You might make delicious meals but did you feed them to the poor? If you answer yes and you are proud of your accomplishments then this is not the pride and arrogance that translates to the Arabic word kibr (unhealthy and unnecessary pride and arrogance). Islam is not against innovation and achievement, it rewards and encourages excellence and success, and thus motivation, desire for reward and even desire for recognition are not the sins. The sin is in doing things with an incorrect intention. While achievement for the sake of Allah and to serve humanity is the correct intention, doing something for self-gain or self-love is an incorrect intention. Doing something to benefit your sense that the needs and desires of the world somehow revolve around you is kibr.
Kibr has the unintentional effect of making people dislike you, even fear you; it strips away respect. In addition and of a far greater consequence is that it may deny you a place in Paradise. Prophet Muhammad often counselled the sahabah about the importance of humility. He said, “…Anyone who possesses half a mustard seed of kibr in his heart will not be granted admission to Paradise”.[1]
“It will be said (to them), ‘Enter the gates of Hell to abide herein, and (indeed) what an evil abode of the arrogant.’” (Quran 39:72)
Kibr puts our place in Paradise in jeopardy because it prevents us from acquiring the qualities of a believer. A prideful person is not capable of wanting for others what he wants for himself. Nor can he be humble or avoid envy. An arrogant person refuses to accept advice and is often unable to restrain his anger or wrath. A believer however, strives to remove these traits from his character. He is always mindful of his behaviour.
Prophet Muhammad said that on the Day of Judgment Allah will not look at the person who drags his robe behind him out of pride. His close confidante Abu Bakr then responded, “Oh Messenger of Allah, one side of my robe slacks down but I am very cautious about it (i.e. I raise it).” Prophet Muhammad replied, “But you do not do that out of pride.”[2] Once again we can see how prideful behaviour, kibr, stems from the intention.
The remedy for kibr, and the means by which one can keep well away from pride and arrogance, is as simple as remembering who you are; just a human being, with a mother and father like everybody else. We all cry the same salty tears and bleed the same red blood. And we all have the same purpose in life; to worship Allah. We must also remind ourselves that all risq comes from Allah. One person might earn more money but it is Allah that allowed him to acquire the skills to do so. Another person might be more handsome or beautiful, but it is Allah that determined the quality of his or her genes. When we receive something that we perceive as a special blessing from Allah we should remind ourselves to be thankful and grateful. One step up from that would be to strive to use that blessing for the sake of Allah and to benefit humankind or this planet in some way.
Another remedy for kibr is to remember Allah; to keep Him in the forefront of our minds, if possible, at all times. Remember that Allah sees all, even what is in the hearts of each person. As Muslims we are blessed with a way or a system of remembering. We pray five times a day, we use specific words of remembrance, and we are encouraged to make du’a and remember Allah often. We use these methods to become close to Allah, to obey His commands and please Him. In doing so we protect our own hearts from the sins of desire and greed and the sins involved in feeling superior to those around us. This dunya is important because it is our ultimate test; not because it allows us to store up goods and chattels. We want to feel good about ourselves because we have achieved God consciousness and not because we take our risq and deceive ourselves into thinking we created it ourselves. Pride and arrogance should be banished from our lives and replaced with kindness and compassion.
