Lessons in self-purification
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-Islam and Life-اسلام الحياة
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## Lesson 1: Self-Purification and Self-Knowledge
### Objectives of the Lesson
1. For the student to become familiar with the meaning of self-purification and its importance.
2. To distinguish human characteristics.
3. To recognize the reality and value of the human soul.
4. To develop the motivation to begin the process of self-purification.
Just as a person cares for his body and health—nourishing it with what promotes its growth and well-being, protecting it from harm and disease, and going to the doctor when he feels illness or pain so that he may be treated, and thus relying on a sound and strong body to fulfill his needs—likewise the human soul should also be cared for. It should be nourished with what leads to its elevation and soundness, protected from spiritual illnesses, and if afflicted by a defect or disease, one should hasten to treat it by strengthening its human dimension. Developing it through virtues and good morals so that its human aspect and spiritual dimension grow strong is what is meant by **self-purification**.
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## The Importance of Self-Purification
The importance of self-purification becomes clear when considering the following matters:
### 1. The Goal of the Mission of the Prophets
Its importance is so great that God, the Exalted, made it one of the primary aims of sending the prophets, peace be upon them. The prophets were sent in order to help people build themselves by teaching them noble morals and virtues, training them in them, and guiding them to ways of restraining the inclinations and desires of the self that oppose reason and divine law.
Allah the Exalted says:
> “Indeed, Allah conferred a great favor upon the believers when He raised among them a Messenger from among themselves, reciting to them His verses, purifying them, and teaching them the Book and wisdom, though before that they had surely been in manifest error.”
> **(Āl ʿImrān 3:164)**
And the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him and his family, said:
> “Adhere to noble character, for Allah, Mighty and Exalted, sent me with it.”
He also said:
> “I was only sent to perfect noble morals.”
### 2. Salvation on the Day of Resurrection
As for the effect of self-purification on the Day of Resurrection, the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him and his family, said:
> “Nothing will be placed in a person’s scale on the Day of Resurrection better than good character.”
He also said:
> “The things by which my community will enter Paradise most are God-consciousness and good character.”
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## Islam’s Concern with Self-Purification
Islam has greatly emphasized self-purification and has given special care to ethics. Thus, we find that the Qur’anic verses with ethical content are more numerous than the verses dealing with legal rulings and legislation. In fact, the Qur’anic stories themselves serve moral purposes, and many of the narrations transmitted from the Infallibles are connected with ethics.
A man came to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him and his family, from the front and asked:
“O Messenger of Allah, what is religion?”
He replied:
> “Good character.”
Then the man came to him from his right and asked:
“O Messenger of Allah, what is religion?”
He replied:
> “Good character.”
Then he came from his left and asked:
“What is religion?”
He replied:
> “Good character.”
Then he came from behind him and asked:
“What is religion?”
So the Prophet turned to him and said:
> “Do you not understand? It is that you do not become angry.”
Likewise, the reward and punishment connected to ethical matters are no less than the reward and punishment connected to other matters.
—
## Knowing the Self and Its Levels
The *nafs* (self/soul) and the *ruh* (spirit) are essentially one in meaning, and they possess one reality, though they have multiple dimensions and aspects:
1. An aspect of growth and development along with the growth of the body.
2. An aspect of movement, desire, and anger—like other animals. This is its **animal dimension**.
3. An aspect of perfection, because it perceives, reflects, and reasons. This is its **human dimension**, which is the loftiest and noblest of the human levels.
Thus, the self has **two levels**: a lower level and a higher level.
At its lower level, the self is animalistic in its inclinations, possessing the qualities and effects of animals and inclining as any animal inclines. At its higher level, it is a pure, heavenly, human reality. Yet, for its perfection, it requires cultivation and refinement.
At the lower level, the human being needs water, food, shelter, air, marriage, and the like; in this sense he is actually an animal. But the soul is also capable of growth and training, and it inclines toward perfection and perfect qualities such as knowledge, understanding, goodness, altruism, justice, forgiveness, uprightness, truthfulness, trustworthiness, courage, generosity, love of الخير, and defense of the oppressed. Through these, its perfection is achieved, and thus it reaches its higher level.
—
## Human Dignity Through the Spirit
What makes the human being truly human and distinguishes him from all other animals is his human dimension and his immaterial heavenly spirit. This very aspect is what is honored by God in His saying:
> “And indeed We have honored the children of Adam, carried them on land and sea, provided them with good things, and greatly favored them over many of those We created.”
> **(Al-Isrāʾ 17:70)**
This is also the aspect that is the subject of purification and education, not the animal, material side. It is true that the human being is an animal and has needs on that level, but fulfilling the needs of the animal dimension is not an end in itself. Rather, it is meant to serve the human dimension and complete human life. If a person were to make his animal side his goal, and his concern in life became nothing but eating, drinking, clothing, and satisfying his animal desires and instincts, he would lose his humanity and fall to the level of animality, even if outwardly he still appears human. This is what the Qur’an expresses in the verse:
> “And indeed We have created for Hell many of the jinn and humankind. They have hearts with which they do not understand, eyes with which they do not see, and ears with which they do not hear. They are like cattle—rather, they are even more astray. They are the heedless ones.”
> **(Al-Aʿrāf 7:179)**
—
## Categories of the Self
### 1. The Self as a Precious Substance
One group of texts regards the self as a precious jewel and a heavenly reality that came from the world of perfection, and as the source of all virtues and human values. Therefore it should be nurtured upon ethics and values. For example, Imam ʿAli, peace be upon him, said:
> “The soul is truly a precious jewel; whoever safeguards it elevates it, and whoever degrades it lowers it.”
### 2. The Self as an Enemy
Another group of texts describes the self as an enemy and an evil existence, the source of vices, and therefore something that must be struggled against and disciplined. For example, Allah the Exalted says:
> “And I do not absolve myself. Indeed, the soul surely commands evil, except for whom my Lord has mercy.”
> **(Yūsuf 12:53)**
And the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him and his family, said:
> “Your greatest enemy is your own self that is between your two sides.”
There is no contradiction between these two sets of texts, because what is praised in the first set is the **human dimension** and the higher level of the self, while what is blamed in the second set is its **animal dimension**.
So when it is said, “Preserve your soul and cultivate it,” what is meant is the human level. And when it is said, “Subdue it,” what is meant is the animal level. This is because both levels are in a constant state of struggle and tension. The animal self constantly seeks to satisfy its desires and inclinations and tries to block the path of elevation and perfection for the human self. In contrast, the human self always seeks to control animal desires and instincts in order to ascend through the lofty stages of human perfection until it attains nearness to God.
If the human dimension prevails in this struggle, the person rises in the degrees of perfection. But if the animal dimension prevails, the person descends into the valley of misguidance and deviation.
—
## The Necessity of Developing the Human Dimension
If a person becomes aware of his true reality and his human dimension, and truly knows himself, he will realize that he has come from the world of perfection—the world of power, knowledge, understanding, mercy, benevolence, goodness, and justice—and that he must strive toward perfection. His goal should be to attain the station of nearness to God, so as to be in harmony with that world from which he came.
Moral and human values are those perfections that the soul needs in order to reach perfection, and the human being is able to recognize these values and virtues through his innate nature.
Allah the Exalted says:
> “By the soul and He who proportioned it, then inspired it with its wickedness and its God-consciousness. Successful indeed is the one who purifies it, and failed indeed is the one who corrupts it.”
> **(Al-Shams 91:7–10)**
For this reason, the prophets, peace be upon them, came to awaken the innate nature, make people aware of their true reality, and guide them to the path of knowledge, virtue, and noble morals, in order to help them ascend the degrees of perfection and attain nearness to God.
That is why Islam has emphasized self-knowledge as a prelude to self-purification and has given it special importance. Imam ʿAli, peace be upon him, said:
> “Knowledge of the self is the most beneficial of all knowledge.”
He also said:
> “Whoever knows himself, his worth becomes great.”
—
## What Is Meant by Self-Knowledge
What is meant by self-knowledge is knowing one’s human identity—meaning that a person should know his true rank in the order of creation. He should know that he is not merely an animal, nor was he created to live an animal life. Rather, he is a heavenly being created rational, free, and endowed with choice.
He must therefore develop his human dimension, not his animal one, and pursue it through purification, cultivating in himself moral values and virtues until he reaches the desired perfection and becomes worthy of bearing the trust and serving as God’s vicegerent on earth.
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## Summary of the Lesson
1. **Self-purification** means developing the soul through good morals until its spiritual side grows strong.
2. The purification of souls is one of the major and essential goals of the prophets, peace be upon them.
3. Self-purification has extremely important effects and is the key to human happiness.
4. The object of purification is the **human dimension** of the person’s soul.
5. The human being has **two dimensions**: a human dimension and an animal dimension, and they remain in conflict until one prevails over the other.
6. The human goal is to attain perfection and reach the station of nearness to God, and that cannot be achieved without self-purification.
—
## For Further Reading
### Divine Care
Part of God’s care for His servants is that He has granted them reason, given them the ability to refine and purify their souls, and sent prophets and trustees to guide and reform them so that they may be saved from the punishment of Hell.
When all of these means fail to awaken people and draw their attention, God, glorified be He, alerts them through other means and other ways—through trials, calamities, poverty, and illness—like a skilled doctor or a kind and expert nurse trying to cure a patient of a severe disease.
If a servant is the object of God’s care, he may be tested with various forms of trial until he turns his attention to his Creator, exalted is His Name, and refines his soul. This is the way, and there is no other. But if a person does not traverse this path by himself and does not attain the desired result, though he deserves the blessing of Paradise, then God intensifies things for him at the time of death, perhaps that he may remember and awaken. And if that does not benefit him, then come the awakenings of the grave, the world of *barzakh*, and the hardships that follow. All of these aim at waking this person so that he does not end up in Hell.
All of these awakening stages are forms of divine care meant to prevent a person from reaching Hell and becoming deserving of it.
But if a person is not benefited by any of these awakenings and reminders, then what will his fate be? At that point there remains no room for anything else, and he must be awakened by the Fire.
A person whom none of these means can reform must be purified by the Fire—just as a mineral cannot be transformed into pure metal except through fire.
Beware lest your deeds bring you to this degree and cause God’s wrath to descend upon you. None of you can hold a heated pebble in his hand for even one minute, so fear the Fire of Hell. Keep these fires—these disagreements—away from the religious seminaries. Purify your hearts from hypocrisy. Improve your conduct toward God’s servants. Look upon them with compassion and tenderness. Take a firm stand against sinners because of their disobedience. Enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong.
As for the believers and the righteous: respect the scholar among them for his knowledge, and respect the one striving in the path of guidance for his righteous deeds. Let your conduct be exemplary. Love people, speak with them, and treat them as brothers. Refine yourselves. You wish to guide the community and direct it—but a person who cannot reform himself and his own will, how can he guide others and reform their wills?
— **Imam Khomeini, *The Greater Jihad***
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