{"id":29769,"date":"2026-07-05T10:30:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T10:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/?p=29769"},"modified":"2026-06-05T10:35:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T10:35:13","slug":"the-three-purifications-professor-salem-al-sabbagh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/the-three-purifications-professor-salem-al-sabbagh\/","title":{"rendered":"**The Three Purifications \u2013 Professor Salem Al\u2011Sabbagh**"},"content":{"rendered":"

:::writing<\/strong>
\n**The Three Purifications \u2013 Professor Salem Al\u2011Sabbagh**<\/strong><\/p>\n

A questioner once asked me:<\/strong><\/p>\n

If a person performs ablution (wudu) for prayer and then deliberately commits a sin such as lying, backbiting, or gossiping, does his ablution become invalid and therefore his prayer invalid as well?<\/strong><\/p>\n

**The brief answer:**<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sins do not invalidate ablution or the outward ritual purity. However, they invalidate the **spiritual purity** and the **spiritual quality of the prayer**.<\/strong><\/p>\n

He asked another question:<\/strong><\/p>\n

What is the meaning of the noble hadith:<\/strong><\/p>\n

**\u201cPurity is half of faith.\u201d**<\/strong><\/p>\n

Does merely washing oneself or performing ablution with water equal half of faith with all its beliefs, acts of worship, and dealings?<\/strong><\/p>\n

To better understand these questions, we refer to the renewer of this age, **Imam Khomeini (may God be pleased with him)**.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In his great book *The Spiritual Disciplines of Prayer*, in a chapter titled **\u201cThe Three Purifications,\u201d** he writes:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Just as the reality of prayer is an ascension toward the station of nearness to God and the attainment of the presence of the Truth, the Exalted, reaching this supreme goal requires forms of purification beyond these outward purifications\u2014meaning those performed with water such as ghusl and wudu. The thorns and obstacles on this path of ascension are spiritual impurities; as long as the traveler possesses any of these impurities, he cannot ascend this ladder or rise through this spiritual ascent.<\/strong><\/p>\n

These spiritual impurities exist in **three levels**.<\/strong><\/p>\n

**The First Level: <\/strong>
\nImpurities of the outward faculties**<\/strong><\/p>\n

This refers to the contamination of the outward faculties of the soul through sins.<\/strong><\/p>\n

By the outward faculties, Imam Khomeini refers to: <\/strong>
\nhearing, sight, the tongue, the stomach, the private parts, the hands, and the feet.<\/strong><\/p>\n

He calls these faculties **\u201cthe visible network of Satan.\u201d** These faculties represent the outer domain of the human being, and therefore they must be purified from forbidden acts.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The ear must be purified from listening to backbiting or immoral songs that incite base desires.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The eye must be purified from looking at forbidden things, as the Qur\u2019an says: <\/strong>
\n\u201cTell the believing men to lower their gaze.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

The tongue must be purified from the impurities of lying, backbiting, and gossip.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The stomach must be purified from consuming unlawful food.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The private parts must be purified from committing indecency.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The hands must be purified from wrongdoing and aggression against others.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The feet must be purified from walking toward forbidden places.<\/strong><\/p>\n

But how are these faculties purified?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Imam Khomeini says:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe impurities of sins must be washed away with the pure water of sincere repentance.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

He also says that the outward and inward faculties God has given us\u2014sent down from the unseen world\u2014are **divine trusts**. They were originally pure and free from all impurities, illuminated by the light of the divine nature (fitrah) and far removed from the darkness of Satan\u2019s interference.<\/strong><\/p>\n

What is required from us is to return these divine trusts as we received them. Whoever fails to return them in that state is betraying the trust.<\/strong><\/p>\n

**The Second Level of Impurities: <\/strong>
\nCorrupt moral traits**<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is what we may call **the struggle against the self (jihad al\u2011nafs).**<\/strong><\/p>\n

The impurities of corrupt character are many, including:<\/strong><\/p>\n

arrogance, hypocrisy, showing off (riya\u2019), self\u2011admiration, and envy.<\/strong><\/p>\n

These are diseases of the human soul. Imam Khomeini describes them as causes of deprivation from true happiness and the roots of a moral hell.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The question then arises:<\/strong><\/p>\n

How do we purify ourselves from these corrupt moral traits?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Imam Khomeini says:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWith the pure water of beneficial knowledge and righteous spiritual discipline. One must engage in purifying the heart, which is the capital of the kingdom; when it becomes sound, the entire kingdom becomes sound, and when it becomes corrupt, everything becomes corrupt.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

By knowledge here, he means studying these moral diseases in the science of ethics\u2014understanding their harms, their dangers, and the ways to prevent and treat them.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In this regard, I recommend reading Imam Khomeini\u2019s book **\u201cForty Hadith.\u201d**<\/strong><\/p>\n

**The Third Level of Impurities: <\/strong>
\nImpurities of the heart**<\/strong><\/p>\n

Imam Khomeini says:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe impurities of the heart are the origin of all impurities. They consist of the heart\u2019s attachment to other than the Truth, and its orientation toward itself and toward the world. The source of all of this is love of the world, which is the root of every sin, and love of the self, which is the mother of all diseases.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

As long as the roots of this love remain in the seeker\u2019s heart, the love of God will not truly take root, and the path to the final destination will not be found.<\/strong><\/p>\n

He also says:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cAs long as remnants of this attachment remain in the heart of the traveler, his journey is not toward God, but toward the self, the world, and Satan.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

So how can the heart be purified?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Imam Khomeini answers:<\/strong><\/p>\n

A person must cleanse these impurities from the depths of the heart by reflecting on the states of the prophets and the perfect saints, remembering their spiritual ranks, and not being content with the level he has reached. Stopping at certain limits and being satisfied with partial knowledge is among the great deceptions of Satan and the commanding ego.<\/strong><\/p>\n

**Conclusion**<\/strong><\/p>\n

The life of a believer\u2014from the moment of maturity until death\u2014should be a constant journey and ascension toward God:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cO human being, you are laboring toward your Lord with great striving, and you will meet Him.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is as though this entire journey is a form of prayer that we perform through our life\u2019s conduct and movement. This prayer ends with death, when the soul departs and the final salutation is delivered. That salutation is the returning of the trust to God, its true owner.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Purification here means **emptying oneself (takhalli)** from all spiritual impurities at their three levels. After purification and emptying comes **adornment (tahalli)** with noble character.<\/strong><\/p>\n

From this perspective we can understand the noble hadith of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him and his family:<\/strong><\/p>\n

**\u201cPurity is half of faith.\u201d**<\/strong><\/p>\n

The meaning is not merely purification from physical impurities through washing and ablution. Rather, it refers to freeing oneself from all spiritual impurities.<\/strong><\/p>\n

If morality\u2014and faith as a whole\u2014consists of two halves:<\/strong><\/p>\n

one half is **emptying oneself from all spiritual impurities**, <\/strong>
\nand the other half is **adorning oneself with noble virtues**,<\/strong><\/p>\n

then we can understand the meaning of the hadith:<\/strong><\/p>\n

**\u201cPurity is half of faith.\u201d**<\/strong>
\n:::<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

:::writing **The Three Purifications \u2013 Professor Salem Al\u2011Sabbagh** A questioner once asked me: If a person performs ablution (wudu) for prayer and then deliberately commits a sin such as lying, backbiting, or gossiping, does his ablution become invalid and therefore his prayer invalid as well? **The brief answer:** Sins do not invalidate ablution or the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":29770,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-islamic-research--"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29769"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29771,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29769\/revisions\/29771"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}