{"id":30823,"date":"2026-07-01T02:28:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T02:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/?p=30823"},"modified":"2026-07-01T02:28:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T02:28:08","slug":"the-three-purifications-professor-salem-al-sabbagh-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/the-three-purifications-professor-salem-al-sabbagh-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Three Purifications \u2013 Professor Salem Al-Sabbagh"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/h5>\n
### A Question and Its Answer<\/h5>\n
Someone asked me: “If a person performs *wudu* (ablution) for prayer and then intentionally commits a sin, such as lying, backbiting, or slander, is his *wudu* nullified, and consequently, is his prayer invalid?”<\/h5>\n
**The brief answer:**
\nSins do not nullify *wudu* or physical purity, but they do nullify spiritual purity and the “spiritual prayer” (the essence and acceptance of the prayer).<\/h5>\n
He asked me another question:
\n“What is the meaning of the noble hadith: **’Purity (*Tuhur*) is half of faith’**? Does mere bathing or *wudu* with water equate to half of faith, which encompasses beliefs, acts of worship, and interactions?”<\/h5>\n
***<\/h5>\n
In an attempt to understand these questions, we turn to the renewer of this era, Imam Khomeini (may Allah be pleased with him). He says in his great book, *The Spiritual Manners of Prayer (Adab al-Salah)*, in a chapter titled “The Three Purifications”:<\/h5>\n
> “Know that just as the reality of prayer is an ascension to the station of nearness and reaching the station of the presence of the Truth (Exalted and Majestic is He), reaching this highest purpose and ultimate goal requires purifications other than these\u2014meaning other than physical purifications with water, such as *ghusl* and *wudu*. The thorns of this path and the obstacles to this ascension are impurities; a traveler (*salik*), while possessed by any of these impurities, is unable to ascend to this height or embark upon this *miraj* (ascension)…”<\/h5>\n
The Imam states that these spiritual impurities have three levels:<\/h5>\n
#### The First Level: The pollution of the external organs and powers of the soul with the filth of sins.
\nI say: The Imam refers to the external organs and senses (hearing, sight, tongue, stomach, private parts, hands, and feet), which he calls “the visual net of Iblis.” These powers are the external realm of the human being and must be purified from prohibitions:<\/h5>\n
* **Hearing:** Must be purified from listening to backbiting or provocative, vain songs that stir base desires.
\n* **Sight:** Must be purified from the filth of looking at forbidden things (*”Tell the believing men to reduce [some] of their vision…”*).
\n* **Tongue:** Must be purified from the filth of lying, backbiting, and slander.
\n* **Stomach:** Must be purified from the filth of consuming forbidden food (*haram*).
\n* **Private Parts:** Must be purified from the filth of committing indecency.
\n* **Hands:** Must be purified from the filth of assaulting others.
\n* **Feet:** Must be purified from the filth of going to forbidden places.<\/h5>\n
**How to purify these senses?**
\nThe Imam says: “The impurities of sins must be purified with the pure, cleansing water of sincere repentance (*tawbah nasuh*).”
\nHe also adds: “These external and internal powers that Allah gave us and sent down from the world of the Unseen are divine trusts that were originally clean of all impurities… they were illuminated by the light of divine nature (*fitrah*) and far from the darkness of Iblis\u2019s influence.” The goal is to return these divine trusts as we received them; he who does not return them as such is a betrayer of the trust.<\/h5>\n
#### The Second Level: Impurities of corrupt morals.
\nThis is what we might call the struggle against the self (*jihad al-nafs*). These impurities are numerous, such as arrogance, ostentation (*riya*), self-admiration, hypocrisy, and envy. The Imam describes them as sources of deprivation from happiness and the root of the “hell of character.”<\/h5>\n
**How to purify these?**
\nThe Imam says: “By the pure, cleansing water of beneficial knowledge and by lawful spiritual exercise (*riyada*), one then works on purifying the heart, which is the ‘mother of all cities’ (the core); when it is sound, the whole kingdom is sound, and when it is corrupt, the whole is corrupt.”
\nI add: The intended knowledge is to study these corrupt morals in the science of ethics as a disease of the soul, knowing their dangers and the means of prevention and treatment. I recommend reading the book *Forty Hadith* by Imam Khomeini.<\/h5>\n
#### The Third Level: Impurities of the realm of the heart.
\nThe Imam says:
\n> “The impurities of the realm of the heart are the source of all impurities; they consist of attachment to other than the Truth and turning towards oneself and the world. Their origin is the love of the world, which is the root of all sins, and the love of the self, which is the mother of all diseases. As long as the roots of this love remain in the heart of the traveler, no trace of the love of Allah will be found in it, nor will he be guided to the path of the destination…”<\/h5>\n
The Imam continues:
\n> “As long as the traveler has remnants of this love in his heart, his journey is not toward Allah, but rather toward the self, the world, and Satan…”<\/h5>\n
**How to purify these?**
\nThe Imam Khomeini says: “It is incumbent upon man to wash these impurities from the interior of the heart by reflecting on the state of the prophets and the perfect saints (peace be upon them) and remembering their stations. He must not be content with the level he is at, for being satisfied with one’s current knowledge is one of the great deceptions of Iblis and the soul that commands evil\u2014we seek refuge in Allah from it.”<\/h5>\n
### Summary
\nThe movement of the believer, from birth or the age of responsibility until death, must be a journey or an ascension toward Allah (*”O mankind, indeed you are laboring toward your Lord with [great] exertion and will meet Him”*). This journey is like a prayer we perform through our actions and conduct, which ends with death and the departure of the soul. Submission here is the returning of the trust to Allah, for He is its Owner.<\/h5>\n
“Purification” (*Tahara*) here is the **”emptying” (*takhal-li*)** of all spiritual impurities of the three levels. After purification and emptying comes the **”adorning” (*tahalli*)** with good morals.<\/h5>\n
From this point, we can understand the noble hadith of the Prophet: **”Purity is half of faith.”** It does not merely mean purification from material impurities by *ghusl* and *wudu*, but rather it refers to the “emptying” (*takhal-li*) of all spiritual impurities.<\/h5>\n
If ethics, and indeed all of faith, is composed of:
\n* Half: **”Emptying” (*takhal-li*)** from all spiritual impurities.
\n* Half: **”Adorning” (*tahalli*)** with good morals.<\/h5>\n
Then we can truly understand the noble hadith: “Purity is half of faith.”<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

### A Question and Its Answer Someone asked me: “If a person performs *wudu* (ablution) for prayer and then intentionally commits a sin, such as lying, backbiting, or slander, is his *wudu* nullified, and consequently, is his prayer invalid?” **The brief answer:** Sins do not nullify *wudu* or physical purity, but they do nullify spiritual …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":30824,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30823","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\/30823","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=30823"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30825,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30823\/revisions\/30825"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}