Allah has created man to worship Him. (Al-Dhariyat 51:56). The fundamental requirement of this worship is to obey God. One should bow down to His orders, both outwardly and inwardly, and avoid obeying the words of the Taghut (Diabolicalness) (Al-Nahl 16:36). In order to test this worship and submission, Allah created the system of life and death to test who performs the best (Al-Mulk 67:2). Allah placed the consciousness of good and evil in human nature and at the same time determined the straight path through revelation so that people can enjoy the eternal blessings of Paradise by living according to the will of God. Despite this, man often gets involved in the filth of sins. No one can enter heaven contaminated by sins. Therefore, this process of cleansing from sins starts from the life of this world and reaches its perfection in the Hereafter by the mercy of Allah.
Purification of one’s self from sins is called Tazkiyah-e-Nafs. Purification has two aspects. One is that it means removing sins and cleansing oneself of them. Another aspect of this is, after cleansing, lay the foundation of, and nurture good deeds. Nafs refers to self or personality. Therefore, the meaning of Tazkiyyah Nafs is to remove the evils from oneself and to nurture goodness.
Self-purification appears to be simple, but in practice it is a very difficult task. This is the very purpose of religion, and only success in this will result in eternal blessings of heaven. While the result of failure in this is the pits of hell. Because of this importance of self-purification, the Qur’an has addressed it as a direct subject.
Purification is the condition of entry into Paradise
To enter heaven, it is necessary that a person has tried to purify himself from all kinds of sins and lapses. That is, for the citizenship of heaven, the attainment of purification is mandatory. It is stated in the Qur’an:
“He will abide forever in the Gardens of eternity, through which rivers flow. That is the recompense for those who purify themselves.” (Taha 20:76)
Another verse mentions:
“He who purifies it will indeed be successful, and he who corrupts it is sure to fail.” (Al-Shams 91:9-10).
The same subject is described in another verse:
“He has certainly succeeded who purifies himself.” (Al-Ala 87:14)
Result of failure in purification is hell
In the Hereafter, if a person comes before God with sins, but his good deeds outweigh his bad deeds, then Allah, by His mercy, will remove those sins and purify him and make him eligible to enter Paradise. However, those people who kept their external and internal existence polluted with sins and reached the presence of Allah in this state in the Hereafter, Allah has clearly refused to purify their pollution. This tells us that the beginning of purification is from man’s own actions.
In the following verse, Allah refuses to purify the people who are drenched in filthy actions and have staked the Hereafter in exchange for this world:
“Those who sell out God’s covenant and their oaths for a paltry price will have no share in the life to come on the Day of Resurrection. God will neither speak to them nor cast a look upon them on the Day of Judgement, nor will He purify them. For them there shall be a grievous punishment.” (Al-Imran 3:77)
“Those who conceal any part of the Scriptures which God has revealed in order to gain some paltry end, simply fill their bellies with Fire. On the Day of Resurrection, God will neither speak to them nor purify them. They will have a painful punishment.” (Al-Baqarah 2:174)
In the following, Allah forbids the purification of those who are obstinate and knowingly disbelieve and those who have impurity of belief:
“Those who are bent on denying the truth are spending their wealth in debarring others from the path of God. They will continue to spend it in this way till, in the end, this spending will become a source of intense regret for them, and then they will be overcome. And those who denied the truth will be gathered together in Hell. So that God may separate the bad from the good, He will heap the wicked one upon another and then cast them into Hell. These will surely be the losers.” (Al-Anfal 8:36,37)
Purification is the main purpose of the prophets
Allah has made many arrangements to remove the filth of sins. First, he placed the nafs-e-lawwama or conscience inside the human being, which punishes him for every sin and makes him realize it. In addition, Allah started the chain of prophets to cleanse people from their sins. As mentioned in the Qur’an:
“Go to Fir‘aun (Pharaoh). Indeed, he has crossed all bounds. And say (to him,) ‘Would you like to purify yourself” (Al-Nazi’at 79:17-18)
Prophet Ibrahim’s prayer for the Prophet (PBUH)
When Prophet Ibrahim requested Allah to send the last prophet, he described this purification as one of the main purposes of the coming of the prophet.
“Our Lord, send forth to them a messenger of their own to recite Your revelations to them, to teach them the Scripture and wisdom, and purify them. You are the Mighty, the Wise One.” (Al-Baqarah 2:129)
Duties of the Holy Prophet (PBUH)
Therefore, when Allah sent the last Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) to the world, his main purpose was to remove people from sins as well.
“Indeed, God has conferred a great favour on the believers in sending a Messenger from among themselves, to recite His revelations to them, and purify them, and teaches them the Book and wisdom, for, before that they were surely in manifest error.” (Aal e Imran 3:164)
If we reflect on this verse, it seems that three duties of the Prophet have been described. The first task is to recite the verses of Allah, the second task is to perform purification and the third task is to teach the book and wisdom. But if you reflect deeply, the real task is purification. For this, the verses of Allah are recited, and Sharia and its philosophy are taught. This is the reason that as purification begins, people find the Sirat-e Mustaqeem (Straight Path) and they will come to the right path leaving the erroneous path.
The same subject is also described in another verse:
“It is He who has raised among the unlettered people a messenger from among themselves who recites His revelations to them, and purifies them, and teaches them the Book and wisdom, for they had formerly been clearly misguided” (Al-Juma’ah 62:2)
The direct command of the same purification is given in another verse as follows:
“ Take alms out of their wealth to cleanse them and purify them, and pray for them; your prayer will be a comfort to them. God is all hearing, all knowing.” (At-Tawbah 9:103)
Allah likes only those who are free from sins
Allah only likes pure people and this purity is both outward and inward. This purity is of faith as well as of action. Therefore, Allah pronounced decision in favor of the believers who are pure in all respects and for those people who come with the impurity of faith and the filth of hypocrisy, He even ordered the destruction of the mosque they had built:
“Do not set foot in it. Only a house of worship, founded from the very first day upon piety, is worthy of your setting foot therein. In it are men who love to be purified and God loves those who purify themselves.” (At-Tawbah 9:108)
The sending of Prophets and purification is a blessing from Allah
The sending of the Prophet for purification has been mentioned as reward and favor by Allah:
“Thus We have sent among you a Messenger of your own to recite Our revelations to you, purify you and teach you the Book and wisdom, and to teach you what you did not know.” (Al-Baqarah 2:151)
The epitome of purification is only by the grace of Allah
This means that a person can try to achieve purity, but still some lapses remain. It is a gift of Allah to grant complete purification and those who perform purification should not be arrogant that they have become some kind of great saints. This attitude is against self-purification because it breeds arrogance.
“O you who believe, do not follow in the footsteps of Satan, and whoever follows in the footsteps of Satan should know that he enjoins only indecency and evil. But for the grace of God and His mercy upon you, not one of you would ever be purified; but God purifies whom He pleases. God is all hearing and all knowing.” (An-Noor 24:21)
At another place he condemned these so-called purifiers:
“Have you not seen those who consider themselves pure? It is indeed God who purifies whoever He pleases and none shall be wronged by as much as a hair’s breadth.” (Al-Nisa’ 4:49)
Let us pray to Allah for self-purification through this hadith of the Holy Prophet.
O Allah, I seek refuge in You from helplessness, laziness, cowardice, miserliness, old age and the torment of the grave. O Allah, grant me piety and purify my personality, for You are the best of those who purify. And only you are the benefactor and the helper. O Allah, I seek refuge in You from knowledge that is not beneficial, from a heart that is not afraid and from a personality that is never fulfilled, and from a supplication that is not accepted. (Sahih Muslim: Volume III: Hadith No. 2405).
Translated by Ali Zafar