The Purification Of The Soul

This exploration of Islamic spirituality delves into the psychological diseases and cures of the heart. Diseases examined include miserliness, envy, hatred, treachery, rancour, malice, ostentation, arrogance, covetousness, lust, and other afflictions that assail people and often control them. The causes and practical cures of these diseases are discussed, offering a penetrating glimpse into how Islam deals with spiritual and psychological problems and demonstrating how all people can benefit from these teachings.

Purification of the soul is a principle that is central to understanding Islamic spirituality but despite this, relatively little has been written explicitly in the Islamic tradition regarding this discrete method of spiritual purification. This book examines the work of a scholar of this discipline, al-Hārith al-Muhāsibī, who lived and worked during the classical Islamic period under the Abbāsids. Although al-Muhāsibī was well known for his skills in many disciplines, including the Qur’ān, Prophetic narration and scholastic theology, it is his mastery in the field of Islamic spirituality and moral psychology for which he is best remembered. Assessing the extent to which the political, social and economic factors played a part in his life and work, Gavin Picken provides a comprehensive overview of his work and its great significance in the development of Islamic spirituality. Reconstructing his life in chronological order and providing the most comprehensive appraisal of his works to date, it explores a facet of al-Muhāsibī’s teaching which as yet has not been studied, namely his understanding, concept and methodology regarding the purification of the soul within the Islamic paradigm. As such, it will be of great interest not only to researchers and students of Sufism but also to scholars of comparative spirituality and mysticism.

This book is the most concise references that can have a big impact on you once you read it. Topics gone into detail include symptoms of the heart's sickness and signs of its health, doing without the pleasures of this world, perseverance, complete reliance on Allah, the life of this world, to mention only a few. Excellent read!!

Each person is born in a religious environment that is not of his/her own choice. From the very beginning of human existence in this world, they are assigned the religion of their family or the ideology of the state. By the time individuals reach their teens they usually accept the beliefs of their parents or that of their particular society. However, when some people mature and are exposed to other beliefs and ideologies, they begin to question the validity of their own beliefs. Seekers of truth often reach a point of confusion upon realizing that believers of every religion, sect, ideology and philosophy all claim to have the one and only correct religion or ideology. There are only three possibilities. They are either all correct; all wrong or only one is correct and the rest are wrong.

Infamies of the soul (ʿUyūb al-nafs) is one of Islam’s earliest comprehensive theories for the purification of the soul. In this short guide, the hadith narrator, Shāfiʿī legist, and historian of the early sufis, Imam Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī, presents sixty-nine wicked traits and habits of the soul, including anger, laziness, negligence, self-pity, envy, avarice, lying, and pride. Each infamy is described with its common causes and treatments, usually with relevant Prophetic narrations and statements from early Muslim sages. These infamies incline the soul towards evil and self-reproach. Treating them restores its serenity and certainty. With this translation, English readers can now benefit from the simplicity and practicality of Imam al-Sulamī’s classic self-help manual that Arabic readers have utilized for the past millennium.

On Islam.

One the most concise references that can have a big impact on you once you read it.

This book unlocks the secrets of the seven degrees through which the soul progresses as it travels the Sufi Path to its Lord. It teaches the novice how to transform the Inciting Soul the lowest and most egotistic of the self's manifestations, into the Reproachful Soul, which must then become Inspired, Serene, Contented, and Found Pleasing until it attains the ultimate degree of sanctity and wholeness as the Perfect Soul. To achieve this progressive purification of the self, special Sufi practices, litanies and attitudes of mind are recommended. Both practical and profound, this book offers a concise manual of Sufi teaching on the Way to spiritual liberation.