Tazkiah

Etymology

Tazkiyah originally referred to pruning a plant—to remove what is harmful to its growth. When the term is applied to the human personality, it means to beautify it and remove from it all evil traces and spiritual diseases that are obstacles to experiencing God. In Islam, the ultimate objective of the religion and shariah (Islamic law), and the real purpose of raising prophets from among mankind, is performing and teaching tazkiyah.

The term encompasses two meanings: one is to cleanse and purify from adulterants, while the other is to improve and develop towards the height of perfection. Technically, it conveys the sense of checking oneself for erroneous tendencies and beliefs, turning them to the path of virtue and piety (fear of God's displeasure), and developing them to attain the stage of perfection.

The word zakat (alms tax) comes from the same Arabic verbal root, since zakat purifies an individual's wealth by recognition of God’s right over a portion of it. It finds its origin in the Quranic command to: "Take sadaqah (charity) from their wealth in order to purify them and sanctify them with it" (Surah At-Tawbah 9:103). Other similarly used words to the term are Islah-i qalb ('reform of the heart'), Ihsan ('beautification'), taharat ('purification'), Ikhlas ('purity'), qalb-is-salim ('pure/safe/undamaged heart') and lastly, tasawuf (Sufism), which is an ideology rather than a term, mostly misinterpreted as the idea of sanctification in Islam.

In scripture

In Quran

The word tazkiyah is used in many places in the Qur'an. It is used 18 times in 15 verses of 11 surahs; in verses 129, 151, 174 of surah Al-Baqarah, in verses 77 and 164 of sura Al-Imran, the verse of Nisa 49, verse 103 of surah Taubah, verse 76 of surah Taha, in the second verse of surah Al-Jumm'ah, verses 3 and 7 of surah Abasa, in verse 14 of surah al-A'la, verse 9 of surah Shams and in verse 18 of surah al-Layl.

In hadith

The word tazkiyah is also found in a few hadith, also meaning to purify and sanctify.

Importance

Anas Karzoon said tazkiyah al-nafs: "is the purification of the soul from inclination towards evils and sins, and the development of its fitrah towards goodness, which leads to its uprightness and its reaching ihsaan."

Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi said in his "Tarikh" on the authority of Jabir that Muhammad returned from one of his campaigns and told his companions: "You have come forth in the best way of coming forth: you have come from the smaller jihad to the greater jihad." They said: "And what is the greater jihad?" He replied: "The striving (mujahadat) of Allah's servants against their idle desires."

Process

The initial awakening to purification refers to recognition that the spiritual search is more important and meaningful than our previously valued worldly goods and ambitions. The process of tazkiyat al-nafs starts with "Verily deeds are according to intentions" and ends with the station of perfect character, Ihsan, "Worship Him as though you see Him", the reference being to the first hadith in Sahih Bukhari and the oft-referred hadith famously known as the hadith of Gibril in Sahih Muslim. Ihsan is the highest level of iman that the seeker can develop through their quest for reality. This is referred to as al-yaqin al-haqiqi; the reality of certainty and knowing that it brings true understanding and leads to al-iman ash-shuhudi, the true faith of witnessing the signs of Allah's Oneness everywhere. The only higher level of realization is maqam al-ihsan. At this station of perfection, the seeker realizes that Allah is observing them at every moment.

Saudi cleric Khalid Bin Abdullah al-Musleh listed seven obstacles in the way of tazkiyah in his book "Islahul Qulub" (reforming the hearts):

Shirk

Rejecting Sunnah and following Bid'ah

Obeying the instinct and ego (nafs)

Doubt

Negligence (ghaflah)

Ha also listed eight ways to maintain tazkiyah:

Reading the Quran

Loving Allah

Doing dhikr

Tawbah and Istighfar

Supplicate (dua) for hidayah and purify

Remembering afterlife (Akhirah)

Reading the biographies of the salafs

Maintaining the nafs

Professor A.J. Arberry, in his Sufism said: "the maqām is a stage of spiritual attainment on the pilgrim's progress to God, which is the result of the mystic's personal efforts and endeavor, whereas the hal is a spiritual mood depending not upon the mystic but upon God." The Muslim philosopher Abd al-Karīm ibn Hawāzin al-Qushayri (b. 986 Nishapur, Iran, d. 1074) summarized the difference between the two concepts in his Ar-Risāla-fi-'ilm-at-taşawwuf, where he maintained that, "states are gifts, the stations are earnings."

Tazkiyah is a continuous process of purification to maintain spiritual health. Similar to the process of maintaining physical health, any lapse in the regimen can cause one to lose their previous gains, and thus caution must always be used to not deviate from the path. Regarding this, it has been related that Imam Muhammad al-Busayri asked Shaykh Abul-Hasan 'Ali ibn Ja'far al-Kharqani (d. 1033) about the major seventeen negative psychological traits or mawāni' (impediments) which the sālik must avoid in their struggle towards purification. If the sālik does not rigorously abstain from these aspects, their efforts will be wasted. Known as al-Akhlaqu 'dh-Dhamimah (the ruinous traits), they are also referred to as the Tree of Bad Manners:

There are three principal stations of nafs or human consciousness that are specifically mentioned in the Qur'an. They are stages in the process of development, refinement and mastery of the nafs.

Nafs-al-ammārah: unruly animal self or soul that dictates evil.

Nafs-al-lawwāmah: struggling moral self or self-reproaching soul.

Nafs al-mutma'inna: satisfied soul or the composed God realized self.

The Sufi's journey begins with the challenge of freeing oneself from the influence of Shaytan and the nafs-al-ammara. Al-Kashani defines it as follows: the commanding soul is that which leans towards the bodily nature (al-tabī'a al-badaniyya) and commands one to sensual pleasures and lusts and pulls the heart (qalb) in a downward direction. It is the resting place of evil and the source of blameworthy morals and bad actions. In its primitive stage the nafs incites mankind to commit evil: this is the nafs as the lower self or the base instincts. In the eponymous surah of the Qur'an, the prophet Yusef says "And I do not seek to free myself from blame, for indeed the soul is ever inclined to evil, except those shown mercy by my Lord." (Q 12:53) Here he is explaining the circumstances in which he came to be falsely imprisoned for the supposed seduction of Zuleikā, the wife of the King's minister (ʻAzīz).

Sufi views

Maqamat of Tazkiah

The level of human perfection is determined by discipline and effort. Man stands between two extremes, the lowest is below beasts and the highest surpasses the angels. Movement between these extremes is discussed by `ilm al-akhlaq or the science of ethics. Traditional Muslim philosophers believed that without ethics and purification (tazkiah), mastery over other sciences is not only devoid of value, but obstructs insight. That is why the Sufi saint Bayazid al-Bustami has said that, 'knowledge is the thickest of veils', which prevents man from seeing reality (haqiqah).

Sufi Brotherhoods (ṭarīqa pl. ṭuruq) have traditionally been considered training workshops where fundamental elements of tazkiah and its practical applications are taught. Sufis see themselves as seekers (murīdūn) and wayfarers (sālikūn) on the path to God. For proper training, murīdūn are urged to put themselves under the guidance of a master (murshid). The search for God (irāda, ṭalab) and the wayfaring (sulūk) on the path (ṭarīq) involve a gradual inner and ethical transformation through various stages. Although some have considerably more, most orders adopted seven maqāmāt (maqam pl. maqamat, a station on the voyage towards spiritual transformation). Although some of these stations are ascetical in nature, their primary functions are ethical, psychological and educational: they are designed as a means for combating the lower-self (mujāhadat al-nafs) and as a tool for its training and education (riyāḍat al-nafs).

In one of the earliest authoritative texts of Sufism, the Kitāb al-luma’, Abu Nasr al-Sarraj al-Tusi (d. 988), mentions seven maqāmāt that have become famous in later movements, they include:

Repentance (tawbah): Begins with nur-e-ma'rifat (light of Divine Recognition) in the heart that realizes sin is spiritual poison. This induces regret and a yearning to compensate for past shortcomings and determination to avoid them in the future. Tawbah means regaining one's essential purity after every spiritual defilement. Maintaining this psychological state requires certain essential elements. The first is self-examination (muhasabah) and the other is introversion or meditation (muraqabah).

Abstention (wara): Pious self-restraint: the highest level of wara' is to eschew anything that might distract one, even briefly, from the consciousness of Allah. Some Sufis define wara as conviction of the truth of Islamic tenets, being straightforward in belief and acts, steadfast in observing Islamic commandments, and careful in one's relations with God.

Māmulāt of Tazkiah

In order to combat and train the lower-self, Sufis practice fasting (ṣawm), food and drink deprivation (jūʿ'), wakefulness at night for the recitation of Quranic passages (qiyām al-layl), periods of seclusion (khalawāt), roaming uninhabited places in states of poverty and deprivation, and lengthy meditations (murāqaba, jam' al-hamm). The effortful path of self-denial and transformation through gradual maqāmāt is interwoven with effortless mystical experiences (aḥwāl).

The Persian murshid Abu al-Najib al-Suhrawardi further described this process by saying that it is only through constancy in action for God ('aml li- allāh), remembrance (dhikr allāh), recitation from the Quran, prayers and meditation (muraqabah) that a mystic can hope to obtain his objective, which is ubudiyyah – perfect obedience to Allah. Another practice that is often associated with Sufism is the spiritual concert, or "listening," samā', in which poetic recitations, music and dances are performed by the participants, sometimes in states of ecstasy and elation. Most Sufi ṭuruq have established graded programs in which initially every new seeker (murīdūn) is educated in the ritual known as zikr-al-lisani (zikr with the tongue) and is finally taught zikr-al-qalbi, which is practiced from the onset.

Salafi views

Although highly critical of numerous Sufi practices, Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab states: "We do not negate the way of the Sufis and the purification of the inner self (i.e., tazkiah) from the vices of those sins connected to the heart and the limbs as long as the individual firmly adheres to the rules of Shari‘ah and the correct and observed way. However, we will not take it on ourselves to allegorically interpret (ta’wil) his speech and his actions. We only place our reliance on, seek help from, beseech aid from and place our confidence in all our dealings in Allah Most High. He is enough for us, the best trustee, the best mawla and the best helper."