Activating One’s Thinking

Traditionally, some things are considered to be the means of attaining tazkiya, such as, supererogatory prayers, recitation of the Quran, prophetic prayers, meditation, companionship, taking lessons from the lives of the “saints”, and so on. According to this thinking, tazkiya is like a fixed course, or something to be learned from a manual. However, the truth is that there is no fixed course for attaining tazkiya. Tazkiya can be attained only through a living act. The real means of attaining the ends of tazkiya is for a person to reflect on the signs of God, activate his thinking, and through continuous reflection or pondering, discover the deeper realities of things. This discovery is spiritual food for a person who is a seeker of tazkiya. For instance, suppose you see a bird. This reminds you of this saying of the Prophet that the hearts of the people of Paradise will be like the hearts of birds. (Sahih Muslim, Hadith No. 2840)

You later begin to think about yourself—whether or not your heart is like that of the bird; whether or not your heart is free of all negative thinking like that of the bird; whether or not you are free from greed like the bird; whether or not you are as harmless as a bird; whether or not you follow the law of nature, just as the bird does. Such thinking is the essence of tazkiya. Without such introspection, no one can attain tazkiya.

In its reality, tazkiya is an act of spiritually developing one’s own self. In engaging in self-purification, one has to become one’s own teacher and has to purify oneself. Sitting in the company of another or listening to someone else’s preaching cannot in itself be effective for one who aspires to tazkiya. Initial guidance can be provided by another person, but taking it to completion is a task one must achieve oneself. In the process of attaining tazkiya, if the share of the other person is 1% then one’s own share is 99%.