Tazkiyah and Sacrifice
The attainment of tazkiyah is no simple matter: it always requires some sacrifice, which is psychological rather than physical in nature. This sacrifice is to completely renounce, for the sake of tazkiyah, those things that run counter to acquiring tazkiyah. It is a principle of nature that in order to achieve something, one has to let go of some other thing. This principle is as important in the case of tazkiyah as in any other case.
One of the things to rid oneself of is bad habits. Due to environmental influences, every man and woman becomes accustomed to certain habits which are detrimental to the attainment of tazkiyah. It is absolutely necessary for a seeker of tazkiyah to totally rid himself of such habits. Some of these habits include speaking excessively without thinking, busying oneself with the demands of one’s family, taking a lot of interest in eating and clothes, pursuing the culture of entertainment, speaking to others of someone’s negative points or shortcomings, going shopping and on outings, spending extravagantly instead of limiting oneself to one’s needs, having superficial tastes, becoming angry at criticism and feeling happy when praised, being greedy for material things, not restricting oneself to one’s needs and preferring affectations to simplicity.
Everything has a price and there is a price for attaining tazkiyah, viz. abstaining from everything that goes against achieving this goal. A person who wants to attain tazkiyah, but is not ready to give up all that which prevents one from attaining tazkiyah, is certainly not serious in his quest. Tazkiyah can never become a reality if the seeker is of a non-serious temperament. A frivolous mentality and tazkiyah do not go together.
A person who is serious in his pursuit of tazkiyah will himself realize which things are favourable to tazkiyah and which are not.
His sincerity will compel him to pursue whatever is favourable to tazkiyah and totally refrain from anything which goes against it. Sincerity is a guarantee that a man will certainly reach the stage of tazkiyah.
