SPIRITUAL PROGRESS

Goal of Islam

THE actual target of Islam is spiritual progress. For this, man’s spirituality has to be awakened, and the divine feelings latent within him aroused. In the Quran, this — Islam’s actual goal — is called ‘purification and cleansing’. (THE QURAN 91: 9)

In actual fact, every person is born with an upright nature. In this respect, everyone, by virtue of his or her very birth, is pure and clean. But during his stay in this world he becomes sullied externally. What is meant by purification is for man to rid himself of this outer shell of moral grime and revert to the upright nature he was born with.

This action of purification and cleansing has to be performed by the individual himself. A little child may be clean and pure on his own, but this state of purity is not due to some effort on his part, for he has been in this state from the moment of his creation. It is a different matter when he grows up. Then he must make himself clean and pure spiritually, by his own striving. It amounts to arriving consciously at the optimal stage of spiritual development by one’s own will and efforts. It is this self-attained spiritual progress which is desirable in Islam. In the Quran it is called coming before one’s Lord with a ’pure heart’. (THE QURAN 26: 89)

According to a Hadith, the Prophet observed while praying “May God fill my heart with light.” Similarly, the Prophet once uttered these words, while praying for someone, “O God, forgive his sins and purify his heart.” In the Muatta Imam Malik (Hadith collection) a saying of Luqman, the Wise is recorded in these words: “God revives the heart with the light of wisdom, just as he revives the dead earth with rains.”

This 'purification of the heart' is called spiritual progress. And it is this spiritual progress which is the actual goal of Islam. Those who fail to make spiritual progress will certainly never become truly successful.