Purification of Soul

1. Purification of Soul The ‘Ene’&Evil-commanding soul

2. Truly he succeeds that purifies it. (Shams, 9) “He who knows himself knows his Lord.”Hadith

3. 7 stages of Soul • Nefs-i Emmâre (The evil-commanding soul) • Nefs-i Levvame (The self-accusing soul) • Nefs-i Mülhime (The inspired soul) • Nefs-i Mutmainne (The Satisfied soul) • Nefs-i Radiye (The soul pleased with Allah) • Nefs-i Mardiyye (The soul pleased & pleasing Him) • Nefs-i Tezkiye (The purified soul)

4. An unpurified (evil-commanding soul) soul is described as follows: • One who loves only himself / herself. • One praises oneself endlessly. • In reality the he/she love no one else. • Even if he/she apparently loves someone, he/she does not do so sincerely, but only for his/her benefits. • One always considers the good thing as though it comes from oneself and it feels proud;

5. An unpurified (evil-commanding soul) soulcontinued • He always tries to make himself liked/admired. • Also, he does not take faults to himself; he defends himself like a lawyer. • He praises himself, exaggerate himself even lying, showing himself to be free of any fault, as though sanctifying / blessing himself. • It regards itself as a separate, independent thing and supposes that it is self-existed. So it claims divinity in a way and rebels to its Lord in a hostile way.

6. I do not admire myself and I do not approve people who admire me. Can we really say this?

7. IMPORTANT TERMS • Ene • Heart • Intellect • Conscience • Nefis

8. Related concepts: ‘ego’ and ‘I’ What is meant by ‘ego’ in English? Several conceptions exist, including the philosophical, psychoanalytic and local usages

9. Philosophical and other technical usages for ‘ego’ • Self: A sense of ‘me’ • Knowing that I exist as a unique entity or as an ‘individual’ • A sense of ‘personal identity’ • ‘I’: Latin root of ‘ego’ - “A conscious, thinking, subject.”

10. Everyday usage for ‘ego’ Ego: “A person’s sense of self esteem or self importance.” Ego: “An overly high opinion of oneself.”

11. The ‘Ene’ ‘Ene’ is translated variously as ‘ego’ or ‘I’ But the various English meanings for ‘ego’, ‘I’ and ‘self’ capture only some aspects of what is meant by ‘ene’

12. “The All-Wise Maker gave to man as a Trust an ‘I’ which comprises indications and samples that show and cause to recognize the truths of the attributes and functions of His dominicality, so that the ‘I’ might be a unit of measurement and the attributes of dominicality and functions of Divinity might be known.” • Dominicality = Rububiyah • Divinity = Uluhiyah

13. The Ene The ‘ene’ is a kind of measurement device that enables us to know the Divine Names and attributes, even though we cannot, in reality, possess those attributes It gives us a feeling of ‘self’; A sense of possession, ownership and acting; E.g. Knowing, learning, making, giving, taking, nurturing, doing… All kinds of acts and dispositions

14. The Ene All forms of acting and owning, are the domain of Allah alone. Only He has the power to act and only He owns anything. (Essentials of Rububiyah and Uluhiyah) Yet through the ‘ene’, we get a feeling of what it is like to act and own We thereby come to know various Divine Names and attributes

15. Absolute attributes and ‘ene’ Absolute attributes cannot be known by finite beings The creation of apparent opposites, or apparent imperfection in things, creates ‘degrees’ that enable us to perceive certain ‘absolute’ things that would otherwise remain hidden to us The ‘ene’ similarly enables us to know certain absolute Names and attributes of Allah, such as All-Powerful, Owner, Creator and All-Knowing, that would otherwise remain hidden

16. Absolute attributes and ‘ene’ It does this by acting as a unit of measurement, or a comparison tool: By feeling a limited sense of those attributes in ourselves, we draw a hypothetical line that delimits the Divine attributes

17. Absolute attributes and ‘ene’ We say, for example, “I know how it feels to create this small thing, thus I can begin to imagine the majesty of Allah’s creating all things” We thus begin to understand, in degrees, the beauty and perfection of Allah’s Name of Khaliq. Similar examples can be made with all kinds of ‘acting’ and ‘owning’

18. Conclusion for ENE The ‘ene’ is a comparison tool It is a faculty that lets us get a limited sense of what it means to own and to act It thereby enables us to begin to understand the absolute Divine Names, attributes and acts It should be known for what it is - we should not fool ourselves into thinking we have real ownership; of ourselves, our attributes or our acts

19. HeartQalpKalp Heart is decision making mechanism settled in the center of human nature.Heart is fed by intellect and conscience.“Warning : Purpose from the term “HEART”, is not piece of meat like pine cone in the body But , it is kind of delicate sense given by our Creator collects senses from our conscience and thoughts from our intellect.

20. INTELLECT Delicate mechanism to determine and decide between right and wrong, good and bad, beauty and nasty. After this determination the intellect sends this to the heart.

21. CONSCIENCE Delicate sense guides and shows human the straight path and right choice. Human conscience loves goodness and hates badness.

22. NEFIS An instrument representing humans animalistic and vegetative side given to human. This term represents humans all animalistic and vegetative bodily desires like eating, drinking, sleeping, sexual drives etc.

23. MUSTs • Read the Book of your Creator and never loose your connection from this Guidance. • Get to know your Messenger. You can not love Him (pbuh) if you do not know Him (pbuh). • Learn and establish prayers. • Execute compulsory duties. • Refrain from major sins. • Choose right friends who you want to be with hereafter.

24. To EXCEL spiritually • Eat little • Drink little • Sleep little • Talk little

25. CONDEMNING Evil-commanding soul • “Verily, the (human) self is inclined to evil, except when my Lord bestows His Mercy (upon whom He wills).” (12:53).

26. CONDEMNING Evil-commanding soul • “O my foolish soul, charmed at glory, enamored of fame, addicted to praise, and without equal in egotism! If it is a just claim that the source of the fig and its thousands of fruits is its tiny seed, and that all the grapes in their hundred bunches hanging from a dry branch of the vine are produced through the skill of the branch, and that those who benefit from them should praise and esteem the branch and the seed, then perhaps you have the right to be proud and conceited about the bounties with which you are loaded. But in fact you deserve to be constantly chided, because you are not like the seed and the branch: since you have the faculty of will, you reduce the value of those bounties through your pride. Through your conceit, you destroy them; through your ingratitude, you nullify them; through claiming them as your own, you lay hands on them unlawfully.”

27. PERSUASION “Since the sphere of the lawful is sufficient for all the pleasures, delights and joys of the spirit, heart and soul, do not approach the sphere of the illicit. For one pleasure within that sphere sometimes leads to a thousand pains. It will also cause the loss of the All-Merciful One’s favors, which are true and lasting pleasures.”

28. THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN HEART AND EVIL-COMMANDING SOUL AND THE VERIFIED BELIEF Since faith places a permanent spiritual prohibiton in the heart and mind, they say “it is forbidden” as bad inclinations come out of senses and evil-commanding soul, and dismisses them. Yes, the actions of humans are produced by the inclinations of the heart and evil-commanding soul. Those inclinations come from the fields of expertises and the needs of the spirit. Spirit moves with the light of belief. It does something if it is good otherwise tries to pull itself back. Any more, blind feelings can’t direct it to wrong ways or surpass it.”

29. TRAINING EVIL-COMMANDING SOUL BY SHOWING THE BAD SIDE OF HERESY (Wrong-Doing) Try to see bad sides and the hell like sorrows in the sins that has effects here rather than showing them the sorrows of hereafter. This way, feelings may surrender to the mind and heart which has been fed by the faith and those people may find the right path and give up those sins.

30. Story of Barsisa The Worshipper At the time of Bani Israel (Children of Israel), there was a man in a small village, called Barsisa. He was a monk. But he was a true Christian. He believed in Tawheed (Oneness of Allah and describing Him as being One and Unique, with no partner or peer in His Essence and Attributes ) and believed Isa (peace be upon him) was a messenger of Allah.

31. One day three brothers decided to go to defend their country in ongoing war. But they had a sister and they did not want to leave her alone. So they went looking for someone to take care of her. The town people suggested to leave her with Barsisa, because of his piety. So they went to him and when they asked him, he said, “I seek refuge from the cursed Shaytan” and said No! This was because he was scared of falling into sin ( due to the potential fitnah (trial) it may cause). Then Shaytan came to Barsisa in the form of Waswasah (Whisperings).

32. Shaytan is very smart and knew Barsisa had a soft heart. So he told Barsisa, “What if they can’t find someone good and leave her with someone bad, wouldn’t that be your fault?” Now Barsisa did not realize this was Shaytan whispering in his heart, and because of his compassion for others, he decided to accept their request and help the woman.

33. He let her stay in a house opposite the church. He did this so that it would be easy for him to leave her food outside the church and she could come get it herself. But after sometime, shaytan returned. This time he told Barsisa, “Why don’t you leave the food closer for her, so that people don’t see her moving back and forth alone!” Barsisa agreed and started leaving the food outside the house. But shaytan wasn’t happy with this either, so sometime later, he returned and ask Barsisa, “Why don’t you go in and leave it on the table, so that no one sees her coming out and going in alone all the time!” Again, Barsisa agreed and he started leaving the food on the table.

34. Then as time went by, Shaytan returned and said to him, “Why don’t you talk to her, she is all alone and has no one to talk to!” Barsisa agreed and started talking to her from behind a door (so as to screen himself). But this would lead them to almost shouting to each other to here themselves. Shaytan asked Barsisa to just go in and talk to her, and finally, he (Shaytan) had got the alone in a room. Shaytan had completed the difficult part. Barsisa and the woman committed sin. She became pregnant.

35. As soon as the baby was born, Shaytan returned, and said to Barsisa, “What have you done? Look at the result of your evil (ie the child), get ride of the evidence otherwise the brothers will kill you!” Barsisa killed the baby and buried it in the same room the woman was in. Shaytan then told Barsisa, “Do you think you can kill the child of a woman and expect her not to tell anyone?!” and So Barsisa killed her and buried her along side the baby! He then made a fake grace outside and when her brothers returned, he informed them that she died of illness. After seeing the grave and make dua (prayer) for her, they returned home and accepted Allah’s decree.

36. Later that night, Shaytan came to them in their dream and informed them about what Barsisa had done and where the child and their sister could be found. The brother got up upset and confused, and informed his brothers of the dream, and they both said they had the same dream. So they believed that it must be true, and when and dug up the fake grave and found it empty. They then dug the placed shaytan showed them in the dream and found the child and woman!

37. Furious, the brothers took Barsisa to the Leader to get his punishment. Barsisa knew that he would be given the death penalty. Shaytan came to Barsisa again, for the final time this time. This time he revealed himself and told him he was the one whispering the thoughts to him. And he said that he could save Barsisa, and as long as Barsisa makes sujood to him! Barsisa, out of desperation made Sujood to him , this confirmed his Kufr (disbelief) and Shaytan said to him “I am free of you, I fear Allâh, the Lord of the ‘Alamîn (mankind, jinns and all that exists)!” and left Barsisa was stonned to death and on the day of judgement he will be resurrected making Sujood to Shaytan!

38. So look how shaytan tricked him. He came to him as a friend, but was infact his biggest enemy! (Their allies deceived them) like Shaitân (Satan), when he says to man: “Disbelieve in Allâh.” But when (man) disbelieves in Allâh, Shaitân (Satan) says: “I am free of you, I fear Allâh, the Lord of the ‘Alamîn (mankind, jinns and all that exists)!” (Al-Hashr 59:16)

39. Shaytan will never make you sin directly, he will always trick you using Waswasah (whispering) and he is more patient than any of us. So we should always seek refuge in Allah from Shaytan. Never think you have anough knowledge or are strong enough to take on Shaytan. This is why the Scholars of Islam are the ones with the most Taqwa, fear of Allah. So reflect on the story, if Shaytan told Barsisa to make sujood in the beginning, Barsisa would have said no straight away, but Shaytan has a plan in hand it was a step by step policy that made Barsisa finally breakdown and commit Kufr (Denying and Hiding the Truth).

40. There is a path in every sin takes you to Kufr.Kufr: Denying and Concealing the TruthChoosing to live in the darkness of ignorance