How do I purify my heart in Islam?
Tazkiyah is the inner science of Islam. The scholars treated the heart like soil — and purification as the long, unglamorous work of pulling out what shouldn't be growing in it.
10 passages from 8 books in the library
Purification of the heart is the slow, inward work of removing what should not grow in it. Al-Ghazali, citing the tradition that "for everything there is a purification, and the purification of the body is fasting," links bodily discipline like hunger to inner cleansing. He teaches that the heart and limbs should pursue the essence of every action, striving to correct and purify deeds from their flaws, and that purity in giving is proportional to one's spending and joy in spending for Allah's sake. The work is unglamorous but constant.
Drawn from the classical sources below — in the scholars' own words.
The classical approach.
These passages are drawn from 8 books by Imam al-Ghazali and Ibn Battuta — part of the classical Sunni tradition that carries over a thousand years of reflection on the Qurʾān, the authentic Sunnah, and the consensus of the early community. Nothing below is a paraphrase. The words are the scholars' own, translated from the original Arabic manuscripts.
11th–12th century · Ṭūs, Khurāsān
Reviving the inner life of Islam through the Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn — one of the most influential works ever written in any religious tradition.
More on Imam al-Ghazali →
· Provenance →
-
"Huraira. For everything there is a purification, and the purification of the body is fasting,"
-
"For everything, there is a purification, and the purification of the body is hunger."
11th–12th century · Ṭūs, Khurāsān
Reviving the inner life of Islam through the Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn — one of the most influential works ever written in any religious tradition.
More on Imam al-Ghazali →
· Provenance →
-
"With my purification vessel I carry my drink and water for purification for prayer."
14th century · Tangier, Morocco
The Riḥlah — a 30-year, 75,000-mile journey across three continents, and the most important travel account of the pre-modern world.
More on Ibn Battuta →
· Provenance →
-
"I prayed in the blessed mosque, may Allah purify it and increase its reverence, and visited those in al-Baqi from the companions of the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, and may Allah be pleased with them."
11th–12th century · Ṭūs, Khurāsān
Reviving the inner life of Islam through the Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn — one of the most influential works ever written in any religious tradition.
More on Imam al-Ghazali →
· Provenance →
-
"The second is that she is not in a waiting period for someone else, whether due to widowhood, divorce, questionable intercourse, or purification from intercourse through ownership of a slave."
-
"He should not approach her during menstruation or after its end and before purification as it is forbidden by explicit textual evidence"
11th–12th century · Ṭūs, Khurāsān
Reviving the inner life of Islam through the Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn — one of the most influential works ever written in any religious tradition.
More on Imam al-Ghazali →
· Provenance →
-
"The purification is proportional to the extent of one's giving and the joy in spending for the sake of Allah Almighty."
11th–12th century · Ṭūs, Khurāsān
Reviving the inner life of Islam through the Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn — one of the most influential works ever written in any religious tradition.
More on Imam al-Ghazali →
· Provenance →
-
"The heart and limbs should pursue the essence of action, striving to correct and purify actions from flaws."
11th–12th century · Ṭūs, Khurāsān
Reviving the inner life of Islam through the Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn — one of the most influential works ever written in any religious tradition.
More on Imam al-Ghazali →
· Provenance →
-
"From mid-morning till azr should be for compiling and reading, interrupted only by meals, purification,"
11th–12th century · Ṭūs, Khurāsān
Reviving the inner life of Islam through the Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn — one of the most influential works ever written in any religious tradition.
More on Imam al-Ghazali →
· Provenance →
-
"If they reject, he sows doubt in their purification and prayer until they are driven out of knowledge."
Want a different angle?
Type your question below — JM Scholar will ground its answer in the same sources.