What Is Islamic Spirituality? A Journey to Allah Through Tazkiyah and Self-Reflection
This question can have many answers, but today we will answer it in a way that is logical and as close to reality as possible.
To understand it, we will try to understand both Islamic and spirituality separately so that we can grasp the concept more easily.
So, what is spirituality?
In almost every religion of the world, this concept exists under different names and terms. It is often associated with the soul, but it is more about energy than the soul itself.
Spirituality is about the human spirit.
Every person carries both positive and negative energies. Understanding these energies, gaining knowledge about them, removing the energies that are highly harmful from one's mind and way of thinking, bringing them into balance, and ultimately achieving a state of happiness can be called spirituality. However, it is a very painful process because people often become deeply infused with many negative energies, and letting go of these things is not easy.
For example, someone may have hurt you deeply, and you are unable to forget them. Then someone tells you to forgive that person and remove them from your thoughts. This may cause you even more pain because not only were you treated badly, but now it feels as though you are not even allowed to remain angry or upset with them.
What happens because of this?
When you stay angry with someone in this way, you continue storing a great deal of energy in the form of anger within yourself. That same energy can prevent you from trusting other people, and eventually, you may start doing to others what was once done to you. It becomes a loop.
That is why it is important to heal such negative energy. People need to be given a chance. This healing process can be considered a part of spirituality. Spirituality is about aligning the energies within yourself.
This means that negative energy should exist where it is needed, and positive energy should exist where it is needed. When these energies become aligned, a person begins to feel balance within because balance gives birth to inner peace.
But action comes through educating yourself.
For that, you have to practice self-reflection. You have to look at your past traumas, revisit old pains, openly correct your mistakes, consider the circumstances of other people, and give them the margin of being human according to the situation. You should only hold people accountable to the extent that they were actually at fault.
To do this, you must have discussions with yourself:
- What actually happened?
- What did I merely feel happened?
- Did I react too strongly to a mistake that was actually very small because I had already been carrying pain from the past?
When you reach this stage, you must also forgive yourself for your own mistakes. You must stop viewing yourself solely as a victim. You have to move toward self-reformation. Change is always painful, and those old memories that keep returning—memories of how someone treated you—must be entrusted to the universe.
Here, I am using the word universe to refer to Allah, and for those who do not follow Islam, it refers to whatever they consider to be God according to their own religion.
Now let's talk about Islamic spirituality
Islamic spirituality
Islamic spirituality is somewhat different from this process.
In Islamic spirituality, a person presents all of their mistakes, sorrows, and deprivations before Allah. They seek Allah's forgiveness, surrender themselves completely before Him, bring themselves to a state of zero, and then transform themselves according to Islamic teachings.
The things that keep returning to your mind again and again are entrusted to Allah. This helps bring balance to the energies within a person.
In Islamic spirituality, these energies are called the nafs, and treating it better is called Tazkiyah-e-Nafs.
Now the question arises:
Can we completely eliminate our negative energies?
The answer is no, we cannot.
Why?
Because we cannot fully control our thoughts. However, we can improve ourselves.
We can keep ourselves occupied with productive things.
It is a very difficult journey because, at times, Allah also tests His servants throughout this journey.
And this test is also for the person's own benefit. It makes the heart cleaner and clearer, builds a stairway toward Allah's will, and protects a person from all negative energies. The more purified you become, the closer you get to Allah. Because when the light becomes brighter, clearer, and stronger, it means you are nearer to the center and the source.
This is the meaning of Islamic spirituality: something that is very quiet from the outside but very noisy from the inside. And when you begin to hear a quiet and melodic voice from within, you are closer to Allah and in a state of peace.
Why do you feel that peace?
Because, in this state, you are closer to Allah. The answers to all your questions have already been revealed to you. Logic has reached its limit. Reasoning has come to an end. What remains is only the will of Allah, and you are content with it because your trust in Allah has become what it was always meant to be.
This is called Islamic spirituality—the journey toward Allah.
If you want to know the reality behind the moth and flame story,
Read this article.
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