My Search for Tazkiyah (Part 3)

A few years later (2018), I shifted to working as a part-time Imam. This gave me a window of time to continue the research on Tazkiyah. It took me months to feel alive again. It took years to slowly break free from the narrow-mindedness that comes from being immersed in petty problems all day.

As the future prospects for the research became brighter, other life challenges decided to weigh in, as if they were impatiently waiting for their turn to attack. They lasted for years and became more complex. The main lesson from this period was patience. When I thought I had got rid of all obstacles and could finally put my mind fully to the Tazkiyah research, the dream seemed to evaporate. I was desperate, and I thought I had made too many sacrifices. I was convinced I had been patient for a long time and expected that it was only reasonable for my patience to pay off. I thought I had run out of patience, only to learn that I had to be even more patient now.

This sequence continued and still continues. It is an important life lesson. You cannot run out of patience! When you think that you have been so patient, that no one has ever put up with as much as you did, life will test you with situations that require even more patience. It is a humbling reminder that you are a slave of Allah. You do not run the world; Allah does! And no matter what life brings, your job is to be patient and do the good you can do. You can get upset, but this will not change anything. We actually have an endless supply of patience if we decide to tap into it. The more you practice patience, the better you get at it.

Another lesson from this challenging period was that, in the lowest moments, Allah opens new doors. At my lowest, I got in touch with my friend and dear brother, Adnan Bhat from Vancouver. I reached out to him to help me with Rashidoon. He had an excellent skill set for getting things done, and he is someone I can blindly trust. I could focus on the content while Adnan was putting everything else together.

This collaboration resulted in our course: The Names of Allah. Until today, I consider this course one of the best courses Allah has allowed me to offer. It focused on how to truly connect to Allah and relate to Him as a reality, not merely as a conceptual thought. I am ever grateful to our first batch of students, most of whom have stayed with Rashidoon to this day.

The success of our first course encouraged us to venture into offering the Qadar course, which had been requested by many students. The challenge was to offer a practical and authentic approach to understanding the Divine Decree. The research was a fascinating journey of profound learning. At this time, I noticed that Allah had been teaching me through all the difficult times a skill whose value I had never previously considered. It was the ability to map deeper concepts into simple models and extract guiding principles. This made understanding complex content accessible to the average person.

Researching and teaching the Qadar course was a rich journey of learning and growth. Interestingly, while I was teaching the Qadar course, we as a family went through disruptive times. The only option I had was to implement the teachings of the Qadar course in my own circumstances. I was surprised by how practical and redemptive the content of the course was. This encouraged me to develop this utility into a dedicated course and offer it through Rashidoon. Thus, “In the Eye of the Storm” was born and offered as a course. Until today, I go back to the notes when life becomes tough. Alhamdulillah, the principles and tools in the course have never failed me.

When I reflect on how Allah has been guiding me through both obvious challenges and subtle opportunities, I recognise that my du’aa as a teenager is being answered before my eyes. When I read the book “Renew Your Life,” I wanted to harness the practicality within the teachings of Islam and offer it to people. In hindsight, I can see clearly that the answer to my du’aa has been unfolding through conditions and circumstances that I thought were preventing me from attaining that dream.

The message I would like to share here is that often our prayers are being answered. We fail to see this because we have a narrow view of their fulfilment and become stuck in it. Sometimes, Allah’s mercy comes…in disguise. Oftentimes, our expectations blind us to the unfolding of divine wisdom and generosity. It is important to notice this weakness in human nature so that we do not end up sabotaging the fruits of Allah’s perfect plan.

Tazkiyah as a Concept

Until fairly recently, I had avoided the idea of a course on Tazkiyah. The concept has been abused and has become associated with a lot of problematic practices. When I looked up the word on YouTube, the content I found made me feel very uncomfortable.

Most of the presenters spoke in a weird tone. They sounded overly soft, and their style of speaking was hypnotizing. When I listened carefully, I did not feel closeness to Allah. I only felt uncomfortable. The experience is fairly similar to what you get from New Age gurus. The only difference is the terminology.

Most people associate Tazkiyah with being overly soft-spoken and behaving in a dreamy fashion. Most of the men I asked about Tazkiyah expressed a general impression that Tazkiyah, as they had observed it, makes men less masculine. They did not express their impressions openly, but when I asked them the question in a straightforward manner, they mostly nodded in agreement.

Many others think Tazkiyah is merely about purifying our hearts of envy, jealousy, and ego. Its scope is limited, and it resides on the fringes of Islam.

In the Quran and Hadith, Tazkiyah is a central concept. It is the path to eternal success and Jannah, as the Quran clearly states. How did Tazkiyah become such a fringe and esoteric concept?

There seems to be a general impression that Tazkiyah is not a serious endeavour. Many think there are more important and pressing issues than Tazkiyah. Is this really true?

Rediscovering Tazkiyah

It was only recently that the concept of Tazkiyah opened up to me. After years of avoiding the concept due to the dominance of inappropriate approaches that gave it a less optimal status than it truly deserves, I embarked on a journey of research to understand it. The results were enlightening. When I started teaching it to the students at Rashidoon, I could not believe the transformation some students achieved. It was nothing short of miraculous in my estimation.

Tazkiyah in Arabic means growth and development. It is dedicated work to nurture Iman and Taqwa by taking care of the heart. This is far deeper and more central in Islam than is commonly assumed. It turns out that Tazkiyah captures the entirety of Islam. Nothing in Islam lies outside the scope of Tazkiyah.

What about purification? Purification is a necessary condition for growth and development. No growth is complete without removing harmful elements that negatively affect it. This is how the notion of purification made its way into the concept of Tazkiyah. When this meaning came to dominate the concept, the essence of Tazkiyah was lost. It was reduced to a fraction of its true meaning. This led to the concept being marginalized and undervalued. It has become a forgotten treasure!

The Tazkiyah Course: Entering New Territory!

Approaching Tazkiyah from this new understanding, I noticed that the concept started to come to life. While conducting the research, I did not only learn; I was changing. It was not a typical academic journey. Teaching the course and interacting with the students was a journey of deep learning in its own right.

To be continued…

-Moutasem alHameedy