The benefits of Tazkiyah on Mood

Tazkiyah:

Tazkiyah is essentially the process of enhancing one’s Iman and optimizing the life of the heart. It captures the essence of the path to Allah and His ultimate reward: Jannah. Being the divine prescription for how to live life, Tazkiyah comes with countless blessings. One of them is what the Qur'an refers to as al-Hayat at-Tayyibah—the goodly life.

What is al-Hayat at-Tayyibah?

The goodly life is characterized by good in all dimensions. It is a life devoted to the most noble of purposes and is governed by the best standards of being and acting. One of the aspects of the goodly nature of al-Hayat at-Tayyibah is real peace of mind. It is the experience of genuine happiness and tranquility—not just a passing moment of high and ecstasy.

When the heart lives in Sakinah, we experience life from a good place. We enjoy the sweetness of the well-being of the heart. When this state is well-established as a result of a strong Iman, external circumstances cannot deeply disturb it. It becomes a transcendent state that draws its positivity and stability from a strong connection with the stability of how things are in the unseen world.

A heart that has been cultivated by Tazkiyah cannot be cut off from the light of Allah that shines through and beyond the most dismal of worldly circumstances. This doesn’t mean the believer does not experience sadness or sorrow. He does, but such states do not compromise the profound sense of peace and Sakinah that imbues his heart with light and life.

Tazkiyah and a Stable Stream of Real Happiness:

When the person who has built a solid connection with Allah is hit by extreme worldly circumstances, the beauty of divine truth does not vacate his heart for the tightness of life’s conditions. He still attends to the physical reality yet without losing heart. There is a greater and more compelling reality that is strongly present in his heart, and it cannot be overshadowed by external circumstances. Iman helps you give things their true weight. Matters of the unseen that are universal and more stable and consequential are not overshadowed by temporary conditions, even when they are compelling.

The believer’s heart lives in Paradise and responds to its circumstances even while the body lives in this worldly life and interacts with it. This balance is not available to those who lack faith. It is the work of Tazkiyah that qualifies a person to be deserving of Allah’s blessing of al-Hayat at-Tayyibah.

What Can You Do to Earn This Advantage?

There is one answer: Tazkiyah! This word is at the heart of al-Hayat at-Tayyibah. There are flashy words used to refer to this today such as mental toughness and resilience. Other modern prescriptions work in essence to make your heart dead and senseless. Tazkiyah, however, offers this feature as a bonus, and it offers it by optimizing the life of your heart and growing your Iman stronger.

People think of Tazkiyah in terms of softness and thus don’t often associate it with being resilient. In non-Muslim prescriptions of resilience, you have to toughen up your heart by numbing or killing important parts of it. In Tazkiyah, you don’t draw on your own faculty for strength. Allah bestows strength upon the hearts that have been softened for His remembrance. This is the mechanism through which those who work correctly on Tazkiyah grow in all aspects of their life.

To reap the fruits of Tazkiyah, it must become a priority in your life—not for its worldly benefits, but for its own merit as the path that leads to Allah. The worldly benefits, such as a goodly life, will come as a byproduct of doing the right thing.

Check out our Tazkiyah program that is designed to take you on the path of Tazkiyah in a way that is both practical and easy to follow. Click here to explore our Tazkiyah Challenge.

Bonus: Do All Religious People Enjoy This Advantage?

The adjective “religious” is not a very helpful word. It refers to people who seem to adhere to Islam as a way of life. However, it tells us very little to nothing about the state of Tazkiyah. It is a shallow description and is popular because it is a convenient way to classify people as seemingly practicing or not.

A “religious” person may be sincerely striving to practice Islam, but this doesn’t mean his Tazkiyah (the state of his heart) has been taken care of properly. This is why it is not a good idea to test the presence of the fruits of Tazkiyah by observing a “religious” person. The correlation is very weak between a good level of Tazkiyah and apparent religiosity.