As we go through our life, we are either going towards the path of reality or moving backwards from reality and getting more and more involved in the world. The idea of purification is essential for ridding ourselves of attachment to the world, so that we can get closer to reality.
It has been said that if the entire world was worth as much as one wing of a mosquito, then the wicked would not have a thing in this world. But they do, and they do because there is no value to it. And Allah allows it because there is no value to it. Now, as we look at the world and as we value things in the world correspondingly that is how we react towards it. So, if we give things value, we react as if they are valuable. So, if we think something is important we protect it, we fight for it, we give it our attention, we give it all that we have because of its importance. If we don’t think it’s important we let it go. We treat it without respect. We treat is shabbily. So in order to figure out where we are on this path towards reality we need to examine where we are and how we treat different things in the world. What do we respect? Do we respect money? Do we respect power? Do we respect things? Do we respect prayer? Do we respect solitude? Do we respect our quietude? When we walk into a city and there is not a lot of excitement do we say, there is nothing to do here?
You could go to places in the desert where prophets have had revelations and you could walk around and say, “There’s nothing to do here.” Yet there have been prophets who sat in those same places in the desert and the entire universe was revealed to them. Understand what nothing means. Understand the importance of nothing. When the world becomes nothing it’s at that point that we begin to fathom all that’s unseen.
In our walk through this world one thing that we need to know is that the nafs will always vote on satan’s side. The nafs will always proclaim whatever is inappropriate and whatever is wrong as the truth. And they do it consistently. Also, never underestimate the quality and the depth of the arrogance of the nafs.
