Malfuzat – Volume I — Page 193
Malfuzat - Volume I 193 of fasad (which in Arabic means to be corrupt or devoid of virtue). A person can never become a salih (i. e. a virtuous person), until they cleanse themselves of ignoble and corrupt doctrines, and then their actions also become free from cor- ruption. The word muttaqi (i. e. a righteous person), is in the measure of the form iftial and this form is used to convey a meaning of 'forced or strained effort. ' This demonstrates that a righteous person is forced to struggle immensely and exert an effort in doing good; and in this state, the soul reproves him for committing evil. When a person is living a beastly life, they are subject to the self that incites to evil, but when they emerge triumphant over the state where struggle is required, they enter a state of rest. A righteous person advances from the state where the self incites to evil and enters a state where the soul rebukes him for committing evil. This is why a distinguishing feature of the righteous is that they 'establish' or 'set upright' their formal Prayer, as it were, because in this too there is a kind of battle that ensues. Satanic whisperings and doubts come forth again and again to terrify a person, but they are not perturbed, and these satanic whisperings do not make them helpless. Such a one seeks assistance from God Almighty inces- santly, and cries before God and weeps, until finally they prevail. Similarly, when it comes to spending in the way of God, Satan holds them back and makes it seem to them as if spending in the cause of Allah and extravagance are one in the same, even though there is a world of difference between the two. A person who is ex- travagant wastes away their wealth, but a person who spends in the way of Allah, is returned everything that they spend in far greater proportion. This is why God Almighty states: 1 مِمَّا رَزَقْنَهُمْ يُنْفِقُونَ They spend out of what We have provided for them. The Right Path The fact of the matter is that in a state of salah (i. e. being sound or pious), it is incumbent upon man to be pure from every kind of corruption, whether it be in relation to doctrines or deeds. For example, a person's body is healthy when all its primary constituents are in their normal state, and there is no excess or deficiency. If even a single constituent abnormally increases, the body becomes ill. Similarly, the health of a person's soul depends upon an equilibrium. It is this very equi- al-Baqarah, 2:4