Purification of the Soul - Sheikh Ali al-Tamimi

You can find the lectures here.

I recommend the lecture, I have listened to it now, and masha Allah it is excellent, alhamdulillah.

The lecture is focussed on ikhlaas, purity of intention or sincerity and the things that negate ikhlaas.

It highlights some diseases within the heart that a person could not even recognise they could posses it, some of the things were:

Ar-riyaa - this includes increasing worship for other people and decreasing worship for other people. So a trap of shaytaan is that a person may fear riyaa and because of his utmost fear of riyaa he avoids it by removing something from his salaah or refusing to do an act of ibaadah he usually does, but in turn he is committing riyaa as he is fearing the creation over Allah.

From ar riyaa there was a sect mentioned (I've forgotten, sorry) anyway they would do bad things in public so people would say bad things about them and stuff, but of course, this is wrong.

There's a cure to this disease, and if we want to protect ourself from it then we should recite:


Showing off deeds - pretty self explanatory, I don't know the Arabic term for that. But I think it was a quote of the salaf that we should hide our good deeds to way we hide our bad deeds. Some of the sahaba (I think) would pray at night, qiyaam al layl for many many years and their own wife would not know about it.

Being content with ones worship - woah, subhanallah, this is something difficult to deal with. There's a difference with being pleased with your deeds that leads you to being grateful to Allah and being content with your deeds. Because our deeds are nothing, Allah is so Great and Allah is so Glorious, Subhanallah! Allah is Perfect, so how can our deeds ever be enough. What this disease is about, is that the person feels arrogant and proud at himself that he worshipped Allah, forgetting that it was Allah that guided him to it in the first place. Ar-riyaa is involving the creation with the worship of Allah, and this is involves the self with the worship of Allah.

Also, the worship we do CAN be rejected, so if the sahaba after each salaah would worry whether their ibaadah was accepted, what about us?

Loving the dunya - this wasn't discussed but is a mentioned disease.

The lecture also discussed at-tawakkul, and making dua to Allah for guidance. The ayah Allah mentions in surah fatiha 'iyyaka na'budu waiyyaka nasta'een' it means that it is Allah who we worship, and to Him we ask for help, and that is help in worshipping Allah, then obviously as it continues Allah tells us to ask Him for guidance. Which is something we should do, and we do, in every salaah, but we should mean it too. At-tawakkul means to rely on Allah and to trust in Allah, and reliance and trust are two different things. Take for example a person who you trust, you trust them to take some money to a specific place, but you may not rely on the person to take the money, take it to the specific place and then distribute it, specifically. Because that person may be clumsy or something like that. So we trust in Allah and we rely in Allah, and that's tawakkul.

We as Muslims should have tawakkul in Allah for Him to help us in worshipping him, the hadith by Mu'aadh ibn Jabal reports that the Prophet told him he loved him, and informed him of a dua that he should recite after every prayer:



There are three types of people that make dua to Allah, but we should know that everything makes dua to Allah, due to Allah's statement in the Qur'an (I've forgotten it =o).

1) These are the best of people, the messengers and the prophets of Allah. They make dua to Allah for their own piety and for the piety of others. Their utmost aim is to worship Allah in this dunya the best that they can. Among these are those that truly follow in the footsteps of the people. Their duaas include the success of the ummah, and spreading Islam and assistance from Allah in enjoining good and forbidding the evil.

2) these type of people only ask Allah concerning the worship of themselves, and their own piety, but that is all.

3) these people do not ask Allah anything but increase in worldly gain. And these are just like the animals.

At-tawakkul means to try your best and then to place your trust in Allah, a person cannot sit and do nothing and expect everything. The statement "a bird leaves his nest empty and then comes to his nest at night with his belly full" explains tawakkul because the bird had to go out to find the food and then Allah fed it. However, the third group of people are like the animals because they only ask for the dunya, and they forget making dua for the aakhirah.

And that's all I remember. =/ If someone else listens to it, or has, if you have notes, please add to mine. It mentioned some things on qadr with regards guidance and stuff, but I won't write that out.



May Allah purify our intentions and save us and cure us from all kinds of diseases. And may Allah reward the sheikh, and grant him jannah Ameen.

and a reminder to myself, I forget that knowledge comes from Allah, so alhamdulillah, Allah has blessed me to learn from this, and may I benefit and may you benefit too. ^_^

Know how I mentioned riyaa..

So, if you're at school or something, it's not riyaa to shorten your prayer is it? Because you have a time limit and you can't pray for longer as you would do at home... or you aren't sure if you have a time limit and you don't want to be an annoyance.

Is the situation like the hadith when the prophet said he wanted to make his salaah longer but he heard a child cry and so he shortened it. Right?