The Prophet ﷺ said that in the body there is a piece of flesh which, if sound, makes the whole body sound, and which, if corrupt, corrupts the whole body — and that it is the heart.
That hadith is the reason tazkiyah sits where it does in Islam, and it is the organizing principle of this short book.
The Three Treatises
- How to rectify the heart — a concise practical guide by Shaykh Abu Islam
- The Obstacles of Repentance — a rigorous discussion by Ibn Taymiyyah
- Renouncing Worldly Pleasures to Gain Nearness to Allah — a reflective treatise by Ibn Al-Qayyim Al-Jawziyyah
The sequence is well judged. Diagnosis, then the specific thing that blocks the cure, then the reorientation that prevents relapse.
What It Addresses
The spiritual diseases that afflict the heart — heedlessness, attachment to the dunya, arrogance, envy and the love of desires — with practical steps for cleansing them through repentance, correct understanding, and detachment from what distracts the soul.
The middle treatise is the one readers find hardest and most useful. Ibn Taymiyyah is not writing about why repentance is necessary, which nobody disputes. He is writing about what actually stops a person who intends to repent from doing it — and the obstacles he names are recognizable enough to be uncomfortable.
Why Ninety Pages Is Right
Books on the heart tend to be long, and a person in the state these treatises describe does not have the concentration for a long book. Three short pieces by three scholars, each doing one job, is a better prescription than a treatise.
Related Reading
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