A book everyone should have

I found out about the book on the late Yasmin Yusuf's blog. She called it "one of the most important books I've read all year (2006)", which was good enough for me to buy a copy. And she was right except to me, it is one of the most important I've read and will continue to read, a book that I will be picking up every so often. Because it gives me so much, makes me think, makes me feel, and makes me want to do better. Indeed, to me, it is a book that everyone should have.

That book is Purification of the Heart - Signs, Symptoms, and Cures of the Spiritual Diseases of the Heart, a translation and commentary of Imam al-Mawlud's Matharat al-Qulub by Hamza Yusuf.

In the book's introduction, Hamza writes, "When people are completely immersed in the material world, believing that this world is all that matters and all that exists and that they are not accountable for their actions, they effect a spiritual death of their hearts. Before the heart dies, however, it shows symptoms of affliction. These afflictions are the spiritual diseases of the heart (the centre of our being)... (which) relates to our desires exceeding their natural state, as when people live merely to satisfy these urges and are led by them."

The book is based on the poem, Matharat al-Qulub, which offers the means by which purification of the heart can be achieved. The poem was written by Shaykh Muhammad Mawlud al-Yaqubi al-Musawi al-Muratani, who hailed from Mauritania, West Africa, a master of Islamic sciences. Hamza translates and comments on the poem as it examines a range of afflictions of the heart: miserliness; wantonness; hatred; iniquity; love of the world; envy; blameworthy modesty; fantasising; fear of poverty; ostentation; relying on other than God; displeasure with the Divine Decree; seeking reputation; false hopes; negative thoughts; vanity; fraud; anger; heedlessness; rancour; boasting and arrogance; displeasure with blame; antipathy towards death; obliviousness to blessings; and derision.

Hamza says, "If we examine the trials and tribulations, wars and other conflicts, every act of injustice all over earth, we'll find they are rooted in human hearts. Covetousness, the desire to aggress and exploit, the longing to pilfer natural resources, the inordinate love of wealth and position, and other maladies are manifestations of diseases found nowhere but in the heart. Every criminal, miser, abuser, scoffer, embezzler, and hateful person does what he or she does because of a diseased heart. If hearts were sound, these actions would no longer be a reality. So if we want to change our world, we do not begin by rectifying the outward. Instead we must change the condition of our inward. Everything we see happening outside of us is in reality coming from the unseen world within. It is from the unseen world that the phenomenal world emerges, and it is from the unseen realm of our hearts that all actions spring." 

One year is coming to an end very soon, and another is set to begin, God willing. At this time, with thoughts of starting anew, many make all kinds of resolutions. Why not keep it simple? Just look within and aim to change just one thing about yourself, which could be as simple as to not waste food, or to donate RM50 a month to charity, or to think before you speak. 

May we all strive to be better people in the New Year and all the years to come, people who will give to the community, people whose words and actions will benefit others, people who will care and give a thought to others.