Purification of the Heart

Definition

Seeking reputation (sum'ah) is a disease of the heart closely related to ostentation. This disease involves desiring that people hear of one's goodness, an aural ostentation. It is seeking out renown: for example, a person wanting others to hear how much money he or she gave in charity.

The Imam says the performing an act for the sake of God is ruined when one goes about informing people of it afterwards. Repentance restores the value of the good deed. Ibn 'Abd al-Sala̅m states that there is no harm in informing others of one's works for the purpose of encouraging them to do good. But even in this case, one must tread carefully.

Metaphorically, coveting renown is the brigand who robs people on the road to their Lord.

Causes

The life-support for ostentation and reputation is covetousness. And the cause of this covetousness, according to Sı̅dı̅ Aḥmad Zarru̅q, is heedlessness (ghaflah). A person permits himself to forget that blessings are from God alone. No good or harm can come to one except by God's leave. This level of heedlessness is not a casual lapse of memory. People can become so terribly preoccupied with seeking things from other people that they become heedless of God's power and ownership. When this happens, a person opens his or her heart to all kinds of spiritual diseases.

Imam Mawlu̅d holds that covetousness is the root cause of many iniquities, like slander. A person who slanders another does so for some perceived gain. He desires, for example, to instill negative thoughts in others toward the victim of his slander. Covetousness can be so overwhelming that it occupies one's mind during prayer. It also leads to insincere praise of others in order to derive some benefit from them.

Treatment

Sı̅dı̅ Aḥmad Zarru̅q holds that heedlessness is blindness to the providential order that God has set in place and sustains at every instant. A person may say, after recovering from an illness, "How wonderful is this medication! It saved my life." This is heedlessness of the fact that one of the attributes of God is that He is the Healer. [...] The properties of every chemical are in obedience; they do their work because of God's commands. [...] The believer who recovers from an illness says, "All praise is for God who has healed me."

Imam Mawlu̅d next personifies "desire" and says, "If you ask desire itself about his trade," it will answer, "Earning humiliation!" As for its father, it would say, "Doubt concerning the divine apportioning [of provision]," meaning being skeptical about how material provisions are allotted to different people.

Along with the provision that God gives, He also has provided the means (asba̅b) by which one must seek out his provision. One person may be in possession of a meal that is meant for another, who then is invited to the former's home for that very meal. So a person never loses anything by feeding a guest. It is a provision meant for that guest, which was already decreed by God.

There should be no confusion about the means of attaining wealth and the wealth itself. When one starts to believe that his or her wealth is in the hands of another person, this creates a breeding ground for diseases, such as coveting what others have, doing whatever it takes to get it, and becoming angry when one does not receive what he or she expects.

One must trust in God and seek refuge in Him from resorting to illicit livelihood out of fear of not having enough wealth.