Friday Night Faith Circles Episode 7 - Disciplining the Soul

The spiritual life in Islam begins with riyadat al-nafs, the inner warfare against the ego. Distracted and polluted by worldliness, the lower self has a tendency to drag the human creature down into arrogance and vice. Purification of the self is the greatest success that a person can attain and every other success is measured in comparison to it, in so much that it can facilitate the purification of the self. Purification of the self entails the removal of all qualities displeasing to Allah and the acquisition of all qualities pleasing to Allah. Only by a powerful effort of will can the sincere worshipper achieve the purity of soul which enables him to attain God's proximity.