Appendix 2: An Introduction to Akhlaq (8)

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The Demanding Soul

In Q12:53, the Prophet Yusuf (upon whom be peace) declares:

This is a shocking admission for a prophet to make. Why would he not simply proclaim his innocence and, being a prophet, his state of Divine Protection from sin? The issue is clarified in another verse (Q12:24):

In both verses we notice an initial or natural propensity to sin that is overridden by the exceptional (underscored words in both English versions) intervention of GOD’s Grace or Power to convince. The field of the soul, if left untended by GOD’s Mercy, tends to produce the weeds of selfish desires. The soul of a prophet has the same type of soil as any one of us; what distinguishes him is the intensity of cultivation that makes him totally devoted to GOD. There is no cultivation nor growth without dirt. But what is dirt when the Cultivator is GOD?

In Sahihu Muslim, Book 52, Hadith 62:

And in Sahihul-Bukhari, Book 81, Hadith 52:

These sayings of the prophets reveal their good manners with AL-LAH. As it is said in Al-Hikam by Ibni ‘Ata’il-Lahil-Iskandari: “When the believer is praised, he feels ashamed before GOD Most High to be commended for attributes he does not find in himself.”

The Censorious Soul

AL-LAH describes the demanding soul, but He swears by the censorious soul – in a censorious tone of voice.

This entire Surah is full of turmoil, confrontation, questioning, correction, contrast, reproach, and resurrection. The word for living dissolutely is constructed from the root f-j-r, from which an interesting array of verbs is derived: to cleave, break up, dig up (the ground); to let (water) flow forth; to break forth, burst out; to explode, overflow, descend suddenly, rush in, and swoop down. From the same root we have fajr, which means “dawn” or “beginning”.

Al-Fajr is the title of the chapter in which AL-LAH begins with swearing by the daybreak and ends by calling to the tranquil soul. After describing peoples of the past who were destroyed in the midst of their power and static, stone-like pride, AL-LAH goes on to chide mankind and warn of the tumultuous calamities to come. Only then, when the Earth is pulverized to dust, does His Kingdom become totally manifest, and in that sudden clarity He calls out to the soul who has struggled through to serenity.

The Tranquil Soul

And so we read in Q89: 27-30:

Here there is no detachment or estrangement, but rather a harvest of contentment and the voice of familiarity and blessing. Demands and fault-finding have finally come to an end. Any progress from this point onwards is fully productive, integrated, and satisfying. Here one enters into the Life of Divinity, where words are too feeble to convey the bliss and beauty of it all.

This progression – from the demanding soul through the censorious soul to the tranquil soul – is evident in the threefold symbolism:

* The dreams take place in inverse order in the story because they descend from GOD to man, rather than rising from man to GOD.

Food for the Journey

The growth of the soul towards GOD does not take place in one dimension, nor is it accomplished in three discrete stages. Rather it is repeated time and time again, in new forms and with increasing complexity and progressive refinement. Each stage is necessary to the one following it, just as each type of life form serves as food for the form above it.

There is no struggle without disorder before it, and no real peace without a prior struggle. The levels of spirituality through which we must pass are symbolized for us in the food chain, where soil is food for plants, plants food for animals, and animals food for man. And this graduated submission of one level to the one above it goes on and on. Our food fuels our passions, which if cultivated become sentiments, which in turn supply the materials for ideas, and ideas for beliefs, and so on toward heavenly inspirations and perfect faith in AL-LAH.

Considered in this way, the self is not so much “who you are” as “what you consume”. Your “self” is not really an identity at all, but merely food for something higher. Worldlings say, “We are what we eat,” for that is all they know. Believers say, “Only GOD knows who we are,” for in their growth there is no stationary being, but rather a constant growing wiser, and becoming otherwise.

In a good hadith narrated by Ibni Majah, the Prophet (may AL-LAH bless him and give him peace) said:

And in Sahihul-Bukhari:

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