Purification of Nafs: The First Step to Becoming a Muslim

Machinery requires repair from time to time and eventually a point where it is irreparable and must be replaced. The religions that have been sent into this world are the same way and even the Quran has said that every religion has a set time period. Whenever a Messenger brings a religion, that religion continues but because a Saint of God, Genuine Religious Scholar or Fuqra is not present in every era, there comes a gap in Esoteric Knowledge and because of this gap the mischief of Exterior Knowledge spreads. The knowledge of the esoteric is superseded by the knowledge of the exterior. Before the arrival of Prophet Mohammad, prophets would be sent in order to stop the mischief and set the religion right. The Messenger establishes the religion and the other prophets are helpers; they remodel the religion and rectify the adulteration. Then a time comes when the validity of the religion expires. Then a new religion is sent. A religion is powerful when a majority of its followers have kindled the lamp of Divine Light in their hearts. 

O’ son of Adam, there is a piece of flesh in your body and when it is set right your entire body is set right and if it is corrupted your entire body is corrupted, remember well it is your heart. 

-Prophet Mohammad 

This Hadith proves that the heart is the bone of contention. If the heart is purified and set right it will automatically set the body right. If the heart is purified the deeds of the body will be pure. Therefore deeds of the body are dependent on the heart and the heart becomes purified when it possess Divine Light.

Quran: Those who submit to God, God steers their heart into guidance

Guidance is related to the heart, not the body. People have this misconception that those who engage in bodily worship are guided and pious ones. If your Nafs (Evil Jinn) is impure (Nafs-e-Ammarah) and you recite the Quran, the Quran shall curse you. To purify the Nafs, to make the Nafs a Muslim is the first step to becoming a Mutaqee (pious one). 

An Evil Soul is accompanied with every child that takes birth in this world. This evil soul is known as Nafs in Spiritual terminology. Those who purify this beforehand attempting to become a devout do surely become a true devout and those who ignore this and go on to practise a religion get entangled with the rituals and their side effects and never manage to become a true devout. Purifying this evil soul is purgation of the ego and the first step towards Godliness. 

Before you become a true Muslim, Hindu, Christian or Jew, the Evil Jinn inside you must embrace the religion first and then that Jinn will allow you to enter that religion. Even Prophet Mohammad said that ‘Every human is born with a Satanic Jinn and I was born with a Satanic Jinn also, but he became purified in my company.’ If even the Prophet Mohammad went through this process of purifying the Nafs, are Muslims not obliged to do so? Is it not a Sunnah? Those who purify the Nafs and then become Muslim are given the rank of a Momin and this is the essence of the Quran. 

His Divine Eminence Gohar Shahi is developing and cultivating this thought in the minds of humanity today.