Discovering God

accepts the truth as if it belonged to him. This quality is the spirit, or essence, of tazkiya. The case of an arrogant person is quite the opposite. The thinking of an arrogant person is that he already has everything and need not take anything from anyone. For this reason, he is not able to accept advice from others. He rejects the message of the reformer. This attitude becomes an obstacle to his taking to the path of tazkiya. The truth is that tazkiya, a continuous process, can have its effect only on a modest person. Modesty enables one to accept the truth and frees one from psychological complexes. Only a complex-free soul (Quran 89:27) can succeed in attaining the goal of tazkiya. Prophetic Prayers Many traditions have been recorded in the books of Hadith, which tell us that the Prophet used to recite certain words of prayer at certain times. These words are generally known as masnoon dhikr, or masnoon dua. Generally, it is believed that these words recited by the Prophet are the greatest source of tazkiya, and that one should learn them and keep reciting them on certain occasions in order to achieve the ends of tazkiya. However, this is not true. These words uttered by the Prophet are in actual fact a reflection of the feelings or the states of mind of the Prophet. The truth is that the