Love of God

THE NEED OF A GUIDE but the ego suppresses that voice and renders it ineffective. It is essential for a seeker of tazkiyah to be abreast of this reality, so that he awakens his power of thinking, and nullifies his ego on all occasions. The moment one is able to overcome one’s ego, one’s conscience will be able to play its natural role and one will be able to traverse the path of tazkiyah without any deviation. The exercise of nullifying the ego or reducing it to zero has a decisive role to play. But no one can perform this task for another. One has to do it oneself; the moment one’s ego is awakened, one should become alert and by exercising one’s will power set one’s ego at naught. THE NEED OF A GUIDE A guide is essential for the attainment of tazkiyah, but the importance of the guide is practical rather than a matter of creed. God grants special help to those who have to perform this role. In principle, the path to tazkiyah for man is to reflect upon the Quran and to study the Hadith in order to find guidance from the lives of the prophets of Islam. This is the basic source of tazkiyah, and its importance will last for all eternity. Besides this, there is also a practical way of attaining tazkiyah, and that is to find a living guide, thus benefitting from his learning and experience. When a guide is found, he ought to be accepted as such unconditionally. Making conditions before accepting a guide only sets up a hurdle in the path of tazkiyah.