Fasl fi Tazkiyat al-Nafs
- Author died
- 728 AH
- Editions
- Maktabat al-Nahj al-Wadih
Fasl fi Tazkiyat al-Nafs (Chapter on the Purification of the Soul) is a treatise by the Hanbali theologian and jurist Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728 AH / 1328 CE) that expounds the concept and methodology of spiritual purification through obedience to divine commands and the abandonment of prohibitions .
Content and Method
The work focuses on defining how a person's soul attains spiritual purification (tazkiya), establishing that it is achieved by abstaining from forbidden matters alongside performing prescribed obligations . Ibn Taymiyya structures his exposition around Quranic verses concerning purification, particularly: قَدْ أَفْلَحَ مَنْ تَزَكَّى ("He has certainly succeeded who purifies himself", Surat al-A'la: 14) and قَدْ أَفْلَحَ مَنْ زَكَّاهَا ("He has succeeded who purifies it", Surat al-Shams: 9) .
To substantiate the meaning of these passages, Ibn Taymiyya cites early authorities:
- Qatada and Sufyan ibn 'Uyayna, who interpreted the verse as referring to a person purifying their own soul through obedience to God and righteous deeds .
- Abu al-Faraj, who defined it as cleansing the soul from sins and rectifying it through obedience .
Ibn Taymiyya addresses an alternative interpretation attributed to the grammarians al-Farra' and al-Zajjaj—and reported through a broken chain from Ibn 'Abbas via al-Walibi—which posits that the verse means "successful is the soul that God purified" . He refutes this reading on both semantic and grammatical grounds, demonstrating that man (مَنْ) functions as a relative pronoun requiring a returning pronominal referent ('a'id) in zakkaha (زَكَّاهَا), which designates the human agent performing the purification of their own soul .
Ibn Taymiyya emphasizes that true spiritual growth parallels agricultural cultivation: just as crops cannot flourish until weeds and pests are removed, the soul cannot achieve genuine righteousness and growth until corruption, evil, and prohibitions are eliminated .
Transmission and Publication
The treatise is preserved and transmitted in several formats:
- It forms an independent section within the spiritual writings collected in Majmu' al-Fatawa (Volume 10) .
- It was published as a chapter within the compilation titled al-Zuhd wal-Wara' wal-'Ibadah .
- It was edited as an independent monograph by Muhammad ibn Sa'id al-Qahtani, based on a manuscript copy preserved in the Süleymaniye Library in Istanbul .
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