Study the last part of the third chapter of the Quran which exhorts people of understanding to reflect on the signs in the creation of the heavens and the earth so that they should realize their Lord. Through these signs, you will learn of the Creation Plan of God, you will discover Heaven and Hell, and you will comprehend the importance of the Prophet, in short, all those things which are related directly or indirectly to tazkiyah. In all these verses of the Quran the realization of God is linked with pondering over the universe. In other words, tazkiyah, according to the Quran, is based on the mind and not on the heart. In this connection the word ‘heart’ is used in the Quran and the Hadith in the literary sense and not in the physical sense. In later times, Muslims came under the influence of the Sufis, who believed in the concept of tazkiyah based on the heart.
According to this concept, it came to be accepted that the human heart was the treasure house of all divine realities. It was believed that one could reach this treasure house through meditation and then one would attain tazkiyah. But this concept of heart-based tazkiyah was not derived from the Quran. It was in fact derived from history. This concept of heart-based spirituality had its origin in ancient times and, as a matter of tradition, people introduced it into Islam.
Modern science has provided the scientific foundation by which Islamic tazkiyah, based on the mind, can once again be revived. Modern research has proved that the human heart functions only as a pump for the circulation of the blood. The heart has no capacity to think. The mind alone possesses the capacity to think. Islam subscribes to mind-based spirituality. All human actions come into existence through thinking and the way to attain tazkiyah is no exception. Tazkiyah is achieved at the level of the mind, rather than through any strivings at the level of the heart. For the attainment of tazkiyah, paying attention to the heart is as infructuous as paying attention to one’s nails or hair or anything else.
Source: Discovering God
