[Sohel]

Dynamic change in essential to GOD's creation, just look at many examples within the revealed scriptures themselves and the phenomenal world around you. In light of that reality, "form" can never be "pure" or immune from the divine order of things. Only the "spirit" can be pure and must guide us to forms that nurture that purity of spirit.

Emphasis on "pure form" driven by the apotheosis of certain totalitarian outlooks and their subjective take on history they consider somewhat infallible (Astagferullah), coupled with the resultant Takfiri attitude devoid of Taqwa and bordering on Shirk, can and does convolute and obscure the truth as we wallow in the intellectual and spiritual dishonesty of having the "input" match the "expectation". Or using a decontextualized argument to justify a position before resorting to outright playing GOD or His deputy.

The "purists" conflate sociopolitical ideology and spiritual submission and believe that such "purity of form" alone is enough. Such people commit genocide, homicide, suicide and other clearly prohibited atrocities in the name of GOD. Being Bangladeshi all I have to do is look back on 1971 to understand the evil dangers of perhaps inadvertently playing GOD or His deputy. When they try to compel people to follow something that GOD has clearly declared from compulsion, they undermine GOD Himself.

We must use all of the facilities GOD has graced us with -- especially the confluence of the heart and the intellect and righteous actions springing from it in submission to GOD, not the ego including our opinion on GOD and submission -- to seek guidance not only from scholars representing an unbroken link of scholarship since Revelation, but also our own effort. A healthy heart nurturing an open and clear mind -- things GOD has graced us with as always for a purpose -- can make us even better submitters that way.

The way to that healthy heart is through purification of the soul through deep prayer, meditation, contemplation, intellectually honest scholarship, the sustainable fight for justice within GOD's rules and suggestions, fasting, charity of wealth and character, and the cultivation of virtue including Adab. Only through Tazkiyah Al Nafs we may truly submit to GOD and successfully battle the devil in the process. The devil's always working through the ego's propensity for vanity, anger, indignation, depression, euphoria, unreason, greed, gluttony, lust and brutality. Only through Tazkiyah Al Nafs that kind of behavior, as natural as they can be on occasion, cannot become a more permanent state.

Here is my favorite Islamic Scholar on "purity".







Peace and GOD bless~