There is no exaggeration in the brief description of the Heavenly charging to man to have self-purification and full control of the reins of his self affairs, because this produces a balanced behavior on the part of man, and human justice in the world. On the other hand, when man loses self-control and self-purification, chaos and confusion, that the world today suffers from a lot, spread.
Everything can be controlled from the outside, except man. Man can be led only from the inside. Consequently, reforming humanity is achieved only by reforming the souls. When man disregards the purification of his soul and controlling its reins, definitely, his behavior will be frivolous and haphazard.
Hence, the Exalted Allah creates man to be tested. He creates the soul and describes it as: "The (human) soul enjoins unto evil, save that whereon my Lord has mercy" (Yusuf, 53). Usually the soul enjoins bad deeds.
The required goal of this charging is that the entrusted one should be changed into a commander instead of being commanded. When this equation is reverted, man orders and prohibits his soul instead of being ordered and prohibited by it. In this stage, man will have attained the utmost degree of educating and purifying his soul. The soul enjoins you to do evil. It prohibits you from doing good and its causes and is sluggish in doing it. It rather enjoins you to do evil and its causes, and incites you to hurry to it. Consequently, you are required to be the commander and forbidder of this soul.
It is strange that the Exalted Allah describes the soul as enjoining evil, i.e., it issues plenty of orders, but at the same time, He emphasizes the prohibitive side on the part of man. Thus, in spite of the fact that the soul enjoins evil, man has to command and prohibit it.
Read the following statement of the Exalted Allah as an example: "But as for him who feared to stand before his Lord and restrained his soul from lust, the Garden will be his home" (An Nazi'at, 40-41).
Our Lord, Exalted He is, points out to one of the two sides in the soul, namely, 'command'. He also points out to 'prohibition' in its owner, though what is required is commanding and prohibiting it. The fact which is emphasized is that the owner of the soul is required to prohibit the soul, and when he does so, it becomes restrained and stops doing the forbidden. As the soul is impetuous and is used to rushing to realize its lusts and wishes and whatever is prohibited, it becomes restrained and stops doing the banned when man prohibits it.
Commands are plenty, but man's test is in the prohibitions. Read the instructions of the Prophet (PBUH): "Avoid doing what I have prohibited you to do; and do, as much as you can, what I have recommended you to do".
Therefore, the Exalted Allah said: "But as for him who feared to stand before his Lord and restrained his soul from lust, the Garden will be his home".
The soul enjoins evil, and its owner should command it to avoid the path of evil.
This is how the two matters should be considered: the matter of commanding the soul and prohibiting it, and that of commanding man and prohibiting him. The question that sums up the issue of purification is that man should ask himself the following question honestly: "Am I the commander or the commanded? Am I the one who prohibits or the one who is commanded by his soul not to do good?
We have to stop a little at this issue to take it into consideration. In Allah's Holy Book, I read the word Hikm "governance, i.e., control of the soul" frequently repeated. In spite of the fact that the Messengers of Allah were bestowed specialty and miracles, they used to invoke the Exalted Allah to grant them self-governing and knowledge to teach us a lesson. On certain occasions, they asked for self-restraint only. Perhaps, because seeking knowledge is included in asking for self-governing.
As an example, let us read the Exalted Allah's statement that refers to self-governing and knowledge concerning our Master, the Prophet Lot (PBUH), who was in an evil environment, surrounded by people who committed the worst sins. The Exalted Allah said: " And to Lut, too, we gave (self) governing and knowledge, and We saved him from the town which practiced abominations; truly they were a people given to Evil, a rebellious people " (Al Anbiya', 74).
In this example, the Exalted Allah presents to us the image of a proselytizer, a chaste man, who is endowed with two qualities: self-governing and knowledge, in spite of the fact that during his life span, Lut (PBUH), was not a governor in the political sense, how can we interpret the notion of governance in this concern?
If we relate the concept of governance to prophethood, as a lot of interpreters believed, we find that some statements of the Holy Qur'an tell about a Prophet Messenger asking the Exalted Allah to bestow on him governance.
An example of this idea is found in the story of Abraham (PBUH). The Exalted Allah said: "Recite unto them the story of Abraham,
When he said unto his father and his folk: What do you worship? They said: We worship idols, and are ever devoted unto them. He said: Do they hear you when you invoke them? Or do they benefit or harm you? They said: Nay, but we found our fathers acting on this use.
He said: See now that which you worship, you and your forefathers! Lo! they are (all) an enemy unto me, save the Lord of the Worlds, Who created me, and He does guide me, and Who feeds me and give me water to drink, and when I am sick, then He heals me, and Who causes me to die, then gives me life (again), and Who, I ardently hope, will forgive me my sin on the Day of Judgment. My Lord! Vouchsafe me judgment and unite me with the righteous" (Ash Shu'ara', 69-73).
The Exalted Allah makes possessing self-governing an introduction to righteousness, and Ibrahim (PBUH) asked this favor from the Exalted Allah in spite of the fact that he was a Prophet Messenger. Hence, his asking for self-governing preceded his asking for righteousness.
Another example is in the story of Jusuf (PBUH) who passed through many ordeals, but the most difficult one was when he opposed the desires of his soul that usually have priority in any human soul. His difficult ordeal was when he stood defiant of the Aziz's wife with all his prime of youth, refusing her temptation, while she called him to herself with all her beauty and her high rank. On that occasion, the reins of his soul were under his control because he depended on the Exalted Allah and asked His help.
Read the following statements of the Exalted Allah when He describes this great event: "And when he reached his prime We gave him judgment and knowledge. Thus We reward the good. And she, in whose house he was, asked of him an evil act. She bolted the doors and said: Come! He said: I seek refuge in Allah! Lo! he is my lord, who has treated me honorably. Wrong doers never prosper" (Yusuf, 22-23).
Consequently, our Lord, Exalted He is, points out to the influence of jself-restraint and knowledge which causes one to be steadfast when there is dispute within the soul between the right and the wrong.
This is the result that the people of benevolence attain, and the result by which their feet become steadfast in the stations of strengthening.
Watching these scenes, and seeing the picture of the chaste Lut (PBUH), and that of the monotheist, Ibrahim (PBUH), draw our attention to the fact that possessing self-restraint is the introduction to righteousness. Moreover, the existence of self-restraint and knowledge of the Prophet, Messenger, the chaste and virtuous, Yusuf (PBUH), made him steadfast and strengthened him to strive against the soul and its desires.


We can understand the meaning of Hikm in the above mentioned contexts to mean 'man's control of the reins of his soul'. It is when man becomes a commander and a forbidder of his own soul, and an owner and discipliner of the reins of its affairs. This should be coupled with knowledge so that man does not prohibit or order the soul to do something contradictory to knowledge. So, he orders and prohibits his soul only with what is in agreement with knowledge derived from Allah Who teaches man and teaches Adam.
When man becomes the owner of himself, he will be qualified to attain the description of purification and acquire a purified soul.
Indeed if the people of Fiqh (jurisprudence) said: "You can't sell what you don't own", and the Exalted Allah asks us to sell our souls to Him, but how can we sell them while we do not own them?
Accordingly, there is a rule that we have to take into consideration, i.e., "possess your souls first, then sell them to Allah. You cannot sell them before you own them.
The Exalted Allah said: "Allah has bought from the believers their lives and their wealth because the Garden will be theirs" (At Tawbah, 111).
Oh man, how can you be in a position to say: "I shall sell my soul" while your soul plays with you, orders and prohibits you, while you are submissive to it?
Only the people who were possessors of their own souls were able to sell them to Allah.
When the Companions of the Prophet (PBUH) were the owners of their own souls, they were able to sell them to Allah.
For example, when the law of prohibiting wine was revealed, Medina was changed into rivers of wine. All pots of wine were spilt, and none kept any of the mellowed wine. In spite of the fact that wine was of great financial value, they did not hesitate for a second to get rid of it when they heard that Allah prohibited drinking wine.
Nowadays, the educational schools in the West state that the minimum time dimension for the alcoholic to get rid of the habit of drinking alcohol is six months.
According to the educational schools in the West, the one who is used to drinking wine is unable to abstain from it before six month as a minimum. He has to be treated in clinics and follow certain programs… . Hence, how could the Companions of the Messenger of Allah (PBUH), and (ABPWTH) were able to stop the habit of drinking wine in seconds, and how were they able to master their own souls by making this habit behind their backs and forget altogether about it?
When the women of Al Ansar (Helpers of the Prophet) heard about the order of Allah concerning the legal covering of their hair, they walked in the streets and seemed as if they were black crows with the headscarves put on their heads. They carried out the order of Allah directly because He made it unlawful for the woman to show her hair. The matter need not too many lectures, theories and statements on the philosophy of covering the hair and its educational and social impacts, as we witness today. When the order of Allah descended, application was realized instantly.
This is all related to the description of self-restraint, and controlling the reins of the soul. The defeated before his own soul, will be defeated before all the world. The bought and sold people, whom we see in the world today, are nothing but the servants of the Devil, because they are defeated before their own souls, and consequently, they are changed into cheap tools that can be bought and sold.
How easy it is today for our enemies to find as many agents as they can to employ them in executing their plans.
Why does this happen?
It is because these agents do not own their own souls. If they had owned them, they would have sold them to the Exalted Allah, and they would have never been able to sell them at such a trivial price to other than Allah.
Oh Khubaib, may Allah be pleased with you when you stood among the unbelievers to be crucified while you were joyful and delighted, reciting poetry, saying:
I do not mind if I am killed a Muslim
On whichever side is my death
For the cause of the Divine Lord. If He wills,
He blesses limbs torn to pieces.
This is the school of purification that we have to care for in the milieu of our youth, our maids, our women, our men, and our societies that are devoured by materialism, and snapped by lusts.
Allahum…, guide us to You favorably, and make us from those who listen to wisdom and follow the best of it.
I say my words and ask Allah's forgiveness.