Purification of the Heart: Signs, Symptoms and Cures Af the Spiritual Diseases of the Heart

IF WE TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS all over earth, we'll find they are rooted in human hearts. Covetousness, the desire to aggress and exploit, the longing to pilfer natural resources, the inordinate love of wealth, and other maladies are manifestations of diseases found nowhere but in the heart. Every criminal, miser, abuser, scoffer, embezzler, and hateful person does what he or she does because of a diseased heart. So if you want to change our world, do not begin by rectifying the outward. Instead, change the condition of the inward. It is from the unseen world that the phenomenal world emerges, and it is from the unseen realm of our hearts that all actions spring... We of the modern world are reluctant to ask ourselves - when we look at the terrible things happening - "Why do they occur?" And if we ask that with sincerity, the answer will come back in no uncertain terms: all of this is from our own selves. In so many ways, we have brought this upon ourselves. This is the only empowering position that we can take.

- Excerpted from Hamza Yusuf's Introduction

This book offers an insightful introduction to one of the most ancient of religious concerns: spiritual purification of the heart. It takes the reader through a well-known text from the Muslim tradition, and gives important commentary that is relevant to our day and to people of a variety of religious experiences.

Hamza Yusuf Hanson was born in Washington Sate and raised Northern California. After exploring religions at an early age , he converted to Islam at 18 set out a journey that would take him to places of study England, The United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Algeria and finally West Africa where he spent transformative period with Murabit al-Hajj, a master of the inner and outer sciences of Islam. After a sojourn of ten years aboard, Hamza Yusuf returned U.S. and took degrees in Nursing and Religious Studies. In 1998, he co-founded the Zaytuna Institute in order to teach the traditional sciences of Islam to people in the West. He is recognized today as one of the most influential voices for Islam in the West and has adviced several world leaders including the President of the United States and head of the Arab League. Yusuf resides in Northern California with his wife and children.