The Purification of the Heart is a must read for all.

The book begins by introducing the concept that our hearts are the light by which we can 'see' and therefore it is our hearts which we use to discern between truth from falsehood and right from wrong. It follows that the healthier or more purified our hearts become the brighter the light and the more we are able to see the reality of this life, whilst the more diseased or impure our hearts become the more indiscernible truth and falsehood become until we are completely are blind and have no senses towards good and evil. We are taught that the purification of the heart is achieved by trust in God, and doing good deeds for His Pleasure, whilst the heart becomes more diseased as we disbelieve and/or disobey God (i.e. sin). Some noteworthy Ayahs of the Quran are:

As a day [i.e. Day of Judgment] in which neither wealth nor children shall be of any benefit [to anyone], except one who comes to God with a sound [or pure] heart. (Surah 26 Ayat 88-89)

Have they not travelled in the land, and have they hearts with which to feel and ears with which to hear? for indeed it is not the eyes that grow blind, but it is the hearts, which are within the bosoms, that grow blind.
(Surah 22 Ayat 46)

That He (God) may make that which the Devil promises a temptation for those in those whose hearts is a disease, and those whose hearts are hardened - LO! the evildoers are in open shism. (Surah 22 Ayat 53).

Following the Introduction the book proceeds to the main text which details the spiritual diseases of the heart that humans can suffer from and how to treat and cure them. This section is a based on a poem written by the scholar Imam al-Mawlud on this topic of purification of the heart, and Hamza Yusuf thoughtfully translates and explains in detail this poem for all to understand. I found this section to also be very educational about many areas of Islam and life other than the immediate topic of self-purification.

The only thing in the text that I objected to was something written on page 108, where Hamza Yusuf tries to explain the events that followed the murder of Uthman the third ruler after the Prophet Mohammad (SAW). In his explanation of this Hamza Yusuf writes:

"Muslims, however, maintain a good opinion of Muawiya, contrary to the Shiites."

Although I don't believe Hamza Yusuf intended for this, the passage could perhaps be taken as been sectarian. As it could be seen that Hamza Yusuf calls Shiites to be separate from Muslims. Sectarianism itself is a disease of the heart and goes against the Quran and the Prophetic teachings. This passage should be clarified, and preferably the passage should read that "some Muslims have a good opinion of Muawiya, whilst other Muslims are sceptical of his intentions". the Use of labels of Sunni or Shiite is sectarian and are both innovations (as no one at the time of the Prophet used these labels).There are only Muslims and non-Muslims.

The book ends with three Appendices, which are added gifts to finish the book. The first is about techniques we can use in our quest of constant Remembrance of God, The second about The Holy month of Ramadan and its significance in self-purification and the third a small extract of advise by a 15th century scholar about how we can achieve self-purification.

5 Stars!

sheikh hamza yusuf is one of the few islamic scholars that has chosen to go into a deeper meaning of everything in the quran and islam in general...he can be thought of as having a little bit of sufi perspective on things.....he has chosen to point out the things in the messages that other scholars dont seem to grasp.....lovely book will help u learn a lot that perhaps u never understood before about islam.....beautiful book translated into english.....makes me think what else am i missing that still hasnt been translated into english for us....extremely recoomended book

It's a great book with a good tone (the author doesn't talk down). Provides some good insight to the way people behave, and how to avoid that behavior or improve oneself.

Wonderful resource: concise, excellently composed, and powerful. It's a book that I would love to present to all my family and friends.

This book is a very useful one, it is divided in many chapters each of them covering a specific disease of the heart, and ways in which it can be cured, it is a book which is full of wisdom as it contains Qu'ranic verses and sayings of the Prophet (PBUH), it also has many stories/events and is particularly useful for Muslims and non Muslims, for anyone looking to improve their way of life, their behavior and to be a better person, and particularly the book contains a lot of useful information for improving spiritually.

It is a book that I loved so much that I gave it to a friend, unfortunately it seems the book is very hard to get hold of now as it seems un available both on amazon.com and co.uk, I hope to get my hands on it again soon as I believe it is a book we can all read, many times.