He who purified himself shall prosper

Purity is the virtue of benevolence—acting without any trace of evil or selfish motives. Intentions are pure only when they are free of self-interest, egoism, desire, envy, cruelty, spite, greed, malice, lust, trickery, and dishonesty. Motives are pure only when they are free of power, control, and coercion. Purity can only be genuine, never faked. Purity is the state of being unsullied by sin or moral wrong; lacking a knowledge of evil. synonyms: innocence, pureness, sinlessness, whiteness. see more. types: cleanness.

And when it comes to the believers, it is those of them who have unflinching trust in Allah and who cleanse themselves from all impurities, whether physical or  spiritual. And it those who guard against all Satanic machinations and keep them safe from all worldly temptations that are the given the glad tidings of eternal prosperity as promised by Allah in the 14th verse of Surah 87. Al A'la:

قَدۡ اَفۡلَحَ مَنۡ تَزَكّٰىۙ‏ 

(87:14) He who purified himself shall prosper,

Who purified himself: Who affirmed the faith giving up disbelief and polytheism, adopted good morals giving up evil morals, and performed good deeds giving up evil deeds. Success does not imply worldly prosperity, but true and real success whether worldly prosperity accompanies it or not.

Purification can be of spiritual, physical or material.

– Spiritual purification can be achieved by avoiding polytheism and accepting Islamic Monotheism.

– Physical purification can be achieved by ablution (Wudoo) and ritual bath (Gusl).

– Material purification can be achieved by earning through Halal (lawful) means and spending it in the right way [i.e. (1) giving Zakat (obligatory charity), (2) spending on ownself, parents, children, wives, (3) giving voluntary charity to the poor and (4) in Allah’s Cause (for the sake of Islam)].

This is same as the first verse of Surah Al Mominoon:

قَدۡ اَفۡلَحَ الۡمُؤۡمِنُوۡنَۙ‏ 

(23:1) The believers have indeed attained true success:

“Believers”, who have attained true success, are those who have accepted the message of Muhammad (peace be upon him), and have acknowledged him as their guide and followed the way of life taught by him.

This assertion cannot be fully appreciated unless one keeps in view the background in which it was made. On the one hand, there were the well-to-do and prosperous chiefs of Makkah, the opponents of Islam, whose business was thriving and who were enjoying every good thing of life, and on the other hand, there were the followers of Islam, majority of whom were either poor from the beginning, or had been reduced to poverty by ruthless antagonism to Islam. Therefore, the assertion: Most certainly the believers have attained true success, with which the discourse begins, was meant to tell the disbelievers that the criterion of success and failure that they had in mind was not correct. It was based on misconceptions besides being transitory and limited in nature: it led to failure and not true success. On the contrary, the followers of Muhammad (peace be upon him), whom they regarded as failures, were truly successful, because by accepting the invitation to the right guidance given by the Messenger of Allah, they had struck a bargain which would lead them to true success and everlasting bliss in this world as well as in the Hereafter, whereas by rejecting the message the opponents had incurred loss and would meet with the evil consequences both in this world and in the next.

This is the main theme of the Surah and the whole discourse, from the beginning to the end, is meant to impress the same.

And also:

اُولٰٓـئِكَ عَلٰى هُدًى مِّنۡ رَّبِّهِمۡ​ وَاُولٰٓـئِكَ هُمُ الۡمُفۡلِحُوۡنَ‏  

(Surah 31 Luqman:5) It is they who are on true guidance from their Lord, and it is they who shall prosper.

At the time when these verses were sent down, the disbelieves of Makkah thought, and said so openly, that Muhammad (peace be upon him) and those who accepted his message were wasting and ruining their lives. Therefore, it was stated with full force and emphasis: “Those are the ones who will be successful.” That is, they will not ruin themselves as you seem to think in your ignorance, but they in fact are the ones who alone will attain true success, and the utter failures will be those who have refused to adopt this way. Here the one who regards true success as confined to the world, in the sense of material prosperity, will be fully missing the Quranic concept of it. 

To understand the real concept of the true success one should study the following verses of the Quran along with the relevant explanations: (Surah Al- Baqarah: Ayats 2-5), (Surah Aal-Imran: Ayats 102, 130, 200), (Surah Al-Maidah: Ayats 35, 90), (Surah Al-Anaam: Ayat 21), (Surah Al-Aaraf; Ayats 7, 8,157), (Surah At-Taubah: Ayat 88), (Surah Yunus: Ayat 17), (Surah An-Nahl: Ayat 116), (Surah Al-Hajj: Ayat 77), (Surah Al-Muminun: Ayat 117), (Surah An-Nur: Ayat 51), (Surah Ar-Rum: Ayat 38).

A true believer must always be praying to Allah, beseeching Him to keep him away from all physicals and spiritual impurities, saying:

As I pursue purity in my life, help me remember that this includes the fear of the Lord as well. May I remember always that You are the all-powerful God and I am to bow down in awe of You. God, grant me a pure heart and clean hands as I bow down in worship of You. You are gracious, good, and merciful. 

Remember, it is the heart when it is purified and enlightened , becomes inspired. Just as intellect is the instrument of knowledge, heart is the instrument of inspiration. If we are pure we will reach Allah. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see Allah”. A pure heart sees beyond the intellect. 

May Allah help us understand Qur'ān and help us to act upon the commandments of Allah contained therein. Aameen.

For more Selected Verses, please refer to our reference page: Selected Verses from the Qur'an. You may also refer to our Reference Pages for knowing more about Islam and Qur'ān.

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Reading the Qur'ān should be a daily obligation of a Muslim - Reading it with translation will make it meaningful. But reading its Exegesis / Tafsir will make you understand it fully.

An effort has been made to gather explanation / exegesis of the surahs of the Qur'ān from authentic sources and then present a least possible condensed explanation of the surah. In that:

• The plain translation has been taken from the Qur'ān officially published by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. [1]
• The exegesis of the chapters of the Quran is mainly based on the "Tafhim al-Qur'an - The Meaning of the Qur'an" by one of the most enlightened scholars of the Muslim World Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi. [2]  

In order to augment and add more explanation as already provided by [2], additional input has been interjected from following sources: 

• Towards Understanding the Quran
• Tafsir Ibn Khatir
• Muhammad Asad Translation
• Javed Ahmad Ghamidi / Al Mawrid
• Al-Quran, Yusuf Ali Translation
• Verse by Verse Qur'an Study Circle

In addition the references of  other sources which have been explored have also been given above. Those desirous of detailed explanations and tafsir (exegesis), may refer to these sites.

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Posted in: Chapter 87,Selected Verses from Quran,Surah Al Ala,Verse 14