Knowing Yourself

The Alchemy of Happiness is a guide to transforming the essence of man from baseness to the purity of the angelic state. This transformation is through increasing the knowledge of God. However, before we can begin to know God, we must first know ourselves. Knowing ourselves starts with the understanding of the two distinct components of human being which are the body and the heart (the spiritual heart). There are five steps to understand the heart.

1. Recognize its existence

2. Know its true nature Know that the heart seeks happiness through the knowledge of God. It acquires this knowledge through the knowledge of God’s creation.

3. The body is the kingdom Know that the body is a kingdom and within it, the limbs and the organs are its workers. Appetite is the tax collector. Anger is the policeman. Intellect is the chief minister and the heart is the king. The body is in a constant spiritual struggle between being held captive by anger and appetite and using them as a mount and weapon to attain spiritual fulfillment. If the heart act to the advice of intellect and keeps anger and appetite under control, the path to happiness will be made accessible. But if the intellect becomes the prisoner of anger and appetite, the kingdom will become desolate. Eventually, the heart will be destroyed.

4. Relationship within the kingdom Know that appetite and anger were created to nourish and protect the body and they are its servant. The body was built to bear the senses and it is their servant. The senses were created for intelligence gathering and serve the intellect. The intellect was created as the lamp of the heart. Through its light, the heart may see the divine presence thus the intellect is the servant of the heart. The heart was created to witness the beauty of the divine presence and is its servant.

5. Know its character

The heart has several qualities which can be grouped into four types:

a. The predatory attribute that finds happiness in rage, destruction and killing b. The bestial attribute that seeks happiness in eating, sleeping and copulating c. The demonic attribute that thrives on evil, treachery and deceit. d. The angelic attribute that pursues happiness in the contemplation of the divine presence.

To attain spiritual happiness, the angelic quality of intellect must master the predatory, bestial and demonic qualities. Now that you know the qualities of the heart, know that the heart’s nobility is what elevates humans above the rank of beasts. Nobility from knowledge has two degrees. One is gathered by the heart through a door that opens toward the five external senses such as learning the art of the sciences. The other is acquired directly by the heart through a door that opens to the Heavens and divine inspiration (ladunni).

The heart is like a well and knowledge is its water. The five senses are streams that fill the well. At the base of the well is dirt. Beneath the well is a pure spring. This dirt is like a veil that blocks the heart from accessing divine inspiration. To fill your heart with the pure water that lay beneath it, you must block the stream and empty the water. You must then remove the dirt at the base of the well which is achieved by the struggle of disciplining the soul. Only then, the fountain of never-ending knowledge will burst through and fill your heart.

In truth, people in this world are deficient and weak. The heart is constantly struggling to subjugate the body base qualities to the intellect. This is done through the knowledge of God and its key; the knowledge of oneself, the heart and its nobility. This elevates man from the rank of a beast to that of angels and is the start of the Alchemy of Happiness.

Retrieved from: Alchemy of Happiness by Imam al-Ghazali