Sufism

Polishing the heart's mirror of its rust through remembrance

Al-Ghazali pictures every indulged appetite and moment of forgetfulness as rust settling on the heart's natural mirror-like surface, with sustained remembrance functioning as the polish that removes it.

Al-Ghazali, in "The Marvels of the Heart," Book 21 of the Ihya Ulum al-Din, returns repeatedly to the image of the heart as a mirror whose natural state is to reflect reality, including divine reality, clearly. Every sin, every moment of heedlessness, and every indulged appetite deposits a layer of rust on that mirror, dulling its capacity to reflect truth even though the mirror's underlying nature stays undamaged beneath the buildup. Remembrance of God and disciplined self-examination function, in this picture, as the polish, not adding anything new to the heart but removing what has accumulated over it so that what was always capable of reflecting divine light can do so again. Al-Ghazali is explicit that this is gradual, effortful work rather than a single event, which is why he devotes an entire book of the Ihya to diagnosing which vices tarnish the heart and how.

Ihya Ulum al-Din

Written about in

• What Sufism says about habit and discipline

  In Book 21 the heart is a mirror whose natural state is to reflect, and each heedless moment leaves rust on it. Remembrance is the polish. The claim inside the image matters for anyone starting over: nothing is being added, and the mirror beneath is never damaged, only covered.