Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth By Ibn Qudamah al-Maqdisi

The Muslim knows that the struggle against the self is real. The desire for food, sleep, status, and ease — all of it pulls against the demands of worship, consistency, and sincerity. And yet the path to Allah runs directly through this struggle: "And those who strive for Us — We will surely guide them to Our ways." (Surah al-Ankabut 29:69)

Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth is part of this series from Dar as-Sunnah dedicated to the Islamic science of tazkiyah — the purification and disciplining of the soul. It takes up where foundational works on the heart leave off, addressing the specific diseases and impulses that undermine a Muslim's spiritual growth and providing the Qur'anic and Prophetic guidance for overcoming them.

What This Book Covers

The Marvels of the Heart and Its Diseases

The heart is the seat of iman and the point from which every deed originates. This section examines the heart's nature, its susceptibility to corruption, and what the early scholars said about treating the spiritual illnesses that cloud it — primarily through awareness, repentance, and returning to Allah.

Disciplining the Self: Desires of the Stomach and Private Parts

Among the most powerful drives in the human self are hunger and sexual desire. The book addresses both — not to condemn them (they are part of the human being's creation) but to establish the Islamic framework for governing them properly, so that they serve the person rather than controlling him.

Pride, Malice, Envy, and the Tongue

These four are among the most destructive diseases of the heart and the most common. The book examines each in turn: how they arise, how they manifest in behavior, what the Qur'an and Sunnah say about them, and how the sincere believer works to uproot them through the tools the scholars identified.

Greed, Love of Praise, Showing Off, and Self-Delusion

The final section addresses the diseases that corrupt deeds from the inside: greed for wealth, the craving for others' praise, riya (showing off in worship), and 'ujb (self-delusion about one's own righteousness). These are subtle and dangerous — they can persist in a person who considers himself righteous — and the book treats them with the seriousness they deserve.

About the Author

Ibn Qudamah is Abdullah ibn Muhammad ibn Qudamah, Abu Muhammad Muwaffaq al-Din al-Jama'ili al-Maqdisi, born in Jama'il, Palestine, in 541/1146. A Hanbali scholar and Imam, he was educated in Damascus and was the author of the nine-volume Al-Mughni in Hanbali jurisprudence as well as other works in the fundamentals of Sacred Law, tenets of faith, genealogy, biography, and Qur'anic exegesis. He travelled to Baghdad in 561 AH and lived there four years before returning to Damascus, where he died in 620/1223. Published by Dar as-Sunnah Publishers.

Who This Book Is For

Any Muslim who wants to make real progress in their relationship with Allah and recognizes that the primary obstacle is often the self. Particularly valuable for those who find themselves inconsistent in worship, plagued by pride, envy, or the love of praise, or who want a structured Islamic framework for spiritual growth that goes beyond surface-level advice.

Continue Reading

Browse more works by Ibn Qudamah al-Maqdisi. The series also includes The Inner Secrets of Worship (the third instalment), Purification of the Soul (the fourth) and The Refinement of Character. For how these compare with the other classics on the heart, see our guide to the best books on purifying the soul (tazkiyah), or browse the full tazkiyah collection.