2.3.7 - Self-Accounting and Taking Notes of His Thoughts

Mysticism depends, as we have seen, mainly on cleansing the heart and accounting the self to refine the highest ethics and morals and refrain from all bad habits or even the allowed desires. By no means, this is not an easy state to achieve, but it requires a lot of effort and monitoring and follow-up. One of the methods used to monitor and hold accountable for its actions is to register the thoughts that occur to the heart so that one can evaluate himself and fight the harmful thoughts and persevere the beneficial. We have talked about the types of thoughts and how they occur on the heart and how to distinguish between them in the book of the Behavior of the Heart [The Behavior of the Heart: pp. 158-167], as explained by Shaykh Muhyiddin in chapters 255-264 of the Meccan Revelations.

Shaykh Muhyiddin Ibn al-Arabi stated that some of his shaykhs were holding themselves accountable for what they spoke and what they were doing in the day, and used to keep all that in a notebook so that they can review at night. In the end they ask forgiveness or repentance of anything they did wrong, or they thanked Allah for the good acts, and only after that they can go to sleep. Shaykh Muhyiddin said that he also was doing all this and even added noting down his thoughts; so he was registering what he spoke to himself and what comes on his mind, in addition to his words that he spoke and his deeds that he did. He then held himself accountable like them, day by day, until he was able to reduce the unwanted thoughts and curiosity, because one has to pay attention for every breath of the precious breaths that one has, and this will have great benefits when working by intention [Futuhat: I.275]. The behavior is based on the command of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, in hi saying: “Hold yourselves accountable.” [Kanz: 44203].