He has succeeded who purifies it

The one who purifies and develops it has certainly attained true success.

The word ‎أَفۡلَحَ‎ comes from ‎فَلۡح‎, which refers to a crack or split in the earth. A ‎فَلَّاح‎ is a farmer who splits the earth, makes a ditch, places a seed inside, and tends to it carefully.

When the farming season ends and the crop has grown fully, the farmer finally plucks out the fruit of all that year’s labor. This moment of harvest is called ‎فَلَاح‎.

The imagery is powerful: working on ourselves is delicate work, like tending a garden.

A farmer purifies the soil, removes corruptions, waters carefully, tends to the plant until finally the time comes to harvest.

Allah is using this agricultural metaphor to describe spiritual development.

The word ‎زَكَّى‎ has two meanings. First, to help something grow and rise. Second, to help something grow pure, without impurities.

Go back to the farmer’s image. You plant a seed in soil, trying to grow a plant. But naturally, weeds show up. Insects appear. They start sucking away nutrients meant for your plant.

Your job as a farmer is to constantly check what’s around the plant and remove these threats so the plant can grow properly, purely, without disease or infestation.

This is ‎زَكَاة‎—purification and growth.

The implication is profound: we are constantly going to be on a road to improvement, and there will constantly be room for mistakes. It doesn’t matter how much you know, how old you are, how much you’ve accomplished in the past. We’re still human beings.

Nobody will be free from flaw. Nobody reaches a point where they can say, ‘I’ve done enough, so I’m a good person now.’ That state doesn’t exist.

Knowledge won’t automatically save you. Beards won’t save you. Hijabs won’t save you. Being in the masjid won’t save you. You and I have to constantly check ourselves.

Yes, we will make mistakes. Then we must cleanse and cleanse and cleanse. The person who constantly engages in this struggle—do you know what this means? It means we’re never going to be done. We will work on ourselves until death.

And if we die in that state—constantly purifying, constantly growing—that is success.

When do we reap the benefits? In the Hereafter, when you bring forth this nafs that remained pure and wasn’t corrupted.