---
title: "The Purification of the Mirror — Cleansing the Heart"
event: "The Joy of Fasting"
session_number: 2
published_at: "2026-02-21"
canonical_url: "https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-purification-of-the-mirror-cleansing-the-heart"
event_url: "https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-joy-of-fasting"
type: "event-session"
scripture_reference: "Sahifa Sajjadiyyah, Prayer 32: His Supplication in the Night Prayer, Verse 17"
---

# The Purification of the Mirror — Cleansing the Heart

*Session 2 of [The Joy of Fasting](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-joy-of-fasting) — 21 February 2026*

The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him and his family, once told a fasting woman to eat.

She had spent the day cursing her servant. When he heard her, he called for food and said, simply, "Eat" — because, he told her, fasting is not merely leaving food and drink; God made that abstinence a barrier against the obscenities of act and speech that actually break a fast. "How few are those who truly fast," he said, "and how many are those who are merely hungry."

The session builds toward that narration through two images: a narration likening the five daily prayers to a flowing river at your door, washing away a day's residue, with a warning that a prayer performed without felt purification is valid but not accepted; and rust, the Qur'an's word for a heart so coated in heedlessness that light no longer reflects. Mirza Jawad Maliki Tabrizi lays out three tiers of fasting — of the stomach, the limbs, the heart — and insists that abstaining from food is only the entrance ticket, not the seat at the table.

Your fast can be valid and still change nothing — so what is it meant to be cleaning?

What the evening covers

The river at the door. The narration comparing prayer to a flowing stream, and the gap between a valid act of worship and an accepted one.
Rust, not dust. The Qur'anic image of a heart so encrusted that light no longer reflects in it.
Three tiers of fasting. Mirza Maliki Tabrizi's map from the fast of the stomach to the fast that guards the tongue and the eyes.
The fast that broke without food. The narration of the fasting woman, and what it means for a tongue to undo a stomach's discipline.

## Scripture

> وَلَا أَسْتَشْهِدُ عَلَى صِيَامِي نَهَاراً، وَلَا أَسْتَجِيرُ بِتَهَجُّدِي لَيْلًا، وَلَا تُثْنِي عَلَيَّ بِإِحْيَائِهَا سُنَّةٌ حَاشَا فُرُوضِكَ الَّتِي مَنْ ضَيَّعَهَا هَلَكَ
>
> I cannot call upon daytime to witness my fasting, nor can I seek sanctuary in night because of my vigil; no Sunna praises me for keeping it alive, only Your obligations, he who neglects which has perished.

— *Sahifa Sajjadiyyah, Prayer 32: His Supplication in the Night Prayer, Verse 17*

## Programme

- [Watch the full session](https://youtu.be/hiYsB3sq0Kk)
- [Sermon: The Purification of the Mirror — Cleansing the Heart](https://youtu.be/hiYsB3sq0Kk)

## Other sessions in this event

- [Session 6 — The Return — How to Carry the Fire](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-return-how-to-carry-the-fire) — 21 March 2026
- [Session 5 — The Meeting — Laylatul Qadr and the Meeting with God](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-meeting-laylatul-qadr-and-the-meeting-with-god) — 14 March 2026
- [Session 4 — The Sacrifice That Liberates — Breaking the Idol of Habit](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-sacrifice-that-liberates-breaking-the-idol-of-habit) — 7 March 2026
- [Session 3 — The Feast of Light — Spiritual Nutrition](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-feast-of-light-spiritual-nutrition) — 28 February 2026
- [Session 1 — The Great Migration — From the Self to God](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-great-migration-from-the-self-to-god) — 14 February 2026

---

_Read this session on the web: https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-purification-of-the-mirror-cleansing-the-heart_