Muraqaba al-Niyyah

Muraqaba al-niyyah is the ongoing practice of watching and examining one's own motivations — a kind of continuous inner audit that prevents the infiltration of corrupting intentions before they contaminate an act. Al-Ghazali prescribes a three-stage process: before the act, examine what is motivating it; during the act, check for any drift in motivation; and after the act, assess whether the motivation remained pure throughout. He is realistic: most people will find this practice initially disturbing, because it reveals how rarely their acts are truly pure. But he is also encouraging — the very disturbance is evidence of a living conscience, and the practice itself is a form of ikhlas.

As understood in the classical tradition of Imam al-Ghazali and the scholars of his school.