It means to leave everything outside. Before you begin to walk, leave the material world (ad-dunya) and leave everything outside that tries to stop you from walking on the Path. Maybe it is your mother or your father or your work or you place in society or your money, anything. When you clean all these things from your mind and your body and you follow through every Order from Allah for you, then you clean yourself. This is what God wants.
Excerpt from Conversations in the Zawiyah by Sidi Shaykh Muhammad Said al-Jamal ar-Rifa’i
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