Friday Nasiha

Living The Quran

The Enemy Inside
Al-Rad (The Thunder) - Chapter 13: Verses 11 (partial)

"Indeed, Allah will not change the condition of a people until they first change what is in themselves."

When a body is in a deep, deep slumber - a coma - it is only out of Allah's infinite mercy that He sends us a wakeup call. It is only from His infinite mercy that He sends to us life where there was once only death. We were heedless, so He sent us a sign. We were asleep, so he woke us up.

The enemy is inside of us. All external enemies are only manifestations of our own diseases. And so if we want to conquer those enemies, we must first conquer the enemy inside ourselves. We must first conquer greed, selfishness, shirk, ultimate fear, love, hope and dependence on anything other than Allah. We must conquer hubbad-dunya (love of the world) — the root of all our diseases, and all our oppression. Before we can defeat the Pharaohs in our lives, we must defeat the Pharaoh inside ourselves.

When you are free inside, you will never allow anyone to take away your freedom. And when you have inner freedom, you can look through tyrants and thugs to the Lord of the tyrants and thugs. When you are free inside, you become unenslaveable, because you can only enslave a person with attachments. You can only threaten a person who is afraid of loss. You only have power over someone when they need or want something that you have the ability to take away. But there is only one thing which no person has the power to take away from you: God.

Compiled From:
"Reclaim Your Heart" - Yasmin Mogahed

From Issue: 1026 [Read original issue]

Understanding The Prophet's Life

Envy, Deceit, Hatred

Abu-Hurayrah, may God be pleased with him, said that God's Messenger, may God's peace and blessings be upon him and his family, said, "Do not envy each other. Do not shill-bid each other. Do not hate each other." Reported by Muslim.

The statement of the Prophet, may God's peace and blessings be upon him, "Do not envy each other," means do not wish for others to lose the blessings that they have. This is haram. In another hadith, the Prophet says, "Do not envy each other for envy eats good deeds the way fire eats firewood or timber.[Abu Dawud]" Jealousy, on the other hand, is wishing to have what others have without wishing them not to have what they have. Sometimes the word envy is used in place of the word jealousy since they are close in meaning. For example, the Prophet, may God's peace and blessings be upon him, says, "People shouldn't envy anyone except two: a wealthy person who spends the wealth to do good deeds, and a wise person who uses the wisdom to be just and who teaches the wisdom to others.[Bukhari]" "People shouldn't envy anyone except two" means people shouldn't be jealous of anyone except two.

The statement of the Prophet, may God's peace and blessings be upon him, "Do not shill-bid each other," means do not deceive each other by artificially raising the price of goods. Ibn-Qutaybah said that the word shill-bidding (in Arabic) comes from the word deception. A hunter is called a shill-bidder because it deceives its prey.

The statement of the Prophet, may God's peace and blessings be upon him, "Do not hate each other," means do not do wrongful acts that make you hate each other. Hatred corrupts the religion.

Compiled From:
"Ibn-Daqiq's Commentary on the Nawawi Forty Hadiths" - Ibn Daqiq Al-Eid

From Issue: 1040 [Read original issue]

Blindspot!

Why We Need Anger?

Although anger clearly has some connection with hostility and aggression, they are not the same. Hostility is an attitude of ill will, aggression refers to behaviour that is always meant to hurt, whereas anger is an emotion - plain and simple. Anger is neither a positive or negative emotion; it is the way we handle our anger - what we do with it - that makes it negative or positive. For example, when we use our anger to motivate us to make life changes or to make changes to dysfunctional systems, anger becomes a very positive emotion.

When we express anger through aggressive or passive-aggressive ways (such as getting even or gossiping), it becomes a negative emotion. So why do we need anger at all? Why not simply work toward eliminating it from our lives entirely? The reason is that there are many positive functions of anger:

• It energizes and motivates us to make changes in our lives.
• It serves as a catalyst for resolving interpersonal conflict.
• It promotes self-esteem - when we stand up for ourselves, we feel better about ourselves.
• It fosters a sense of personal control during times of peak stress.
• Expression of anger can actually promote health. Women with cancer who express their anger are found to live longer than those who express no anger.
• As uncomfortable as anger is for many of us, it can be preferable to anxiety, as it lays the blame outside ourselves.

If we find constructive ways of releasing anger and safe places to let it out, it can become a positive force in our lives, creating energy, motivation, assertiveness, empowerment, and creativity.

Compiled From:
"The Nice Girl Syndrome" - Beverly Engel, pp. 165-167

From Issue: 650 [Read original issue]