Have you ever wondered how were Staling, Lenning and Hitler when they were just kids? What kind of toys they played with, what kind of games they favored? Did they ever think that they would be responsible for the deaths of millions of innocent people? What caused them to do that? What caused such people to do the atrocities they committed? One single answer: the nafs (the soul, the desire)
Ibn Al Qaim said: "If your enemy gets you don't say Shaitan had victory over you, rather say Al-Walee (The Protector) has left you. If Allah swt leaves us to our own selves and we are not guided and protected, the product of such are the Hitlers and the Stalings. If we follow our desire and we are void of fear and love of Allah, we can do anything. We can try to justify it by different means such as many of the justifications we hear today about occupying Palestine and the massacres that are taking place in Iraq. Such people firmly believe that they are justified in killing millions of people and at the same time they use a reverse psychology and blame the victims accusing them of terrorism and other such terms that carry meanings that do not apply. All this is done out of following the nafs.
Allah swt swears by the nafst in surah Shams (chapter 91 Quran vs 7) saying:
"And by the soul (nafs) and He who has proportioned it, 8 And inspired it with it's wickedness and it's righteousness.
Whenever Allah swt swears by something this object gains a high status. So the soul is something very important. But if we follow the verses we find that Allah created this soul with a component of evil and one of good. That is correct, Allah created us like that? Why? How would someone know sweet without sour? How would someone know good without evil? How would we be able to grow in goodness if we don't know the concept of the opposite and stay away from it, and how would we grow in spirituality if we would not commit some of this evil and amend and return back to our Creator? How would we know our Creator if we would not be in this constant return to Him, renewing our relationship with Him every time we commit a mistake. Is that it? Do we just sin and come back and sin again and come back? Well no, it's not as simple. This whole life is a struggle to stay away from sins and to push ourselves to get closer to the pleasure of our Creator. How do we do that? The answer is in verse 9 of the same chapter.
"He has succeeded who purifies it" (the nafst)
In order to be in charge over your nafs and not let it get the best of you, you have to be in the constant state of purification of such a soul. One needs to be in constant awareness of his Creator. He has to love and fear and hope for the Creator. He has to struggle to do good deeds and ask for forgiveness for his mistakes. Our Christian friends would raise a red flag here and say: ha, your works are just dirty rags, they will not help you, Jesus died for me and that's it. (some believe that, some don't). Our answer to that is: keep thinking that, because a couch potato is not the same as a person who works hard in this life; that's in the eyes of God. You let yourself go in disobeying God, we will struggle to obey His orders without using a scape goat and feeling safe. We will live in a constant state of worry, while you can relax (if that's what you want of life). We will die working, while you keep making up excuses that Jesus will take up your sins (when he himself will stand in front of God on the day of judgement). You keep corrupting the earth under the banner of love and peace, we will keep fighting and working for love and peace.
10 "And has failed he who instills it (the nafs) with corruption"
Our soul can lead us in two directions: one is evil one is good (even the worse of criminals might feel remorse for some of his deeds). As opposed to the concept of original sin (you are born with a stain that will take you to hell fire if you don't accept Jesus as your savior), the Islamic concept is that a man can do both good and evil. Some sins are only mistakes, small slips and others are greater. It's not just black and white. Good deeds erase bad deeds, and the Mercy of God can forgive all sins if, and are you read for this, and only if YOU ASSOCIATE NO ONE WITH GOD AND YOU WORSHIP HIM ALONE. You ask Him and Him alone for forgiveness and you try to amend yourself (which of course leads to the betterment of society as opposed to the fact that you think that you are a sinner and you are comfortable with that because someone died for your sins anyway). Islam is a social justice system that from a spiritual perspective it has at it's core the amendment and betterment of individuals which will lead to the betterment of society, with everyone responsible for their own mistakes.
Finally we will look at the story of a companion of the prophet and two examples from the Quran of instances where even some of the best have fallen prey to their nafs or have feared that the nafs would lead them astray if Alalh, The Protector leaves them alone. First we have the story of Hatib ibin Abi Baltaa, a muhajir, a companion who has witnessed Badr and a counselor of the prophet sas. Yet when the prophet revealed a secret to the companions and said he would conquer Mekka, Hatib sent a letter to the Mekaans trying to disclose this secret. The prophet received revelation about his and the letter was intercepted and brought back. This was treason and a big sin. Omar was ready to kill Hatib, but the prophet sas (with his calm attitude and wisdom) asked Hatib why did he do it. Hatib said he feared that if they fail there was no one to protect his family in Mekkah and he wanted to do this favor to the Quraish. The prophet said "He has spoken the truth". The lessons from this: first the mercy, wisdom and forgiveness of the prophet. Second, the sin of Hatib and the fact that anyone can fall in to the weakness of his soul, even a companion who had such a high status. If he fell to his nafs, how about us? Should we be so calm and not care?
Prophet Suahaib when confronted by the eminent amongst his society (it's usually these guys who give trouble to the truth seekers and the prophets) he gives a very interesting statement. He says he would not go to the religion of his people UNLESS ALLAH WILLS IT.
7:88 Said the great ones among his people, who gloried in their arrogance: "Most certainly, O Shu'ayb, we shall expel thee and thy fellow-believers from our land, unless you indeed return to our ways!" Said [Shu'ayb]: "Why, even though we abhor [them]?
7:89 We should be guilty of blaspheming against God [70] were we to return to your ways after God has saved us from them! It is not conceivable that we should return to them-unless God, our Sustainer, so wills. [71] All things does our Sustainer embrace within His knowledge; in God do we place our trust. O our Sustainer! Lay Thou open the truth between us and our people -for Thou art the best of all to lay open the truth!”
What does Suahaib mean by this statement? He is saying that if Allah swt wills, no matter how much he thinks he is in control he could be lead astray. He will never ever ever return to the evil pagan religion of his people EXCEPT if Allah leaves him and his nafs will take him and he will be amongst the ones mislead. This is a prophet of Allah saying that, an infallible, how about us poor servants and weak slaves of God? What kind of arrogance do we have believing that we are on the straight path because of some effort of ours? It is all by the will and protection of Allah. The second example is that of Ibrahim in surah Al Anaam. When faced with the idols he says he does not fear them and no harm can come to him EXCEPT IF ALLAH WILLS. Yet again another prophet of God depending only on Allah is prophet Yusuf (Joseph). He is being invited to commit adultery with a very powerful and beautiful woman. Being a man he recognized his weakness in front of his Lord saying that if Allah leaves him to himself he might be tempted and sway to what he is invited. He is asking Allah to protect him and confirming the fact that his nafs has the tendency to lean towards the invitation of this beautiful woman. What would you do if you would be in such a case? The prophets of Allah recognized their weakness and asked Allah for protection. Do you think you are stronger than them to be left alone? Do you think you can do without confessing your weakness to Alah and asking Him for help?
In conclusion, we are weak creatures. The only difference between us and animals is our intellect, reason and freedom of choice. We need to express our poverty in front of our Creator and acknowledge our need of Him. We need to submit our wills to His will, and to follow his orders in order to be rightly guided and succeed in this life and hereafter. If we don't do that we are not worshiping Allah but we are worshiping ourselves. Our guidance will be our nafs and our world will be corrupted with different ideas that spur from different desires. We will never have true peace and love and we will wonder blindly seeking a path that is not there, while the path of the one true God is close, in Islam.
By Jibreelk (with big inspiration from a lecture by Shaikh Ahmed Deif)
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