slip-sliding away…..

Continuing our Ramadaan series, this post continues the book entitled “Purification of the Heart: Signs, Symptoms and Cures of the Spiritual Diseases of the Heart” – Shaykh Hamza Yusuf Hanson‘s translation and commentary of Imam Muḥammad Mawlūd’s didactic poem “Matharat al-Qulub” (purification of the heart). The Imam was a 19th century Mauritanian scholar. For notes on the copyright status of the book, as well as links to purchase your own copy, please see the introductory post of the series.

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Anger

POEM VERSES 130–137

As for the swelling ocean of all of these diseases, I mean anger; if you come to its shore, you will see great astonishments.

Its waves and everything else about it are overflowing. So say of it what you will without constraint.


It has two treatments: one of them removes it altogether without trace. The other suppresses it should it manifest itself.

To be adorned with the ornament of its cure, remember the extensive praise lavished upon forbearance and humility,

In sacred law, as well as in the poetry and prose of the wise. Indeed, remember that all of the prophets have been depicted as having both qualities.

Repel [anger] by perceiving at its onset that there is no one doing anything in reality except the Almighty;
Also by performing ablution with cold water, keeping silent, lying down [if one is sitting],

And sitting [if one is standing]. It will pass by doing these things, and also by seeking refuge in God as was mentioned in the tradition.

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Definition

Imam Mawlūd says of the next disease that it is a “swelling ocean.” He refers to intense anger or wrath (ghaḍab), which aptly compares with a swelling mass of emotion that is difficult to hold back once it is unleashed. Anger is truly an amazing phenomenon if one reflects on its nature and presence in human life and character, its peril and liability, as well as its utility and necessity. According to a hadith, a man asked the Prophet , “What is the worst thing that one incurs concerning God?” The Prophet  replied, “His wrath.” The man then asked, “How do we avoid it?” The Prophet  said, “Do not become angry.” This statement reveals a fascinating reality in which we live and informs a good portion of the Muslim religious perspective: there is a correlation between what a person does and what he receives from God in kind—a correspondence that our all- wise Lord has placed in the workings of creation. If one wishes not to incur the wrath of God, then one should not be wrathful or angry with people unjustly. Similarly, the Prophet  said that whoever makes someone’s path to knowledge easy, God will make his or her path to Paradise easy. And whoever covers the shortcomings of his brother, God will cover his shortcomings in the Hereafter. God, the All-Wise, placed this special reciprocity in this world.

Another man asked the Prophet , “Give me advice.” The Prophet  said, “Do not become angry.” The man asked again, and the Prophet  repeated his advice. For a third time, the man asked the question, and the Prophet  said again, “Do not become angry.” The repetition of this counsel stresses the importance of the Prophet’s admonition about anger. Scholars agree, however, that this hadith does not prohibit anger categorically, for even the Messenger of God  became angry when appropriate. He once said, “I am a human being, and I become angry like you.” The Prophet’s anger could be seen on his face. But his anger was always in response to an aberration in human character and behavior offensive to God. So anger is not necessarily a negative emotion in and of itself. It is part of the human creation, just as our flesh and limbs are. Without anger, there are many things that would not have been achieved. Anger can be a positive motivator.

However, there is another side to anger that we must guard against. If it is not guided to something useful, it can possess, consume, and ultimately destroy a person. How many times have we seen or heard of a person who ruined his or her life because of a rash act or statement made in a fit of rage? How many people do we know who are entirely estranged and avoided because of their inability to corral their anger? How many times have people been deeply offended and unjustly violated by the anger of another? How many people create oppressive environments because of the fear they instill in others around them because of irrational and feral anger?  Interestingly,  Mawlānā  Jalāluddīn  al-Rūmī  locates  the wisdom of the Islamic prohibition of alcohol within the peril of anger; when people drink, even if they are not visibly inebriated, they often become easily angered and belligerent. What is mercifully veiled in human beings is often exposed when alcohol enters the scene.

According to scholars, like Imam al-Nawawī and others, when the Messenger of God  said, “Do not become angry,” he meant do not allow anger to lord over oneself and cause the loss of one’s comportment. In other words, do not become anger, its embodiment, such that people only see your rage. Instead, control anger and never lose control. Scholars have likened anger to a hunting dog: without training, it will never retrieve what its owner needs nor will it point a person in the right direction. So anger is something that needs to be trained, not abolished, for if people completely suppressed their sense of anger, many of the injustices of the world would not have been opposed and tyranny would have gone unchecked. Without anger, people would go around with complete impunity and commit heinous acts without resistance from the people. Corruption would cover the face of the earth.

Muslim scholars have identified four essential qualities in human beings, which have been identified in earlier traditions as well. Imam al-Ghazālī and Fakhruddīn al-Rāzī adopted them, as did Imam Rāghib alIsfahānī in his book on ethics. According to Imam  al-Ghazālī, the first of them is quwwat al-ʿilm, known in Western tradition as the rational soul, which is human capacity to learn. The next one, quwwat al-ghaḍab, which may be called the irascible soul, is the capacity that relates to human emotion and anger. The third element, quwwat alshahwah, known as the concupiscent soul, is related to appetite and desire. The fourth power, quwwat al-ʿadl, harmonizes the previous three powers and keeps them in balance so that no one capacity overtakes and suppresses the others.

In Western tradition, these capacities correspond to what is known as cardinal virtues. Muslims call them ummahāt al-faḍā’il. They are wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice (ḥikmah, shajāʿah, ʿiffah, and ʿadl). When the rational soul is balanced, the result is wisdom. Whoever is given wisdom has been given much good (QUR’AN , 2:269). Wisdom, according to Imam al-Ghazālī, is found in one who is balanced, who is neither a simpleton nor a shrewd, tricky person. If there is a deficit in the rational soul, the result is foolishness. When the rational soul becomes excessive and inordinately dominant, the result is trickery and the employment of the intellect toward the exploitation of others.

Courage manifests when the irascible soul—anger—is under control, when a mean is struck between impetuousness (irrational behavior that people ultimately regret) and cowardice, which is marked by fear overriding the anger required to courageously respond to exploitation, oppression, personal threats, and wrongdoing. There is a middle path between these extremes, as the Prophet  said, namely, a middle way of wisdom and courage.

Temperance (ʿiffah) is a balance within the concupiscent soul, which is related to appetite and desire. Those who do not possess this quality often recognize a dignifying quality, a richness of soul of those who do possess it (QUR’AN , 2:273). People of ʿiffah tend to abstain from trying to attain wealth, not only through ruse and fraud, but also through begging. Attaining things through illicit means is working from a posture of imbalance with regard to one’s desire. It is a suspension or retraction of balance resulting in defrauding people and, ultimately, one’s own soul. This is the irony of giving in to one’s base desires, which offers some immediate gratification but harms the soul and dampens its spirituality.

The topic of anger is usually treated as a matter requiring balance and is closely associated with those deeds and habits that either throw one’s balance off or guard it. As it is traditionally understood, imbalance in one aspect of life affects other areas of human behavior. The Prophet  said, for example, “The worst vessel the son of Adam fills is his stomach.” We understand from this that there is a relationship between character and consumption, a dialogue that the modern marketing desperately wants us to discount. Not only do we oppress our health when we fill our stomachs, but other aspects of our lives are also affected when we do so because of the connection between excessiveness in one area and the corollary damage it brings about in others. Muslim scholars throughout our history have pointed this out and have relied on sound statements of the Prophet  for proof, for he prayed against a stomach that is not easily satisfied. He recommended that one–third of the stomach be filled with food and one–third with water, and that the last third be left for air.

The same ethic applies to the sexual appetite, which is required for a healthy state. It is discouraged to completely ignore one’s desire. But if one transgresses and goes beyond what is permissible, this is oppression and wrongdoing. Popular culture has placed an emphasis on illicit sexual intimacy and recklessness, making it seem normal and acceptable. Sexual relationships between unmarried partners, who neither commit their lives to each other nor feel any necessary emotional ties, is made to seem the summit of sexual excitement.

According to Imam al-Ghazālī, the one who perfected the balance between these forces was the Messenger of God , for he was the most just of men. The more one emulates him in his behavior, the greater balance one will achieve. The way of the Prophet  was the middle way, the way of moderation.

With regard to anger, Imam al-Ghazālī says that it is acceptable only at the right time, in the right place, for the right reasons, and with the right intensity. The Messenger of God  never allowed his anger to get the best of him. He was in control of himself, secure, and always in the state of spiritual certainty. Out of the thousands of reports about the minutest details of the Prophet’s life , never has anyone related that the Prophet  ever did anything that was imprudent or rash. Never did he apply his intellectual gifts and prophetic status for anything other than guiding humanity aright.

Qadi Ibn al-ʿArabī, in speaking about courage and the larger issue of balance, said that after the Messenger of God , no one was more courageous than Abū Bakr . If one were to ponder the events during the life of the Prophet , it was Abū Bakr  who continually showed up in the Prophet’s defense and support. He was particularly firm and resolute, the one who did not waver when others wavered. He was the one who accompanied the Prophet  in his migration to Medina. Each of the Rightly Guided Caliphs (al-Khulafā’ al-Rāshidūn) embodied one of the aforementioned virtues as his dominant character. ʿUmar ibn al- Khaṭṭāb  is associated with being particularly sensitive to justice and fairness. ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān’s name is derived from the same Arabic root as ʿiffah, which according to al-Qāmūs of al- Fayrūzabādī, refers not only to moderation but also to one who is abstinent and chaste, a meaning that is fitting for ʿUthmān. The Prophet  once said that even the angels were shy before ʿUthmān because of his modesty. In ʿAlī ibn AbīṬālib, there is extraordinary wisdom or ḥikmah. It is true that these great heroes of Islamic civilization embodied in a particular way one of the four virtues, but they also kept a balance that enshrined the rest.

The phrase ṣirāṭ al-mustaqīm, the straight or upright path, is repeated many times each day by the Muslim worshipper. No phrase better epitomizes the way of life of the Muslim. The word mustaqīm suggests balance. If one deviates from this balanced path, he does so in one of two ways: deficiency in fulfilling one’s obligations and excessiveness therein. The concept of monkhood, for example, does not receive approbation in Islam as a form of practice. The Qur’an states that the institution of monasticism was not prescribed by God (QUR’AN , 57:27). According to Qur’anic commentators, the people of monasticism became immoderate in their practices, which originated from the desire to gain God’s good pleasure. However, they were unable to fulfill to maintain their practices, which is the nature of excess and its main defect. When one is unable to keep up with certain practices, one becomes either worn out or altogether jaded, and this is antithetical to the straight path of Islam. Balance, then, is not merely a merciful device for adherents, but the shortest distance between a person and his or her spiritual objectives.

The objectives of the rites of worship and practices cannot exceed what is natural. Sexual attraction, like hunger, cannot be removed from the soul; nor is it to one’s benefit to try to do so. Celibacy is not considered a virtue in Islam. Chastity and licit sexual intimacy are. Church history tells of the Puritans who went so far as to swear off normal desires, such that sexual relations were nearly tabooed between a man and his wife. It became an entirely perfunctory activity of marriage fleeced of the enjoyment that a husband and wife are not only entitled to have but are encouraged to experience.

The usual result of excessiveness is its antithesis. A society that starts out with extreme Puritanical ethics may turn into one of overindulgence and licentiousness. On an individual level, the experience is similar. It is a principal feature of the Islamic faith that the “middle way” be the path that Muslims adhere to. The Qur’an itself calls the believers a “middle nation,” which commentators say includes moderation, which leads to a consistency of worship and conduct that one can carry on throughout his or her life. It is said that the Judaic legal tradition is based on stern justice, while at the foundation of the Christian phenomena is the idea of categorical mercy where everybody should be forgiven no matter what. With Islam, a balance is struck suitable for the complex societies that have spread across the face of the earth, a balance between avoiding God’s ghaḍab (wrath and stern justice) and hoping for God’s raḥmah (mercy). To take the straight way, one must have both, the law and the spirit of the law, the sharīʿah and the ḥaqīqah. The law consists of rules, and the spirit of the law is mercy. God sent down the shariah as a mercy, and the Prophet  himself is “a mercy to the worlds” (QUR’AN , 21:107).

There is an inward and outward state in every human soul, with the inward being imān (the condition of the faith) and the outward being islām (the manifestation or practice of the faith). When the two come together inwardly and outwardly, the resulting balance is a truly beautiful human being, one generally called a muḥsin, one whose worship and character are excellent. This is the taker of the straight path and what we all strive for and petition God for each time we stand in prayer. According to Ibn al-Taymīyyah, Muslims can deviate by way of striving to avoid God’s ghaḍab or by way of seeking His raḥmah. They may go the way of the hairsplitting, tyrannical scholar who condemns practically everyone and every act, or the way of the ignorant worshipper, as in extreme Sufism, which concludes that all is one and that everybody is going to Paradise, regardless of one’s creed, one’s disfigurement of God’s revelations, and one’s outright fabrications about God and His nature.

The balance is to cling outwardly to the law and carry the spirit of Sufism inwardly, as Imam al-Shāfiʿī advised. When Muslims deal with one another, they should incline toward clemency and mercy, not wrath and severity. God says that the former is closer to taqwah (God-consciousness) than the latter (QUR’AN, 5:8). It is a more elevated act to reprieve than it is to exact justice. Imam Rāghib alIsfahānī said, “When love exists, there is no need for justice.” What he meant by this is that when love is present and is allowed to override one’s anger, the demand for retribution is quieted. If we were to look at the emotions behind the first major trial of the Islamic community after the passing away of the Prophet , there was a deviation from the spirit of love and cooperation. Muʿāwiyah  demanded justice for the murder of ʿUthmān . But ʿAlī ibn AbīṬālib , who had great wisdom, demanded forgiveness because he saw that the demand for retribution would rip the nation apart. Sunni Muslims, however, maintain a good opinion of Muʿāwiyah, contrary to the Shiites. Sunnis believe his intentions—like those of ʿĀ’ishah and Zubayr —were purely for the attainment of justice. Imam ʿAlī’s position, according to many Muslim historians and scholars, was actually the higher level of Islam, which is to have raḥmah or mercy and clemency. What we learn here is that there is hidden hazard in inordinate demands for justice and retribution. As noted above, we have seen how this extreme position can lead to injustice. Extremism, in general, usually results in the opposite extreme. Our early history bears this out, for Imam ʿAlī  was a victim of injustice by those who rebelled against him out of their sense of indignation.

The cardinal virtues originally stem from religion. A generous person gives from his wealth to others because he is not afraid of losing his power or wealth; he knows all power and wealth are with God. All further virtues emanate from the cardinal virtues (or matrices of virtues). Mercy, for example, issues from wisdom (ḥikmah), since forgiving someone when you are wronged requires a recognition of the greater wisdom in remission and the greater good in clemency.

Anger (ghaḍab) remains an essential quality of the human creation. The human brain is said to be a triune brain because it has three dominant centers. This observation of the brain is not modern, for Imam al-Ghazālī mentioned it. The lowest brain is known as “R” brain (reptilian according to the evolutionary scheme of things), which is associated with appetite, mainly, for food and sex. The midbrain is where the emotions are centered, which includes anger. The third portion of the brain is known as the new brain or the neocortex, which is where the rational faculty resides. When these three centers function properly in proportion to one another, the human being is said to be functioning in equilibrium. Such persons are stable and immediately likeable.

There are people who are almost entirely cerebral; everything is theoretical or abstract to them. Their rational center suppresses their emotions residing in the midbrain and the physical needs in the R-stem. On the other hand, there are people who work mainly from their so-called reptilian centers, almost impervious to protocol, higher ethics, and a civil association with others. It is not unusual to hear someone likening another’s behavior to that of a snake, a kind of slinking predator, entirely selfish and wholly tenacious in acquiring his desires. Furthermore, there are people who are overly emotional. They are either very happy or very angry, the latter of which is the more common emotion.

There are basically four reasons people get angry. One is related to primal needs, such as food, shelter, and life. When these are threatened, a normal person feels vulnerable and responds with anger. If someone threatens one’s life or family, the person needs to respond. This anger is not blameworthy. If humans were incapable of an angry response, we would have a society indifferent to crime and transgression. This would spell doom for human civilization. This is part of the wisdom behind the Qur’anic commandment to enjoin what is right and forbid what is evil.

The second reason is related to position, dignity, and protecting one’s honor. Human beings are born with sensors that detect when others try to belittle them or when they are the object of contempt and scorn. The other side of this is when people view themselves with hubris and manufacture delusions of grandeur. They grow angry when they interpret normal and acceptable behavior towards them as beneath their dignity.

The third cause of anger is related to specific people and their particular sense of values. If, for example, a scholar sees that a book is being abused, he will become angry. An illiterate farmhand may not be vexed about the abuse of a book, though he may curse a man who breaks a pitchfork.

Finally, the fourth cause is ghayrah, commonly translated as jealousy. The Prophet  said that he himself had this type of protective jealousy: a sense of guarding what he held as dear. God has placed jealousy as part of human nature. For example, if men did not have jealousy about their wives, relationships would fall into dissolution. It is natural for a man to have this protective sense of jealousy regarding his wife, as long as it is not expressed in the form of oppressing her, which unfortunately happens frequently.

With regard to these causes of anger, Imam al-Ghazālī says that the first kind, which is related to material needs, is healthy as long as it is not taken to an extreme, such as a person stealing from others in order to secure food and shelter. The second kind, which is related to dignity, is also healthy, with the caveat of avoiding two extremes, haughtiness and abject humiliation. The Prophet  said, “The believer does not humiliate himself.” According to Sīdī Aḥmad Zarrūq, if ignorant people say something disparaging that does not relate to religion, then ignore it. One should not grow angry when there is no benefit in doing so. God, the Exalted, commanded the Prophet  when faced with the discourse of ignorant people, “Be patient with what they say, then part from them graciously” (QUR’AN , 73:10). The Prophet  praised a man named Abū Damdam who never became angry when people spoke ill of him, for when one speaks ill of another, the speaker not only acquires misdeeds, but his own good deeds transfer to the account of the victim.

Treatment

As for the spiritual disease of anger that consumes a person, Imam Mawlūd says there are two cures. One of them removes anger when it occurs, and the second suppresses or thwarts it. The first cure is to remember the extensive praise and goodness associated with forbearance and humility. Sīdī Aḥmad Zarrūq contends that the main reason people become angry is because they have inflated egos. For example, even though the Quraysh mocked the Prophet , like children do, while persecuting him, the Prophet  did not become angry with them.

The ethic promoted here is to simply “let go” and not allow insult to penetrate and manipulate one’s emotion. It is about maintaining control over one’s own emotions, feeling secure. One should remember how much God, the Exalted, praises the qualities of humility and forbearance. One should race to attain the qualities and behaviors that the Best of those who praise, the Maker of the heavens and the earth, commends.

Humility and forbearance are praised in poetry and by all the different sages, even outside the religion of Islam. The Prophet  said that God elevates a person who is humble for the sake of God; but whoever tries to exalt himself, God debases him. The Prophet  was the most forbearing and forgiving of people. All the prophets were characterized by these qualities. None was known to be arrogant or easily angered.

Imam    Mawlūd   states    next    that    one   can    control anger by recognizing that nothing takes place without God’s leave: There is no power or might except with God. This life is a crucible of trial, and those who are heedless of this react severely when trials come upon them. The Prophet  said the strong man is not one who can wrestle people, but the man who controls himself when he is angry. The Prophet  also advised that if one becomes angry, one should sit down. And if one is sitting, then one should recline. If neither of these helps, then one should perform the ritual ablution (wuḍū’) and then pray. The actual act of splashing water on the face can alter a person’s mood. Anger often manifests itself in the face, which becomes red and warm. Once, when a person grew very angry before the Prophet , he noticed how when one is extremely angry, one’s face resembles Satan’s. The Prophet  then said, “I have a word that, if spoken, will remove it from him. It is, ‘I seek refuge in God from Satan, the accursed.’”

We know how anger can escalate. When conflict foments and becomes heated between two parties, they reflexively stand, which is the nature of rising tempers. It is important to make the parties sit, which lessens some of the anger. These simple remedies are not tricks; rather, they reveal how thin the veneer of anger can often be. Anger can be entirely irrational and require nothing more than a change of posture to reconstitute the mind. The Prophet’s counsel is very telling of human nature; he reveals insights into the ebb and flow of human emotions and the ease with which we can alter our emotional condition. It is said that one of the ruses of Satan is to make what is easy appear difficult or even impossible; he whispers feelings of despair to make us grow despondent of God’s mercy and thus surrender ourselves to the insidious view that we can never repent.

Anger sometimes arises between parents and their offspring, but this often can be avoided if parents treat their offspring appropriately in accordance to their ages. According to one Islamic model, the soul has three stages. In the first seven years, it is known as the appetitive soul. The primary concerns of children in this stage are eating and wanting attention. The second stage is the next seven years, the age of anger, when kids react strongly to stimuli and are annoyed easily. The third is the rational stage, when reasoning and discernment reach their full capacity. ʿAlī ibn AbīṬālib encouraged parents to play with their children during the first stage, to indulge them, for they are discovering the world. They had been in a spiritual realm and have only recently entered the realm of the sensory. In the second stage, Imam ʿAlī counseled that parents should focus on training and discipline, for, in this stage, young people have a heightened capacity to receive and absorb information and thus learn new things. In the third stage, parents should befriend them and form a relationship that is amicable and full of kindness and companionship. After this, their children, now adults, should be set free.

Some people have a choleric temperament and hence a greater tendency to grow angry. ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, for example, was known to grow angry. But if we look further at him over the course of his development in Islam, his anger no longer got the best of him. In fact, it was the opposite. He tended to be forgiving and compassionate—especially near the end of his life. But he was also known for being a lion. Once the Prophet  was teaching a group of Qurayshī women. When they noticed that ʿUmar was coming, the women fled into another room. This was before the commandment for ḥijāb was revealed. ʿUmar came to the Prophet  and saw that he was amused. ʿUmar asked the Prophet  about what had amused him. The Prophet  said, “It is these Qurayshī women: when they see you, they flee.” The Prophet  called back the women, whereupon ʿUmar asked them, “How is it that you flee from me and you are not shy in front of the Messenger of God? He is more worthy of your shyness!” And they said, “You are harsher than the Messenger of God. He does not become angry.” And the Prophet  laughed and said, “If you, ʿUmar, went down one path, Satan would take another.”