"A moment of patience in a moment of anger prevents a thousand moments of regret.” Hazrat Ali.
This quote by Hazrat Ali is one of my favourites and i wish that it was something i was able to implement more strongly into my life. I am generally not a an argumentative person and more often than not i will try my utmost to prevent confrontations. However on the road of self-understanding i have come to recognise that as much as i try to avoid any sort of dispute with those around me, its the ones closest to me i often engage in arguments with. This has me thinking about whether i am merely admiring the words or have actually taken heed from this beautiful quote by a very wise man. For the last few days i have already started to hear about new years resolutions and can not help but think that it might be time to bring about some positive personal change.
I really believe that during moments of weakness, we cave in to the designs of our enemy, shaitan, who then consequently attacks in any way he can in order to divert us from God consciousness and makes us return to our animalistic nature. So anger by itself is not unnatural; rather history teaches us that many of our great prophets and our beloved prophet's Shahabas were often driven to feelings of anger. It is actually the way we conduct ourselves during this time which can lead to problems. The difference between the wild beasts and wild humans is the difference of free will. When a wild animal is provoked he does not think, whereas when a man becomes angry as a result of provocation, he has a choice to control his anger and respond to it as he has learned from the Qur'an and from Prophet Mohammad's (p.b.u.h) teachings. Thus wrongful actions of anger only take place when we are not in control of ourselves, but have in fact given up that control to the Shaitan.
Many of us have heard or read about the incident during the battle of khandaq when hazrat Ali (r.a) walked away from a man after overpowering him and when asked about it he simply replied that if he had killed him then it would have not been only for the sake of Allah (SWT) but also for the satisfaction of his anger.
During moments of anger when we let it take control of us our judgement gets clouded. I have always noticed that at times like these i end up saying the things that if thought rationally i would never utter. Someone very dear to me once told me that during these emotional moments our state is like that of someone standing amidst a whirlwind. Our vision gets blurred and this stops us from distinguishing even the most obvious of things.
Once a companion asked the Prophet (p.b.u.h), 'Give me some advice by virtue of which I hope for good in the life hereafter', and He said, "Don't be angry." Another person asked, 'what will save me from the wrath of God', and he said, "Do not express your anger." A third person asked, '0 Messenger of Allah, give me an order to do a short good deed', and he said, "Don't be angry."
To me this clearly shows that managing your actions while you are angry is something that is not easily done but rather is a hard task which has a lot of reward in it. To say that i will not be angry or get into situations where i find myself faced with confrontations or disputes is impossible and even naive to some extent. Rather, i believe i ought to control this feeling and do not let it lead me to that which is wrong and forbidden in our deen.
Alhumdulillah nothing in our beautiful deen is expected of us without us being given thorough advice on how to achieve it. Our beloved Prophet (p.b.u.h) has showed us how to conduct ourselves in times of anger. We are told that when angry, one should say "Audhu billahi minashaytan nirajim." [Bukhari, Muslim], or try to change his body position for example if he is standing, then he should sit, If the anger fails to subside, then he should lie down. [Abu Dawood One should also try to remain silent [Imam Ahmad]. Finally if none of the above work then one would be advised to make make wudhu. [Abu Dawood] and then make ghusl [Abu Nuaim]
I believe that personally for me, when i am really angry about something and am sitting around brooding over things, letting Shaitan mess around with my thoughts, the thing that would help me the most is to think of Allah. To think of Allah's anger and punishment, to forcefully remind my self of Allah's mercy and also His wrath. To think of what happens when He expresses His wrath? We humans who seek forgiveness from Allah must forgive others first.
This post is a personal reminder for myself, to work on something i believe will benefit me. I pray that Allah swt gives us all the understanding, the ability and the opportunity to direct all our actions for His sake. May we all learn to gain the pleasure of Allah through all our actions and may our imaan make us strong enough to fight our nafs and the shaitan continuously.
