Purification of the Heart

Definition

Intense anger or wrath (ghaḍab) aptly compares with a swelling mass of emotion (a "swelling ocean") that is difficult to hold back once it is unleashed. According to a hadith, a man asked the Prophet ﷺ, "What is the worst thing that one incurs concerning God?" The Prophet ﷺ replied, "His wrath." The man then asked, "How do we avoid it?" The prophet ﷺ said, "Do not become angry."

Scholars agree that anger is not prohibited categorically, for even the Messenger of God ﷺ became angry when appropriate. 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. 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.

According to scholars, like Imam Al-Nawawı̅ when the Messenger of God ﷺ 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.

Without anger, people would go around with complete impunity and commit heinous acts without resistance from the people.

Four essential qualities

Muslim scholars have identified four essential qualities in human beings: quwwat al-'ilm (rational soul, capacity to learn), quwwat al-ghaḍab (irascible soul, relating to human emotion and anger), quwwat al-shahwah (concupiscent soul, related to appetite and desire), and quwwat al-'adl (power of justice, that harmonizes the previous three and keeps them in balance). In Western tradition, these capacities correspond to what is known as cardinal virtues (ummaha̅t al-faḍa̅'il): wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice.

When the rational soul is balanced, the result is wisdom. Courage manifests when the irascible soul—anger—is under control, when a mean is struck between impetuousness and cowardice. Temperance is a balance within the concupiscent soul.

With regard to anger, Imam al-Ghaza̅lı̅ says that it is acceptable only at the right time, in the right place, for the right reason, and with the right intensity. The Messenger of God ﷺ never allowed his anger to get the best of him. Out of the thousands of reports about the minutest details of the Prophet's life ﷺ, never has anyone related that the Prophet ﷺ 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-'Arabı̅ said that after the Messenger of God ﷺ, no one was more courageous than Abu̅ Bakr (may God be pleased with him). 'Umar ibn al-Khaṭṭa̅b (may God be pleased with him) is associated with being particularly sensitive to justice and fairness. 'Uthman ibn 'Affa̅n's name is derived from the same Arabic root as 'iffah, which refers not only to moderation but also to one who is abstinent and chaste, a meaning that is fitting for 'Uthman. In 'Alı̅ ibn Abı̅ Ṭa̅lib, 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 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 required a recognition of the greater wisdom in remission and the greater good in clemency.

Four reasons people get angry

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.

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 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 ﷺ 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.

With regard to these causes of anger, Imam al-Ghaza̅lı̅ says that the first kind 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 is also healthy, with the caveat of avoiding two extremes, haughtiness and abject humiliation.

According to Sı̅dı̅ Aḥmad Zarru̅q, 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. The Prophet ﷺ praised a man named Abu̅ 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.

Signs and symptoms

Ṣira̅ṭ al-mustaqı̅m

The phrase ṣra̅ṭ al-mustaqı̅m, the straight or upright path, is repeated many time each day by the Muslim worshipper. No phrase better epitomizes the way of life of the Muslim. The word mustaqı̅m 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 [...] 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 [...] The usual result of excessiveness is its antithesis. A society that starts out with extreme Puritanical ethics may turn into one of over-indulgence and licentiousness[...] 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.

The Judaic legal tradition is based on stern justice, while at the foundation of the Christian phenomena is the idea of categorical mercy. 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 sharı̅'ah and the ḥaqı̅qah. The law consists of rules, and the spirit of the law is mercy. God sent down the shariah as a mercy, and the Prophet ﷺ 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 ima̅n (the condition of the faith) and the outward being isla̅m (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. According to Ibn al-Taymı̅yyah, 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 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-Sha̅fi'ı̅ 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. When love is present and is allowed to override one's anger, the demand for retribution is quieted (according to Imam Ra̅ghib al-Isfaha̅nı̅).

Treatment

As for the spiritual disease of anger that consumes a person, Imam Mawlu̅d 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. Sı̅dı̅ Aḥmad Zarru̅q contends that the main reason people become angry is because the have inflated egos.

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 ﷺ 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 ﷺ 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 Mawlu̅d 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 ﷺ said the strong man is not one who can wrestle people, but the man who controls himself when he is angry.

The Prophet ﷺ 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 (wuḍu̅') and then pray. 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.