. J / (cont.)

When a person desires or lusts after something, he gets great joy and pleasure from it. For many people, these acts are the forbidden acts, such as fornication, consuming alcohol and even polytheism. If the person cannot control those desires, he goes directly to the forbidden acts. Finally, when one is angry and does not try to control himself when he is angry, his anger leads him to acts that are not permissible. It leads him to physically 1 See ibn Rajah, Jaami, vol. 1, p. 374-377. There is a hadith that states, "There is no divorce or freeing of slaves during ighlaaq (ŵ!)." Ibn Rajah doubts the authenticity of this hadith. However, assuming it is authentic, as other scholars have stated, the term ŵ! here is understood to mean "coercion" and not anger. See ibn Rajah, Jaami, vol. 1, p. 376; al-Haitami, Fath, p. 159. Another interpretation is that it is referring to a case where a person's anger becomes so great that he has no idea what he is saying. In that case, his statement of divorce will not be considered a divorce. However, according to al-Mudaabaghi, such an explanation that the act should not be considered a divorce will only be accepted as an excuse for the person if he had, prior to that incident, on occasion gotten to that level of anger. Otherwise, his act would be considered a divorce and that argument cannot be used as an excuse to escape a divorce that he has stated. See al-Mudaabaghi, p. 1 59. 2 A classic example of this nature nowadays concerns marriage, as was alluded to earlier. A young, religious man may meet a young, religious sister and they decide that they want to get married. This will keep them chaste. They are both religious, so they will bring up religious children and so forth. A very praiseworthy goal. However, perhaps the woman's guardian disagrees. Sometimes he may disagree on good grounds or on acceptable grounds. However, the point is that the two have decided to get married and they will do so at all costs. They might even start to lie about the family or do some acts to get around the shareeah rulings. All the while, they claim that they are getting married for the sake of Allah. However, "Allah is pure and only accepts what is pure." Perhaps, Allah knows best, due to the means that they followed, Allah will not be pleased with their praiseworthy act and goal and may make it devoid of any blessings whatsoever. Hadith #16: "Do not become angry'' or verbally harming others. Hence, as ibn Rajah stated, these four aspects described by al-Hasan are truly the roads to every evil.1 • The Prophet (peace be upon him) used to make the following supplication, Q a iol! .... ,,, J.,; ,,, ࣈ( DI\ · '-:_ I\ 2.lJl:.i ,· J J i..1ࡽ / "I ask You for truthful speech during [times of] pleasure and anger."2 This is an important supplication of the Prophet (peace be upon him). When people get angry, it is very difficult for them to control their tongue. Many times they will even lie simply out of anger. Hence, the Prophet (peace be upon him) made this supplication and his followers should do so also. • In general, a person is afflicted with anger often when he possesses non­ Islamic qualities. Pride, arrogance, stubbornness, joking around, mutual ridiculing, competition over wealth or authority in this world, refusal to submit to the truth are some of the most common causes that needlessly lead people to get angry and upset. 3 Hence, getting angry often may be a clear sign that one's heart is diseased and one's Imaan is not in the state that it should be in. The person who finds himself getting angry often should consider this fact and try to find what really causes him to get so angry. He may find that it is some disease that he has in his heart. Allah willing, when he notices that and then works to remove his disease, his problem with anger will also be removed. For example, if pride or arrogance is the source of his problem, he should try to understand who he really is and become more humble toward Allah and, therefore, toward Allah's creatures. If he finds that he gets angry due to sitting around with others and joking with or ridiculing each other, he should try to spend his time on more important pursuits or with people who are not into such bad habits. If his anger is due to competition over material things or authority, he should make himself realize that all of those things are actually according to the decree of Allah and whatever Allah has decreed is according to His wisdom and divine plan. • Keeping in mind the great negative effects that anger leads to should help one control his anger and make him do something about his problem with anger.