Every person has within him basic instincts which subconsciously, without him realizing, influence him and compel him to behave in a certain way. However, together with these basic instincts is another force – the human intellect – that understands what Allah Ta‘ala wants from us. At times, these two forces will clash, and it is us who decide which force will ultimately prevail and forge the course of our actions.
When seeing a strange person who is attractive, our instinct may urge us to raise our gaze and stare to our fill. However, our intellect understands that this is against the law of Allah Ta‘ala and thus urges us to ignore our lowly urge and behave intelligently by lowering our gaze.
When the azaan for Fajr Salaah is called out on a cold winter’s morning, our instinct will urge us to remain in our warm and cosy bed, and will console us by telling us that we can make qadhaa later. However, our minds will caution us against this and remind us that our salaah has to be performed on time, and that our reward will be even greater due to the difficulty of enduring the cold.
Likewise, when we are angered, we may lose our temper, and our basic instinct may urge us to become violent, speak obscenely, break family ties or behave in some similar inappropriate manner. However, our intellect and understanding will intervene and explain to us that together with being displeasing to Allah Ta‘ala, the repercussions of such behaviour will be both disastrous and long-lasting. Hence, for the sake of our Deen and worldly life, we should instead maintain our composure and calm and behave rationally.
In all such situations, where our basic urge clashes with our better understanding of what will please Allah Ta‘ala, we have to ignore our basic urge and instinct and do what is prudent. These forces are just like other forces in our body – the more we use them, the stronger they become. Hence, by continually forcing our urges and instinct to become subservient to our intellect and understanding of Deen, our minds will become stronger and these urges and instincts will become weaker. Eventually, as a result of continued striving and effort, practising on Deen and obeying the commands of Allah Ta‘ala will become our very nature and our instinct.
When this happens, just as a starving person, on account of the urge of hunger, can think of nothing but food, we will become such that when it is the time of salaah, we will be able to think of nothing but salaah and will not feel at ease until we have performed it. In the same manner, disobeying Allah Ta‘ala will cause us such discomfort and grief that we will lose our appetites, be unable to sleep and will feel miserable until we have atoned for our sin and made amends.
The converse is extremely dangerous – where a person sins so regularly that his base instincts completely take over and he is left with no intelligence at all. For such a person, sin and vice is second nature and obeying Allah Ta‘ala becomes very difficult. Hence, for him to spend the entire night watching movies, partying or chatting to friends will be easy and enjoyable, but performing just four rakaats of Fajr Salaah will be unbearable. Spending an entire day at the beach or mall will be eagerly anticipated, but attending a ta’leem will be dreaded. Regularly reading novels or blogs will be effortless, but just opening the Quraan Majeed will be difficult.
It is time for us to be intelligent – to ensure that our urges and instincts are subservient to our understanding of Deen, not the other way around.