ANGER MANAGEMENT IN ISLAM
1.) Three Instant Methods of Anger Management
These methods go hand in hand with recognizing one’s position in the sight of Allah (swt).
Here we’ll encourage the reader to enact the prophetic advice of anger management in his own life, and to the benefit of himself and his spiritual capability, and for the peace of his familiy and everyone else:
These methods go hand in hand with recognizing one’s position in the sight of Allah (swt).
Here we’ll encourage the reader to enact the prophetic advice of anger management in his own life, and to the benefit of himself and his spiritual capability, and for the peace of his familiy and everyone else:
() saying the word of protection:
“a`ûdhû billâhi min ash-shaytân ir rajîm”.
() changing bodily posture:
when angry, sit down if standing — and lie down if sitting.
() washing the face etc, arms, hands:
make ablution with water.
2.) Medicines recommended by Imam Al-Ghazalî
We are describing below the medicines of anger after one gets angry. This medicine is a mixture of knowledge and action.
The medicine based on knowledge is of six kinds:
(1) The first medicine of knowledge is to think over the rewards of appeasing anger, that have come from the verses of the Quran and the sayings of the Prophet . Your hope for getting rewards of appeasing anger will restrain you from taking revenge.
(2) The second kind of medicine based on knowledge is to fear the punishment of God and to think that the punishment of God upon me is greater than my punishment upon him. If I take revenge upon this man for anger, God will take revenge upon me on the Judgement Day.
(3) The third kind of medicine of anger based on knowledge is to take precaution about punishment of enemity and revenge on himself. You feel joy in having your enemy in your presence in his sorrows, You yourself are not free from that danger. You will fear that your enemy might take revenge against you in this world and in the next.
(4) Another kind of medicine based on knowledge is to think about the ugly face of the angry man, which is just like that of the ferocious beast. He who appeases anger looks like a sober and learned man.
(5) The fifth kind of medicine based on knowledge is to think that the devil will advise by saying: ” You will be weak if you do not get angry!” Do not listen to him!
(6) The sixth reason is to think: ” What reason have I got to get angry? What Allah wishes has occured!”
The medicine based on action is of three kinds:
() When you get angry, say: I seek refuge in God from the accursed evil (a`ûdhû billâhi min ash-shaytân ir rajîm). The Prophet ordered us to say thus.
When Ayesha (ra) got angry, he dragged her by the nose and said:
“O dear Ayesha, say: O God, you are the Lord of my prophet Muhammad, forgive my sins and remove the anger from my heart and save me from misguidance.”
() If anger does not go away by this means, you will sit down if you are standing, lie down if you are sitting, and come near to earth, as you have been created of earth. Thus make yourself calm like the earth. The cause of wrath is heat and its opposite is to lie down on the ground and to make the body calm and cool.
The Prophet said: Anger is a burning coal. Don’t you see your eyebrows wide and eyes reddish? So when one of you feels angry, let him sit down if standing, and lie down if sitting.
() If still anger does not stop, make ablution with cold water or take a bath, as fire cannot be extinguished without water.
The Prophet (SallAllahu Alayhi Wa Sallam) said: ”When one of you gets angry, let him make ablution with water as anger arises out of fire.”
In another narration, he said: ”Anger comes from the devil and the devil is made of fire.”
8.) Summary
AMI has to do with keeping the right balance in one’s life, regarding various aspects of it, such as foodintake, sexuality, desire for position and power, and so on. Prophet Muhammad (SallAllahu Alayhi Wa Sallam) was the best human being to keep to this balance and to be a guide of the middle way sirât-al mustaqîm, the way of moderation. Man has to balance between wrath ghadab and mercy rahma, never losing sight of the religious priority of mercy over wrath or anger.
For these methods or ways to become reality one has to come to forbearance and humility in all cases. This is especially clear when the issue is not to uphold the dîn (religion) of Islam, but the problem is from our expectations of the dunya or of other people. And if the defense of Islam is at stake, one must still not rush towards action under the pressure of anger, but one has to excuse oneself, first calm down and stick to what Imam Al-Ghazalî’s advised the Muslims, who stated that anger “is acceptable only a the right time, in the right place, for the right reasons, and with the right intensity.”
When one has internalized the Islamic viewpoint that whatever happens is because Allah (swt) has allowed it to happen and then also by knowing oneself, one can strive to rid oneself from selfcenteredness and egotism, for in the words of S. Ahmad Zarrûq, “people are filled with themselves”. With the help of Allah, one will be able to let go of what ultimately is beyond our restriced, illusory domain of power, and arrive step-by-step at a control of one’s anger by understanding the rule of “the right time, in the right place, for the right reasons, and with the right intensity.”
With the whole effectiveness and barakah (heavenly powers) of the Islamic way – living Islam -, one will by Allah’s leave (bi-idhni-LLah an-nafs al-ammara bi-ssu’ ) - this soul commanding us to do evil – and taste the sweet taste of victory over one’s worst enemy.
To become aware of oneself is a step towards knowing oneself, and according to a famous saying in Islam, whoever knows himself he knows his Lord.
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