7- FOLLOWING DESIRES OF THE SOUL (NAFS)

The seventh of the maladies of the heart is to follow the appetite (Shahwat) or desires or pleasures of the soul. Ugliness of these types of actions of the soul is clearly communicated in the verses of the Qur'an. Furthermore, it is also communicated in the Qur'an that following desires of the soul causes one to depart from the path of Allahu ta'ala. Because, soul always wants to deny the existence of Allahu ta'ala and to be obstinate or to rebel against Him. Following the desires of soul in every matter amounts to worshiping the soul. Anyone who follows his soul either falls into disbelief or becomes follower of corrupt innovated worships or beliefs (Ahl al-bidat) or starts to commit forbidden actions. Abu Bakr Tamistani, may Allahu ta'ala be pleased with him, says, "The fortune of not following desires of the soul is the biggest treasure of this world. Because, soul is the greatest of all veils between Allahu ta'ala and His slave". Sahl bin Abdullah Tustari [died in 283 Hijri at Basra], may Allahu ta'ala be pleased with him, says, "The best of all worships is not to follow the desires of the soul." Islam bin Yusuf Balhi, may Allahu ta'ala be pleased with him, once gave a gift to Hatam-ul-Esam, may Allahu ta'ala be pleased with him, and seeing that Hatam accepted his gift, asked him if his acceptance of the gift would constitute following the desires of his soul. In reply, Hatam told him that by accepting his gift, he made himself lowly and made him superior. Furthermore, he said, "If I wouldn't accept his gift, that would make myself superior and him lowly. And, my soul 'nafs' would've loved that!" Rasulullah, peace be upon him, at the end of a long hadith said, "Three causes lead a person to disaster: being stingy, following desires of the soul 'nafs', and being a conceited person." Imam al-Ghazali, may Allahu ta'ala be pleased with him, said that the veil which stops getting the help of Allahu ta'ala is self love (Ujb). In other words it is one's not seeing his own imperfections and seeing his worships as worthy. Jesus (Isa), peace be upon him, said to his companions, "Oh my companions! The wind put out many lights. Similarly, self love 'Ujb' also destroys many worships and annihilates their rewards."

It is reported that once Rasulullah, peace be upon him, said, "I am very much afraid that my followers will catch two vices. They are: following the desires of the soul and forgetting about death and running after the world." Following desires of the soul prevents one from following the orders of Islam. Forgetting the death causes one to follow desires of his soul (nafs).

In another hadith, Rasulullah, peace be upon him, said, "The existence of wisdom in a person manifests itself by his control over his soul 'nafs' and by his preparation of the things that will be beneficial after death. The sign of stupidity is one's following desires of his soul and then expecting forgiveness and mercy from Allahu ta'ala." According to this hadith, following the desires of one's soul (Nafs) and then expecting forgiveness and admittance to the heaven without repentance amounts to stupidity. Expecting something without doing any action which would produce that expected result is called wishful thinking (Tamanni). On the other hand, expecting something after doing actions that would produce the result is called hope or expectation (Raja). Wishful thinking leads one into laziness. Expectation on the other hand is the cause of work and production. Desires of the soul are called fancy (Hawa). The soul always loves and wants harmful things that exist in its nature. The following reflects this truth very clearly:

Always be on guard against your soul.

Never trust in your soul.

It is an enemy to you,

Greater than seventy devils!

The harm caused by following desires of the soul by committing forbidden actions and disliked actions (Makruhs) are very obvious. The soul's wishes are all animal desires. But these animal desires are all related to the necessities of the daily affairs (Dunya). As long as a human being tries to satisfy these necessities, he will be delayed to prepare necessities of the hereafter. One important point should be noted by everyone is that the soul never satisfies with permissible things. As long as man satisfies all of its permissible desires, the soul will ask for more. If man keeps satisfying its demands in an increasing order, soul will keep asking more! It will never be satisfied and finally will lead man into forbidden things. Furthermore, utilizing permissible things in excess causes grief, suffering and diseases. A person who uses permissible things in excess will become a selfish and base person who always thinks of his animal passions and pleasures.

[Imam ar-Rabbani, may Allahu ta'ala be well pleased with him, the great saint, comments on the present subject as follows, "The origin of all existing beings is Adam. Adam means nonexistence. While there were no existent in the existence besides Allahu ta'ala, He knew their existence in the nonexistent realm. In other words, things existed in His knowledge. Allahu ta’ala manifested to these Adams in His knowledge through His attributes thus caused the origin (asl) of these existent beings to become a reality. He then moved these origins (asl) into the external realm. Thus existences came into being. Present existence materialized out of nonexistence through the manifestations of His attributes. It is similar to the case of an apple seed's being the origin of an apple. In order to understand the nature of human beings, let's contemplate about the image of an object in a mirror. The image that appears in the mirror is reflection of the light come from the object. The mirror is like Adam or nonexistence in the foregoing discussion. The spirit and spiritual heart of a human being is similar to the light. The mirror is similar to the body of a human being and brightness of the mirror is similar to the soul. The origin of the soul is nonexistence or Adam, and it has no relationship to the spirit or spiritual heart." A person who follows desires of his soul always steps out of the bounds of Islam. Since animals do not possess wisdom and "Nafs", they always use when they find things they are in need of. They only escape from things that hurt them physically. Islam neither prohibits utilization of vehicles that provide a comfortable and peaceful living, nor inhibits enjoying useful worldly pleasures. Islam orders Muslims to follow the guidelines set out by the religion and wisdom for acquiring and utilizing these things. The goal of Islam is the comfortable and peaceful living of human beings in this and in the next world. Accomplishing this goal rests with following the wisdom, and abstaining from the desires of the soul. If the wisdom was not created, human beings would always follow desires of the soul and fall into turmoil. If soul did not exist, human beings could not multiply and live a civilized life. Also, without soul, human beings could not obtain rewards of struggle (Jihad) against the soul. Furthermore, without a soul, human beings could not rise above the grades of angels. Our Prophet, peace be upon him, said, "If animals had known the knowledge you possess about the things that would happen in the life after death, you could not be able to find any meat to consume!" Animals would not be able to eat or drink, therefore, lose weight and perish because of their fear of the punishments in the hereafter. If human beings did not possess soul, similar to animals, they would neither be able to eat nor drink because of the fear of the punishment, and thus would not be able to live. Continuation of daily lives of human beings depend on their nafs' ignorance (Gaflat) and low resistance toward the pleasures of the world (Dunya). The soul is like a double edge sword or it is like a medicine which possesses strong poisonous properties. Anyone who uses this medicine according to the prescription given by the doctor benefits from the useful properties of the medicine. Alternately, anyone who uses this medicine in an extreme fashion will perish because of the poisonous properties of the medicine. Islam does not prescribe destruction of the soul. On the contrary, it asks the soul be tamed so that it could be utilized for doing useful deeds.]

Two types of struggle (Jihad) against the soul is employed in order to prevent soul from transgressing against the guidelines set by Islam. The first one is called "Riyazat". "Riyazat" is the resistance of a human being against the temptations of his soul. This is accomplished by utilizing two means, "Wara" and piety (Taqwa). "Taqwa" means not doing forbidden actions, or in other words it is a way of living such that one does not commit forbidden actions in his daily affairs. "Wara" is much more than piety. "Wara" in addition to piety requires that one should avoid utilizing permissible things beyond the bare necessities of life. The second type of struggle (Jihad) against the soul requires performing things that soul does not like. This is called "Mujahada." All the worships are "Mujahada" because soul does not like to perform worships. These two types of struggles tame the soul and mature human beings and strengthen the spirits and lead one to the way of the sincere ones (Siddiqs), the martyrs (Shahids) and the pious (Salih). Allahu ta'ala is not in need of the worships of His creatures. Transgression of His creatures does not harm Him in any way. He ordered these aforementioned things in order to tame the soul and in order to make a struggle against the soul.

If human beings did not possess soul, they would not be humans any more and they would possess the quality of angelhood. But, human beings' body is in need of many things. For example, it is necessary to eat, drink, sleep, and rest. There is no doubt that a cavalryman cannot survive without a horse. Therefore, he takes care of his horse. Similarly, a human being cannot function without a body. Thus, he must also take care of his body. Worships are accomplished through bodies. Once, someone told our Prophet, peace be upon him, that such and such a person was performing "Salat" worship continuously throughout the night without sleeping. He replied, "Most precious worships are the ones which are done on a continuous basis even if they are not much in quantity." Worships which are done on a continuous basis cause a person to become a steady worshiper.

Performing worships means intending and following the orders of the divine law. The commandements and prohibitions given by Allahu ta'ala are called "Shari'at" or "Ahkam al-ilahiyya" or divine rules. Commandments are called "Farz" and prohibitions are called "Haram". It is reported that our Prophet said, "Perform worships as much as you can endure. Worships performed with joy and pleasure are most valuable." A well rested person can perform worships with joy and pleasure. Alternately, performing things while body or mind is tired cause boredom. One should do permissible things once in a while in order to regenerate a cheerful and restful attitude and get rid of tiredness. Imam al-Ghazali, may Allahu ta'ala be pleased with him, says, "The body gets tired and does not want to move when one is consumed in excessive worshiping. At such instances one should comfort the body by either sleeping or reading the life stories of pious Muslims or by permissible entertainment. Doing these actions is better than worshiping without real desire." The purpose of worshipping is two folds. The first one is to make struggle "mujahada" in order to tame the soul. The second one is to comfort the heart and bring increased desire of love of Allahu ta'ala to the heart. In one hadith, Rasulullah, peace be upon him, said, "Salat worship protects one from committing lowly and ugly actions." This protection can only be obtained by performing the "Salat" worship with strong desire and joy. Obtaining this strong desire and joy requires to satisfy the permissible desires of the soul as much as necessary. Following these guidelines would be obedience to Islam. Permissible things that promote other worships to be performed turn out to be worships themselves. For example, the hadith "The sleep of a scholar is better than the worship of an ignorant" is a good proof for our argument on this subject. Performing midnight prayer while one is sleepy is "maqruh." One should pray it with joy after one gets rid of sleepiness. The prayers which are done in a sleepy condition would be improper.

[One should not be misguided by the above writings to suppose that one could quit performing worships because one is tired of performing them. That type of meaning is not intended and cannot be driven from these writings. The intended meaning is such that when one completely devotes one's self to worships all the time, at some instance, due to prolonged worshipping, one's soul might not be able to cope with such loads. Since one's spirit is strong and controls the soul and still wants to continue worshiping, the soul cannot disobey the spirit and thus performs the worships without a real desire. Above-mentioned writings refer to such circumstances we have just described and say that one should not force the soul but instead should give it a break by postponing these extra supererogatory worships. Nowhere in these writings is there any indication to the effect that the performance of the worships can be stopped all together. Not performing obligatory worships without legitimate excuse constitutes grave sin and is forbidden and their performance at a later time becomes obligatory. Any obligatory worship such as "Five daily salat prayers" and fasting that is not performed during the prescribed time has to be performed at a later time. Not performing "Wajib prayers" at their due times also necessitates performing them at a later time, i.e. it becomes "Wajib" to perform them at a later time. One who does not perform Sunnats of our prophet will be missing their rewards. If one does not perform Sunnat of our prophet without any real excuse, he will not obtain the intercession (Shafa'at) peculiar to those Sunnats. Being tired or not having desire and joy of performing the worships cannot be legitimate excuses for postponing performance of the obligatory worships from their usual times. One cannot spare himself from the sin and punishment of not performing the obligatory worships on their due times. The books which teach tenets of faith states that not paying attention to the rules of divine law or, not heeding whether things are obligatory (Fard) or forbidden (Haram) causes disbelief. The enemies of Islam are trying to deceive Muslim youth and harm Islam from within by saying that one may not perform worships if one wishes to. Muslim youth, in order not to be deceived by these enemies, have no alternative but study the books written by "Ahl as-sunnat scholars" and learn the obligatory worships and the forbidden actions.]