Finding Moderation, Fighting our Animalistic Desires…
Salam, brothers and sisters….
Have you ever asked yourself how much of something you really need? I did, and after realizing how much of an animal I can be at 
time’s, I felt like moving to the bronx zoo, well here is what im trying to get at.
We all have these inner desire’s called the nafs. For those that don’t know the definition of nafs, it is the totality of sentiments, tendencies, desires, wishes, experiences, and our heredity characteristics, in short, it is man’s personality.
Now the Nafs has many different levels from Nafs-e-Ammara (Commanding Soul) to Nafs-al-Mutmainnah (satisified soul), the first level being the lowest a man can be in a position of and the second a level in between. I wanted to focus on Nafs-e-Ammara, because this state of the nafs relates to that of which i see in today’s society. In other word’s at time’s we forget our purpose in life.
One example I wanted to use is from the movie supersize me, I use this example because in the movie it was shown clearly our people surrender to their nafs, they eat until they become obese, they have no moderation in their eating habits. From small fries, to super big mac’s, to king size soda’s i mean come on when will people realize that they have a body that needs to be taken care of, yesterday 30,000 thousand people died of starvation and probably even more, and here we are just eating away, as if this world is just for us.
The prince of saudi arabia, built a home filled with 1,400 rooms, seriously, and these are the leaders of countries. In saudi arabia and even our country we have no balance, we have billionaires and then people who are on welfair, how can this be? this only develops when people forget their purpose in life. They completely surrender and give in their nafs. Sometimes I get into the car with people, and the first thing they do is turn on music, no dua, music!, where is our remembrance of Allah gone..we have to step up our game.
We are in temporary settlement as “Shakyh Hamza Yusuf said”. Everybody has a fixed clock that Allah has made for us, and its ticking away, people break their watches, they go buy new ones, and on top of that fancy watches to feel recognize, for pride, and thats just scratching the surface, but the reality is, when our life watches run out, there is no recharging, and even the energizer bunny knows that.
We have completely forgotten our morals and values and purpose within our life. We should make ourselves invincible to the shatan, and the only way to do that is if we turn to Allah, its either heaven or hell, that’s the decision we have to take, we are suppose to be in this world as travelers. Yesterday i was sitting in the train, and as its moving in the tunnel, it was just moving fast, all i saw was flashes of light, thats how we have to be in this life, and Inshallah with sincere submission, we can see the light at the end of the tunnel, our measurement of success will only hold value if we make it to heaven, so lets find the balance.
Allah says in the Quran “By the nafs and the proportion and order given to it, and its inspiration as to its wrong and its right; Truly he succeeds who purifies it, and he fails that corrupts it” (91:7-10). This is also a Meccan Sura. Futher on the Prophet said, upon him peace:The mujahid is he who makes jihad against his nafs (ego) for the sake of obeying Allah.
Without purification, the nafs remains a “soul that enjoins evil” (al-nafs al-ammara bil-su’) until it surrenders itself in total obedience to the call of animal passions and shaytan… Inshallah Allah protect the Muslim ummah from the shatan and give us hidayat along with patience and show us the hikma within the struggle..Ameen!