Causes of anger and its medicine

From Imam Ghazali’s book “Ihya’ Ulum-ud-din” (The revival of religious teachings)

Know, O dear Muslims, that the medecine of a disease is to remove the root cause of that disease. Isa (Jesus Christ) −peace be upon him− was once asked: “What thing is difficult?” He said: “God’s wrath.” 

Prophet Yahya (John the Baptist) −peace be upon him− then asked: “What thing takes near the wrath of God?” He said:”Anger”.

Yahya − peace be upon him− asked him:”What thing grows and increases anger?” Isa −peace be upon him− said: “Pride, prestige, hope for honour and haughtiness”

The causes which cause anger to grow are self−conceit, self−praise, jests and ridicule, argument, treachery, too much greed for too much wealth and name and fame. If these evils are united in a person, his conduct becomes bad and he cannot escape anger. So these things should be removed by their opposites. Self−praise is to be removed by modesty. Pride is to be removed by one’s own origin and birth, greed is to be removed by remaining satisfied with necessary things, and miserliness by charity. 

The prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: “A strong man is not he who defeats his adversary by wrestling, but a strong man is he who controls himself at the time of anger.”

We are describing below the medicines of anger after one gets angry. The 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 (pbuh). 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 enmity 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. So which figure do you like to take- the figure of a beast or that of a 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 occurred!” 

Medicine based on action:

When you get angry, say: I seek refuge in God from the accursed evil (A’oudhou billaahi min as shaytaan ir rajeem). The prophet (pbuh) 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 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 (pbuh) 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 (pbuh) 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.” Hazrat Ali (RA) said: The prophet did not get angry for any action of the world. When any true matter charmed him, nobody knew it and nobody got up to take revenge for his anger. He got angry only for the truth.

Sufi or not Sufi? That is the question

Islam week at the Globe Theatre will link Shakespeare with a mystic Muslim sect

• Vanessa Thorpe, arts and media correspondent
• The Observer, Sunday 24 October 2004

The influence of William Shakespeare on western culture has made him arguably Britain's greatest export. Now it is being claimed that his work resembles the teachings of the Islamic Sufi sect.

The argument will be put forward next month at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London. It comes as part of a week of events focusing on Islam to address concerns raised by the 'war on terror' and improve understanding of the links between Islam and British culture.

While it has been suggested that Shakespeare dabbled with espionage and Catholic political activism, the new theory will attempt to persuade Shakespeare scholars that the playwright was a member of a religious or spiritual order which can best be compared to the philosophy of Sufism.

The respected academic Dr Martin Lings will put forward this thesis in his lecture on 23 November. 'Shakespeare would have delighted in Sufism,' said Lings, who is 96 and an adherent of Sufism. 'We can see he obviously knew a lot about some kind of equivalent sect or order.'

Lings argues that the guiding principles of Sufi thought are evident in Shakespeare's writing. The plays, he believes, depict a struggle between the dawning modernist world and the traditional, mystical value system. And, like the Sufis, the playwright is firmly on the side of tradition and spiritualism.

'It was the end of the Middle Ages and the birth of atheism,' he says. 'It was the beginning of the ideas of enlightenment and the beginning really of the modern era. Shakespeare is the last outpost of tradition.'

Lings believes that characters in some of the best known works exemplify the Sufi quest for purification, while others represent Shakespeare himself.

'I am going to say that it is wrong to say we know very little about Shakespeare because he is present in his plays to a remarkable degree,' said Lings, who was keeper of oriental manuscripts and printed books and in charge of Koranic manuscripts at the British Museum. He argues that the journey of Edgar, in King Lear , is like the Sufi's search for truth, in which the seeker is helped by angelic characters and impeded by diabolic agents.

While the magician-like figure of Prospero, orchestrating the action in The Tempest, and the manipulative Duke of Vienna in Measure for Measure are commonly seen as Shakespeare's alter egos, Lings traces the teachings of a spiritual order akin to Sufism in their words.

The famous line of Prospero's 'We are such stuff as dreams are made on' is a complete fit, he claims, adding that King Lear's words also eerily echo Sufi ideas when he tells his faithful daughter: 'Upon such sacrifices, my Cordelia, the gods themselves throw incense.' Lings makes the point that the Bard is 'quite at home' with 'Gods' in the plural.

The International Shakespeare Globe Fellowship Lecture will take place in the middle of the Islam Awareness Week on the 22-28 November and will be preceded by a lecture from Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, the founder of the Zaytuna Institute in California, who will look at Shakespeare's sonnets from a Sufi perspective.

Throughout the week the outside walls of the theatre on the banks of the Thames will be illuminated with scenes of Islamic culture.

On the final weekend a souk will take over the premises, with stalls selling eastern wares. The week will also form part of the 4th centenary celebrations of the first recorded performance of Othello , which will be marked by staged readings of four plays featuring Moors and Turks.

Echoes of Sufism

'Upon such sacrifices, my Cordelia, the gods themselves throw incense'

King Lear to his daughter, Act V, Scene III

'We are such stuff as dreams are made on'

Prospero in The Tempest, Act IV, Scene I

• guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2010

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Juggling books...

With every passing minute I find myself having not read so much more. 'There has to be a way to devour the whole stack' says my conscience and I always have to shut him by telling him 'its not about devouring them you idiot, you need time to digest too!!!'. With an air of heedlessness, my conscience says 'oh well' and continues biting me from the inside...


Last night I got hold of one book from the shelf (that has gotten messier than before!) and started flipping the pages. Somewhere near the first quarter, my eyes glued to the page and I began reading. Surprisingly I had kept the book in the pile of incomprehensible(s)! But now each and every word sank in, as if their beloved was dying to reach out for them only!

I am reading .......?