ASK MAULANA

Your Questions Answered

What comprehensive advice would you give related to welfare, both for this world and for the Hereafter?

In the light of the Quran, my answer is, “Adopt the method of patience, and then, with God’s blessings, you will be successful in this world, and in the Hereafter, too.”

The fact is that there is a permanent divine guide within man. And that is, man’s conscience. The human conscience is an unerring guide. It always guides man in the direction of the right path. But in addition to this, man has various types of desires. In the Quran, the conscience is called nafs al-lawwama and desires are called nafs alammara. Man’s conscience gives him, at every moment and opportunity, the right guidance. But along with this, man’s desires seek to drag him in their direction. In this way, a conflict emerges between man’s conscience and man’s desires. In this conflict, often desires overpower the conscience, and man, ignoring the voice of his conscience, runs after his desires. This happens both in the case of worldly affairs as well as the affairs of the Hereafter.

In such a delicate situation, it is patience that proves of benefit to man. If you are able to be patient, you can control your desires. In this way, you will not deviate from the Straight Path. Following your conscience, you will be able to carry on journeying in the right direction till you arrive at your destination. That is why the Quran (39: 10) says “Truly, those who persevere patiently will be requited without measure.” In practical terms, in life the importance of a passive attribute is more than that of an active attribute. Someone who knows only to act but not to stop can never obtain any higher-level of success in life. Life is like a car. If a car does not have a brake, then, no matter how otherwise good the car is, it cannot reach its destination. The importance of patience in life is like the importance of a brake in a car.

What is the importance of trials in our lives?

According to a Hadith, the Prophet Muhammad said: “Indeed, greater reward comes with greater trial. And indeed, when God loves a people He subjects them to trials, so whoever is content, then for him is pleasure, and whoever is discontent, then for him is wrath.” (Sunan at-Tirmidhi)

From this Hadith we learn that trials are a means for our spiritual development. We face different types of shocks. Tests and trials of life shake up our minds and our hidden potentials are awakened. While undergoing these unpleasant experiences if you wallow in negative emotions, and allow yourself to fall prey to anger, start living in frustration and complaint, you will fail in the test. You do not gain anything positive from the tests. But in contrast, if you are intellectually awakened, you will be able to maintain your balance when faced with a test. Despite unfavourable experiences, you will preserve your positive thinking. You will be able to extract goodness from the trials you go through.

Trials always appear to come to us in the form of problems. People who panic when faced with a problem will not get anything from trying situations, other than complaint and despair. But those who regard trials as part of God’s Plan, face them with a positive mind-set. It is these people for whom trials of life work as a means for increasing their reward.

With God, there is no lack of reward. But one gets a great reward from God, only when one develops a great deservingness for it. And there is just one means for making oneself deserving of great reward—one must, in every condition, remain steadfastly positive in one’s thinking. Your positive thinking must remain firmly in place, and no event should cause you to waver.

Who is a complete person?

He is someone in whom the human attributes are found in the fullest possible manner. God has given every human being attributes in potential form. A complete person embodies these attributes to the maximum possible extent. Such a person has a balanced character. He is free from psychological complexes. He lets his conscience prevail over his ego in every situation, until he becomes an emblem of a soul at peace. (89: 27)

A complete person is one who, passing over the material things of the world, begins to live in the higher realities of life. He rises above things of superficial importance and engages himself in matters of deeper significance. He reaches the stage of perception described in a Hadith as the ability to “see things as they are”. Such a person thus begins to see things as they truly are, rather than as they externally appear to be. He willingly bows down before a reasoned argument just as a person bows down before might. He judges matters on their true merit, not because they may be for or against him. Despite having great capabilities, he develops in himself modesty. He is free from every sort of negative emotion. He relates to people without making any distinction of ‘friend’ and ‘stranger’. He is completely above personal interest. Instead of living in his own self, he lives by the higher principles of life.

God has made every human being a complete person in the potential sense. But to turn this potential ‘completeness’ into a reality, that is, in the form of a real character, is a task for each person to do. A verse in the Quran speaks of this reality in these words: “We have indeed created man in the best of mould, then We cast him down as the lowest of the low.” (95: 4-5). According to this verse, every person born on earth becomes a case of the “lowest of the low”. It is a person’s own conscious effort that makes him reach the stage described by the phrase, “best of mould”.

The secret of becoming a complete person lies in inculcating a sense of deep God-consciousness. It is the fear of God that makes someone a complete person. There is no other way of becoming a complete person.