The presence of his Lord and forbids the soul from low desires

“And as for him who fears to stand in the presence of his Lord and forbids the soul from low desires, then surely the garden is the abode.” Qur'an, 79:40-41

Man and his tendencies and desires

Man, since the beginning of his life until its end, sees, hears, touches, tastes and smells. He is affected by what he sees, hears, touches, tastes and smells and by what comes out of the senses of pleasant attractives where they suit the tendencies of man which in turn are so attractive for those things.

The Divine Will has prohibited seeing some certain things, hearing some certain things, eating some certain things and touching some certain things because of their harms to the individual, to the family and to the society. The Exalted Legislator has informed us of this prohibition via the prophets and the infallible imams (s). This informing itself is one of the delicious fruits of the mercy of Allah and the love of the prophets and imams to the people.

Wealth, food, drinks, cloths, means of transportation, lusts, ranks and positions are required by man but it must be noticed that getting these requirements without conditions and restrictions will lead to trespass the rights of the others. Following these desires and requirements absolutely will cause to destroy the system of family and society and destroy the value and dignity of man and consequently it leads one to lose the afterlife, to deserve the wrath of Allah and then to be under the eternal torment. Contending for cheap desires has no legal or rational excuse. If you ask a conscientious one, who has good morals and insight, that if someone has wealth, high rank, position or a beautiful woman to enjoy with and these things cause the others to lose their rights or cause injustice and oppression against the others, what answer will you hear? Do reason and conscience accept these things? If you ask your mind, conscience and nature about that, you will not hear except that these desires must be avoided. One has to wish what Allah and the legal law have permitted. Practicing legal rights and desires does not cause others to lose anything of their rights and no injustice or oppression against anyone will take place.

If you put the same question before Allah, the prophets and the infallible imams, you would hear “you have to do according what Allah wants, do not desire to have what is not your right, you have to be satisfied with your desires and have to be satisfied with the impermissible things, you must not desire to wrong the others which means to wrong Allah, family and society and all kinds of injustice are impermissible.”

One needs to satisfy his stomach, his lusts and his imagination too. If these needs and desires are within the circle of the Divine restrictions and social rules, they will assure the safety of the environment, the individual and social life and they will keep reputation, dignity and perfect morals. But if these desires trespass the Divine restrictions and social rules, they will lead to confuse the life, to lose the dignity and to let vices and corruption spread.

Anyhow, man, according to all his affairs of life, has two kinds of desires: the rational and permissible desires and the delusive and impermissible desires.

The rational desires are the desires which agree with the will of Allah and hence they enter easily into the soul and heart and submit to the Divine laws and restrictions. In this case one does not want wealth or a house except from permissible ways, does not want to satisfy lusts except by legal marriage, does not want food except for the sake of Allah and to be able to protect the weak and oppressed people and when one wants to delight one’s eyes and ears, one does that by the right and permissible ways and then one becomes faithful, pious, benevolent, dutiful, kind to people, sincere to the society and always tries to please his Lord and to assure his happiness in this life and the afterlife by the “great jihad”.[1]

As for the delusive desires they are the desires that come out of one’s self only as a result of selfishness. They appear from a blind heart and lead to pride, hypocrisy and slipping in the valley of deviation. In this case one looks for wealth in any way and by any means. One desires to collect wealth even by usury, by force, by trick, taking bribes, robbing, cheating and plundering.

When one wants a house, he dares to extort the properties and houses of the others. When he wants to satisfy sexual lust, he does not care whether it is by masturbation, sodomy, adultery…and the likes.

When one wants a high position, he rushes to get it even if he destroys the rights of the others. When he wants to delight his eyes and ears, he will do even by looking at the wives and daughters of the others and hearing backbiting, bad-mouthing and impermissible music and singing.

One, who practices such desires, has no faith and religion or has weak faith and blind heart and insight. He tries to destroy his house of the afterlife, buy the wrath of Allah and submit to the Satan and his followers.

The Holy Qur'an calls these desires of man as “fancy”.

Fancy is something inside man’s inners. It is the government that rules over man and puts him in the place of Allah the Almighty and gives to him the aspects of divinity and deity. It enslaves man and then man began obeying and worshipping his fancy instead of Allah the Almighty.

Allah has said,

“Have you seen him who takes his low desires for his god? Will you then be a protector over him?” Qur'an, 25:43

When man puts his feet in the way of life, he tries, since childhood, to get all what he wants and follows after all what he hears and what his lusts take him to. He responds to his abdomen (desires and lusts) with no limits, satisfies his lusts with no restrictions and strives to get wealth, properties and authorities in any way without caring for the right of other people. In fact, man, in this case, is busy building the idol of fancy inside him and after he finishes building the idol, he begins to worship it and then he becomes its captive.

Unfortunately many people have spent their lives with this idol. They worshipped it and tried their best to satisfy it in any way.

One of the ascetics says, ‘The mother of idols is the idol of fancy.’

The worshippers of this idol do not regard the rights of the others nor do they regard their desires. They do not care for the reputations and dignities of other people. They see themselves have the right of everything whereas the others have no any right.

Allah has made the goodness of this world and the afterworld to assure the happiness of the all but He has asked them not to follow their fancies; the delusive and impermissible desires even if there is apparent damage to them or to the others when contradicting the fancies. Allah has said,

“O you who believe! be maintainers of justice, bearers of witness of Allah's sake, though it may be against your own selves or (your) parents or near relatives; if he is rich or poor, Allah is nearer to them both in compassion; therefore do not follow (your) low desires, lest you deviate; and if you swerve or turn aside, then surely Allah is aware of what you do). Qur'an, 4:135

The Holy Qur'an indicates that following fancies is a way towards deviation and it takes man away from Allah. It makes man forget the Day of Resurrection and consequently he will suffer the severe torment on the Day of Resurrection. Allah has said,

“…and do not follow desire, lest it should lead you astray from the path of Allah; (as for) those who go astray from the path of Allah, they shall surely have a severe punishment because they forgot the Day of Reckoning.” Qur'an, 38:26

The Holy Qur'an stresses on that fearing Allah and resisting fancies lead man to be in Paradise. Allah has said,

“And as for him who fears to stand in the presence of his Lord and forbids the soul from low desires, then surely the garden is the abode.” Qur'an, 79:40-41

The holy Qur'an mentions the story of (Ba’am bin Ba’ora) the famous scholar at the time of Prophet Moses (s). He had lost his faith, deviated from the path of the truth, been polluted with the worldly and material pleasures and acquired the morals of dogs. All that was because he had followed his own fancies. Allah has said,

“…but he clung to the earth and followed his low desire, so his parable is as the parable of the dog; if you attack him he lolls out his tongue; and if you leave him alone he lolls out his tongue; this is the parable of the people who reject Our communications.” Qur'an, 7:176

The Holy Qur'an has ordered not to obey the inadvertent people who have fallen in the trap of fancies and exceeded in following the lusts and pleasures. It has warned the believer of following such people by saying,

“…and do not follow him whose heart We have made unmindful to Our remembrance, and he follows his low desires and his case is one in which due bounds are exceeded.” Qur'an, 18:28

According to many verses in the suras of al-Ma’idah (5), al-An’am (6), ar-Ra’d (13), al-Mo’minoon (23), al-Qassass (28), ash-Shura (42), al-Jathiyah (45) and Muhammad (47) following fancies leads to reject the verses of the Divine books, leads to deviation, being away from Allah, corruption of the heavens and the earth and their inhabitants, rejecting prophethood, losing straightness, falling in the laps of inadvertent and ignorant people, sealing the hearts with blindness and rust and the likes.

Impermissible desires cause corruption of morals, corruption of deeds, paying no attention to the rights of the others, oppressing the others, giving up obligations, committing great sins, insisting on minor sins, becoming angry, nervous and bad tempered, expecting too much, hating good and pious people, interesting in accompanying evil people and associating with the sinful and villains.

The great jihad

If he, who has submitted to fancies, wants to reform his life and afterlife, to gain goodness and happiness in this life and afterlife and to reform his inners, deeds and morals, he should fight against his fancies as a brave soldier fighting in the war field. He has to know that he will win in this war by the assistance of Allah. He has to know that the mercy of Allah will be with him and that the matter of his victory and the defeat of fancies is a definite matter. If we say that man is unable to do that and he is weaker than to resist the influence of fancy, then there will be no meaning to sending prophets by Allah and no meaning to revealing Divine books and no meaning to the efforts of the imams.

But since man has the ability to face this internal tyrant and defeat it and that defeating it is something possible for all people; therefore Allah has sent the prophets and revealed His books and so Allah has shown His proof before people and He will not accept any excuse from anyone in this concern neither in this world nor in the afterworld.

Man, since he has not fallen in the trap of fancy yet, must care too much for watching himself and remember Allah every moment. Man has to beware of being polluted with the impermissible things that make the idol of fancy appear and be powerful. If man keeps himself against fancy, dignity and honor grow inside him and then piety and godliness grow inside his heart.

When man ignores this matter, he will be involved in worshipping the idol of fancy and after sometime when the ray of the Divine mercy shines after the waking of the conscience or hearing some preaches and advises or associating with pious people, man understands how the idol of fancy rules over him and sees its bad effects on his behavior and morals. Then he should not delay to fight it. In fact he must consider the jihad against this idol as an obligation or indeed the most important obligation. He should pay much attention to this matter because it is an order from Allah and he should respond to the invitation of the prophets and imams in order to reform himself; morals and deeds. In order to defeat this idol, he should refrain from sins, pay much attention to the obligations, do good, mix with the pious, associate with the benevolent and purify his wealth from ill-gotten monies. If he fights his fancy with these weapons, he will win this battle definitely. It is this battle that is called in the Divine knowledge as the “greater jihad”.

It is mentioned that Imam as-Sadiq (s) has said, ‘Once the Prophet (s) sent a battalion (to fight the enemy) and when they came back, he said to them, ‘Welcome to the people who have achieved the minor jihad and remained for them the major jihad.’ It was said to him, ‘O messenger of Allah, what is the major jihad?’ He said, ‘It is the jihad against one’s fancy.’

One who resists his fancies his jihad is higher than any other jihad and one who desist (emigrate) from fancies his (hijra) is better than any other (hijra). Hence, the reward of this jihad and this (hijra) is more and greater than the reward of every other great deed.

Imam Ali (s), who was the first man in this field of jihad, said, ‘The fighter, who is martyred for the sake of Allah, is not rewarded more than one who is able (to commit sins) but remains abstinent. An abstinent is about to be one of the angels!’[2]