He said...

He said: “The pious are people whose good one is hopeful of, while they do not commit any bad actions.”[^2] People are hopeful of their good while they are safe from their evil. A person who struggles with his self will become a human. The sign of a person like this is that he does not cause man any loss. People are comfortable with him and even expect good from him.

People should not think that one can reach a high spiritual level easily by performing outward forms of worship, like prayer, fasting, or pilgrimage, without having one's heart in it. The way one can become a human is by refraining from strengthening his animalistic nature. One must control one's tongue; if one's tongue is left alone it will become predatory. I will mention another sentence on this line from the Commander of the faithful (a). He said: “I struggle against myself ( nafs ).

I give my nafs manners. I protect my nafs so that on the Day of Judgment I will be safe.” You, who are the follower ( shī‛a ) of Imām ‛Ali (a), must follow him in this. Today I will explain one of the animalistic qualities so that we can understand it well. Then, we must refrain from using this trait and use a human trait in its place.

Anger, An Animalistic Trait Anger becomes an animalistic trait for man when he gets upset at others who are a barrier for him to reach his goals or when something is done against his desires. For example, he was cursed or oppressed and the feeling of revenge comes to his mind. Sometimes his face turns red and the movement of blood in his face becomes apparent. At this time his nafs tells him to get revenge. First, he says something against reality then curses or hits his opponent.

In this state, he is unaware of his actions. It is an animalistic state where truth is non-existent. He is able to perform any action in this state, just like an animal. When he becomes angry he does not know anything except revenge. Sometimes he tears his own shirt and hits his own self. Sometimes he even gets a stroke if his anger reaches an extremely high level and he is unable to get revenge. I have known some people who have got strokes while they were angry.

Some of them died and some of them became paralyzed. They were people who performed prayers, but prayer alone can not make one human. One must control his nafs and stop his animalistic nature from growing into a wolf.