THE CAUSES OF ANGER AND ITS MEDICINE

From Imam Ghazali’s book “Ihyaa Uloom ad Deen” (The
revival of religious teachings)

THE CAUSES OF ANGER AND ITS MEDICINE

Know, O dear readers, 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
medecines of anger after one gets angry. The medecine is
a mixture of knowledge and action. The medecine based on
knowledge is of six kinds: (1) The first medecine 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 medecine 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 medecine of anger based on
knowledge is to take precaution about punishment of
enemity 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 medecine 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.
(5) The fifth kind of medecine based on knowledgeis 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 occured!” Medecine
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.