Internal Controlling System
By Imam Nawawi
In the name of Allāh, the Most Gracious, the Most
Merciful;
All the praise and Thanks is due to Allāh, the Lord of
al-‘ālameen. I testify that there
is none worthy of worship except Allāh, and that
Muhammad, Sallallāhu ‘alayhi wasallam, is His
Messenger
Al-Nawwas bin Sam’an, (radiyallahu’anhu),
reported that the Prophet, (Sallallahu 'alayhi wasallam), said:
“Righteousness is good character, and
sin is that which wavers in your heart and which you do not want people to know
about.”
[Muslim]
According to Wabisah bin Ma'bad, (radiyallahu
'anhu), who said:
I came to the Messenger of
Allah, (Sallallahu 'alayhi wasallam), and he said: “You
have come to ask about righteousness ?” “ Yes,” I answered. Rasūlullāh (Sallallahu 'alayhi
wasallam) said: “Consult your heart. Righteousness is that about which the soul
feels tranquil and the heart feels tranquil, and sin is what creates
restlessness in the soul and moves to and fro in the breast, even though people
give you their opinion ( in your favour) and continue to do so.”
[A good hadith transmitted from the Musnads
of the two Imams, Ahmad bin Hanbal and Al-Darimi]
Background
The first thing that should be pointed out
is that even though the second hadith is weak by itself, due to supporting
evidence it is raised to the level of hasan (authentic). These two hadiths
state the meaning of righteousness and sinfulness.
Lessons
Ibn Rajab (rahimahullah) states that the
term 'bir' (righteousness) which
is used in this hadith is actually used in two senses:
(a) treating others in a good manner, and
(b) all acts of good deeds and worshipping
Allah.
Based on this, the first statement in the
first hadith can be interpreted as meaning the
most essential aspect of righteousness is good character.
And Ibn Rajab (rahimahullah) extends this meaning by saying that good character
can be interpreted as all good manners mentioned in the Qur’ān. Consequently, according to Ibn Rajab
(rahimahullah), the two meanings of bir are there.
Allah has created us with a pure innate or
natural disposition that is called fitrah, as mentioned in
other hadiths. This means to love the truth and the good and to
hate falsehood and evil. Consequently, good believers with pure fitrah should
never confuse truth with falsehood.
The second hadith guides
us to consult our heart regarding doubtful matters. If the heart is in
tranquility, that implies that it is bir or righteousness. If
the heart is not tranquil, one should abstain from carrying out such an act or
doubtful matter. However, it should be noted that fitrah is
subject to corruption and can be spoiled due to the influence of bad
environment - a person may start to like and appreciate what is bad or evil and
dislike truth and goodness. Here, the heart is diseased or even dead. Such a
person cannot use his heart as a measure to judge what is good and bad because
the fitrah is already corrupted.
Sin is what wavers or trembles your soul.
This portion of the hadith defines a sinful act as an act for
which its performer deserves blame. Imam Qurtabi (rahimahullah) gives the
previous interpretation. Ustaz Jamaludin Zarabozo states that in this hadith the
Prophet, (Sallallahu 'alayhi wasallam), gave very important signs
of sin. The first one is an internal sign within the human being.
It is the feelings of the soul with respect to any particular act. The second
sign is also about the internal feelings but it deals with
the outward reaction to the act itself. Sin causes a wholesome soul to be uneasy
and troubled. The soul is unhappy and worried about sin and its consequences. These
signs occur because the person is naturally disposed to favour what leads to
positive results and avoid what leads to negative results. The commentators of
this hadith stress that the 'people' referred to here are the
respected and righteous people.
The two hadiths reveal a
significant aspect of Islam that is an internal
controlling and guiding system that is established as a result of
several factors:
1. The pure fitrah (natural
disposition). Allah created everybody with a pure fitrah and
not just Muslims. The Prophet, (sallallahu 'alayhi wasallam),
mentions many factors in the environment that play an influential role in
subjecting the fitrah to corruption.
2. The realization of tawhid.
This means practicing all the essentials of tawhid like loving
Allah, seeking His Help as the only refuge, depending on Him (tawakul),
asking for His Mercy, and many other essentials associated with the idea
of tawhid.
3. Adhering to shari'ah instructions.
4.
Seeking knowledge.
5.
Tazkiyah and tarbiyah
- that is the purification of the soul and the heart of the Muslim.
The above mentioned factors and many
others are interrelated and altogether lead to the establishment of the
internal controlling system. However, this system needs to be 'updated' and
'upgraded' regularly by educators and da'ies. It is very important
that the educators and da'ies pay attention to the
individual's and the community's built-in system. They have to create awareness
about contemporary challenges. They should plan future strategies to deal with
such challenges.
This internal system is very important for
Muslims today. They should know about it in order to activate it. Only through
such proper reconstruction of the consciousness can we be certain about the
validity and effectiveness of the internal controlling system. Muslims need to
be aware of this fact and have to activate their system in order to be
sensitive towards doubtful acts and sinful matters. Unless this system is
'upgraded', the person may not act in the right way. It is like 'installing' an
'anti-virus software' within ourselves. With such a 'software' in place, our
internal system will prevent 'viruses', i.e. bad or evil acts, from entering
our thoughts or hearts.
There are many issues today where people
are in total doubt about whether something is allowed or not. In many areas
such as insurance, food, medicine, trade, and technology, there are no definite
answers - or the people themselves are not aware of the Islamic approach. This
may lead to moral conflicts. Unfortunately, even some people who teach akhlaq and
moral values are sometimes not even aware of these conflicts.
In this era we have several clashing
values. Muslims should be exposed to the Islamic point of view of the issue in
order to go for the right value. Works about such issues should be published
and translated for all Muslims. Books and magazines should be available to all
Muslims. If the existing works are very long, we need to summarize the findings
and translate them into major Muslim and international languages. Exposing
Muslims to such findings will minimize disputes among them regarding certain
issues. They will at least know what to do and what not to do. This will lead
to unity and remove anything that can lead to disputes.
Another thing is that educators and da'ies should
not simply use the traditional approach. If we want to talk about siddiq, tazkiyah,
and tarbiyah, we should not limit ourselves to one scholar or
website. We should compare knowledge and information between different
scholars. For example, if we compare the works of Al-Shaikh Zarrouq and Imam
Ghazali (rahimahullah) on tazkiyah, we will notice differences; the
work of Al-Shaikh Zarrouq is totally different from Imam Ghazali's. His books
of “Qawaed Al- Tasaruf” and “Udat Al-Boroud Al-Sadiq” use totally different
approaches from Imam Ghazali (rahimahullah). Al-Shaikh Zarrouq addressed the
people of his time. We can read these books and benefit from them but we should
use a more suitable approach that is more convenient to the challenges of our
time. This means that we should have different ways of presenting these issues
about tazkiyah and tarbiyah. It is only by this
way can we 'upgrade' our internal controlling system.
We should interpret the Qur'anic texts
and hadiths in the light of what we have today. This cannot
happen unless the internal system is 'upgraded'. Otherwise we may get lost. The
system has two sides: positive and negative. We must use the positive side. We
have to know how to be honest in this era. It is the responsibility of the
educators and da'ies of today to 'upgrade' the internal
controlling system of the Muslims in general and the young generation in
particular.
We should also be aware of the recent
advancements in technology. For example, nowadays there are filtering software
that are developed by non-Muslims. We can download these software and have
control over some of the negative elements that can reach us through the
Internet. We should develop this type of software to suit our needs as
Muslims. We have to maximize the positive side of information technology.
We need to do this to enable Muslims to access the Internet and use their time
in the right way.
One more area that we need to be aware of
is that of intellectual slavery - that is when people try to benefit from
technology through globalization. There are some people who want to influence
others in order to affect the akhlaq and ideology. They use
cognitive psychology and other branches of knowledge where they can manipulate
the mind. They practice brainwashing and Muslims are not aware of this. This is
a very great challenge to Muslims since this may lead us to question our
beliefs and moral values. Educators need to address this crucial issue. They
should do something to 'upgrade' the above mentioned internal controlling
system in order to prevent ourselves from being brainwashed.
Conclusion
Without a 'fully functioning' internal
controlling system, people will have different attitudes which may lead to
problems such as extremism. Extremists will increase in the Muslim community if
issues like those mentioned above are not resolved. Muslims may end up with
multiple personalities. They are Muslims but they commit haram (forbidden)
and many other negative things. They are not aware that they are doing anything
wrong and they start acting in strange ways. These people are victims of the
new system of globalization. Our strategy to face such challenges is to
'activate' and 'upgrade' our internal system. Then Muslims can live their lives
in tranquility and without confusion. Other solutions will merely be short term
because there will be no tranquility.
And Allāh
Almighty Knows best.
[Excerpted from “Hadith No: 27 – “Internal
Controlling System, 40 Hadiths Of Imam Nawawi,” Via I C Truth]
