Allah Will Grant the One Who Swallows His Anger (Part 2)

2. Anger is one of the most dangerous tools as Satan is able to use it to make people commit sins

Anger is one of the gifts from Allah which can also be used in incorrect and inappropriate places. As we know, the power of anger actually refers to the gathering of a person's physical energy in the face of a difficulty. Therefore, Allah is the one who has created the power of anger so that a person would be able to defend himself from an attack, as if a person was to remain indifferent in such situations and did not gather his inner-energy, then he would not be able to defend himself.

There are some people who have stated that when a person is in his regular state, he has approximately 1/10th of his power ready to use. However, when he gets into a state of anger, then his power becomes tenfold - meaning that all of their energy is mustered!

With this point in mind, we see that in a regular state, some people are very relaxed; however when they enter into a stage of anger, then even five people would not be able to take charge over them and control them as all of their inner energy and power has been gathered together!

Therefore, the power of anger which Allah has created within everyone is actually one of His blessings; however it must be used in the proper way.

With this said, we understand that anger is of two types: the unbefitting form of anger and the praiseworthy and obligatory anger.

In the face of those who openly perform sins and transgress the laws of Allah, the true believer must show his Islamic zeal and enthusiasm in opposing the impermissible acts and must not be indifferent to sins happening around him.

There is a well-known tradition which states that once, Allah sent a group of Angels to destroy a particular nation, however they did not fulfill the responsibility given to them by Allah and returned back, appealing to Him, saying: “O' Allah! Within this group (whom we are commanded to destroy) we saw a very old man who worships You in the darkness of the night. He was awake in Your worship and we did not want to destroy this nation since this man was amongst them.”‌

It was revealed to this group of Angels that, “Return back to that nation and destroy the entire community as well as the old man!”‌ Once they were given this command, they were told the reason why this was to be done:

“The same old man you see awake in the dark hours of the night in worship is the same person whose face never turned red in anger at seeing the sins being committed around him!”‌

Therefore, when a person must command others to righteous deeds and forbid them from the evil (Amr bil Ma’ruf and Nahi ‘anil Munkar), become angry at sins being committed, leaving that area where sins are being performed and in summary, fulfilling his responsibility in these regards, he must do this.

Again, it is this form of anger which is praiseworthy and is actually obligatory!

From the point of view of the faith of Islam, the person who is indifferent to sins and sinning has absolutely no value!

Of course it goes without saying that anger which is not warranted is something which is not liked by Allah.

* By: Saffia Rida and Shaykh Nasir Makarim Shirazi