By Ahmad Sukkar
I’m
a movie fan. I’m fascinated by the amount of information and ideas a single
movie can propagate. If a picture can say a thousand words, a movie, being an
infinite amount of moving pictures, can say trillions of words. A good movie is
much like a good book when it comes to writing; it’s an art. So when I quote a
movie character it is not all so far from quoting a book character. The reason
for this introduction is that the whole idea of this short article/blog entry
started with a piece of wisdom I caught from a movie:
“You
do not confront you demons and defeat them. You confront them, and confront
them, and confront them some more, every single day.”
Every
single day. Every day we wake up, we
should expect at least one demon confronting us. It could be the struggle to
wake up for Fajr prayer. It could be that lousy neighbor double parking infront
of our car again. It could be that indecent poster of a half-naked woman on the
highway. It could be anything.
Have
you ever found it hard to get up for Fajr prayer but at the end said (أعوذ بالله من الشيطان الرجيم) and quickly got out from under your warm
pillow? Didn’t feel awesome that you could do that? It is. Now that you have
defeated your demon, you will never have to worry about waking up for Fajr, eh?
Ha. In your dreams. You will have to do it again tomorrow. And then the day
after it. Every day. Some days it feels so easy, others not so easy. But you
keep on it.
In
the grand scheme of things, our Iman is challenged every day and all the
time. Iman is not something that you get once and that’s it. Iman
is something you have to work on every single day, with every action you do. It
grows with jihadul nafs, and it diminishes with every sin you make. It
grows with every smile you put on people’s faces, with every act of generosity,
with every respectful gaze-lowering, with every punctual salat. It
recedes with bad manners, with every act of selfishness, with every lustful
gaze, with every sluggish, 30-second salat.
Your
demons, your nafs, your bad company, are your enemies. Fight your
demons, control your nafs, and stay away from bad company. You will have to do
it every single day, though. C’est la vie.
والآخرة خير وأبقى
رائع جدا!!
ReplyDeleteجزاك الله خيرا :)