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Ice Cubes and Candles – A Lesson in Self Control

My dearest friend called me yesterday. She was having a bad day, you know, the type that qualifies for ‘rock-bottom, and then me’ kind of day.

As she was ‘passionately’ describing her ‘memorable moments’ of the day, it was clear that her emotions were running high and her thoughts were all cluttered, disorganized and jumbled up.

She wished for things that she had never asked to happen to anyone, to happen to the person that had caused her so much distressed.

I quickly reminded her of the verse of Allah the Most Loving who said in His Holy Book that guides human souls:

Verily, those who are Al-Muttaqoon (the pious – see V.2:2), when an evil thought comes to them from Shaitan (Satan), they remember (Allah), and (indeed) they then see (aright). (7: 201)

She made me think that day.

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My friend is a lovely person but under a severely and extremely stressful circumstance, her thoughts wandered to a territory she had never crossed before.

I realized here that Allah has made it clear that our minds could ‘stroll’ around if we do not control it. Of course if it strolled towards goodness, Alhamdulillah, right?

But what if it wandered towards something bad?

For example, when we got upset with someone, or injustice was done to us, or we found that someone had betrayed us, or we are angered, what were our thoughts at that time?

What were the things that crossed our minds? What were the words at the tip of our tongues? Was there an urge of retaliation? How about revenge? Perhaps intend to pay back? Maybe even a quick prayer of condemnation for the other person?

Well, perhaps some of our thoughts do not really qualify as evil thoughts but they sure do not qualify as good ones either, you agree?

And mind you, those thoughts are definitely whispered and ‘specially delivered’ to our mind courtesy from His enemy.

So, what did Allah want us to do then?

Remember Him… and then only we could see what is right, inshaAllah…

With that, I quickly reminded myself and my dearest friend of the words of our Creator, Allah the Greatest, the Most Loving, the Best Planner with this verse:

Say: “nothing will happen to us except what Allah has decreed for us: He is our protector”: and on Allah let the Believers put their trust (9:51)

Allah has said that nothing will happen to us except with His Permission. Therefore, if we continuously be upset and failed to exercise patience, aren’t we sort of like showing our anger, dissatisfaction, frustration and irritation towards Allah too?

Don’t you think this is what Satan wanted from us in the first place? To make us unhappy, angry and displeased with Allah’s Plans, the One Who gave us life?

Do we want to give the enemy of Allah victory because we aren’t able to control our discontent over the small ‘mishaps’ we faced daily?

Do we really want to see them doing the happy dance while we are fuming with anger?

Do we want to allow them to use us as prove to Allah of the unworthiness of His Creation- the human being? Do we?

Astaghfirullah…

Billy Graham once said:

Hot heads and cold hearts never solved anything

So, I have decided to pour unto my head some ice-cube water to cease the heat and to light some candlelight in my heart to warm it up, inshaAllah.

What about you my friends? Care to stock some ice-cubes and candle for future use?

Think about it…

Source: http://www.siszabrina.com/

About Sis Zabrina
As a Life Storyteller, Dr. Zabrina A. Bakar or better known as Sis Zabrina by her readers is the Author of Bestselling Motivational Book Series 'Life is an Open Secret'. Her motivational stories are based on true life daily happenings. Her writings are grounded in spirituality and the aim of her stories is for the reflection of minds and hearts of her readers. For her, Islam is easy to follow, simple, relevant and complete. Read your motivational stories from your Life Storyteller today!