We finished the last discussion by saying that you cannot be sure of the correctness of all your actions. At the same time, it is known that prophet Muhammad pbuh recommends to stay away from the suspicious and stick to the certain (Tirmidhi, 2518). Then, are we to suppress all our instincts to strictly follow those that are purely licit?
Still, if you talk to religious people, many of them would suggest you to take the hard way and force yourself as much as possible, and take the easy ways only when you have no other choice. They say that, if you don't to this, you are running the risk of "acquiring your desires as your god", a state which is alluded to in the Quran (25/43). So, with a threat supported from the Quran, your fear kicks in, and you say "how hard can it be?". But not too long after that, you find yourself in the same situation that took you to oppressing yourself and banging your head on the same walls. You start questioning whether the ease of the religion is only for beginners and not for the experienced believers, whether God values the beginners more than those who have aged in belief. Your reason forces yourself to shut up and take your manners, but your soul rebels, your head gets awash with emotions, and your brain literally heats up. You want to shut your brain, if only once, to taste the ease in religion, to become a beginner loved and valued by God, despite shortcomings and mistakes. And...
And when things cool down, this time, you are drowning in feelings of guilt. At the same time, however, your thirst for your natural needs have been quenched, and the experience of not being thirsty gives you a deep satisfaction, for which your guilt heats up (benefits of sin). But again, now you know what is natural and what is artificial. Forcing yourself to follow a strictly licit path proved to be impractical, although completely rational. On the other hand, following a path mixed with question marks and taking risks turned out to be manageable, although partially rational.
Comparing the two states, in the first, when you were forcing yourself, according to your perception, your state was certainly true, and following a life that way would certainly lead to paradise in the afterlife. It is as simple as two plus two makes four. In the second state, however, because of the questionable things you have done, you know well that you are at the mercy of your Lord. But wait a second! Aren't we supposed to have this understanding of being at the mercy of our Lord anyway, instead of having confidence in our deeds?
"Religion is very easy and whoever overburdens himself in his religion will not be able to continue in that way." (Bukhari, 39)
"Allah intends every facility for you; He does not want to put you to difficulties." (2/185)
"God does not impose on any soul a responsibility beyond its ability." (2/286)If you look carefully, the messenger of God makes recommendations to the believers to provide them guiding principles in a life that is becoming increasingly gray. That's why you can find hadiths that are pointing at different aspects of the same issue. In the above hadiths, he admonishes us not to force ourselves in a case where there is no clear order or prohibition from God. And this notion of conformity to the nature (which is given by God anyway) is also underlined by the verses quoted above. The unwanted extreme in this case is abusing the word of God in order to justify anything you desire:
"... then as for those in whose hearts there is perversity they follow the part of it which is allegorical, seeking to mislead and seeking to give it (their own) interpretation ..." (3/7)
Still, if you talk to religious people, many of them would suggest you to take the hard way and force yourself as much as possible, and take the easy ways only when you have no other choice. They say that, if you don't to this, you are running the risk of "acquiring your desires as your god", a state which is alluded to in the Quran (25/43). So, with a threat supported from the Quran, your fear kicks in, and you say "how hard can it be?". But not too long after that, you find yourself in the same situation that took you to oppressing yourself and banging your head on the same walls. You start questioning whether the ease of the religion is only for beginners and not for the experienced believers, whether God values the beginners more than those who have aged in belief. Your reason forces yourself to shut up and take your manners, but your soul rebels, your head gets awash with emotions, and your brain literally heats up. You want to shut your brain, if only once, to taste the ease in religion, to become a beginner loved and valued by God, despite shortcomings and mistakes. And...
And when things cool down, this time, you are drowning in feelings of guilt. At the same time, however, your thirst for your natural needs have been quenched, and the experience of not being thirsty gives you a deep satisfaction, for which your guilt heats up (benefits of sin). But again, now you know what is natural and what is artificial. Forcing yourself to follow a strictly licit path proved to be impractical, although completely rational. On the other hand, following a path mixed with question marks and taking risks turned out to be manageable, although partially rational.
Comparing the two states, in the first, when you were forcing yourself, according to your perception, your state was certainly true, and following a life that way would certainly lead to paradise in the afterlife. It is as simple as two plus two makes four. In the second state, however, because of the questionable things you have done, you know well that you are at the mercy of your Lord. But wait a second! Aren't we supposed to have this understanding of being at the mercy of our Lord anyway, instead of having confidence in our deeds?
"Do good deeds properly, sincerely and moderately and know that your deeds will not make you enter Paradise, and that the most beloved deed to Allah is the most regular and constant even if it were little." (Bukhari, 6464)
"Did they then feel secure against the Plan of Allah. None feels secure from the Plan of Allah except the people who are the losers." (7/99)Let's now put things together on the table to see the big picture. First, we cannot live blind to our emotions. They are messages from our Lord, and we must heed them to fare safely on the way of God. Life of certainty, and so devoid of emotions, is certain to lead to an unstable journey that ends God knows where. Second, if we heed our emotions, they occasionally take us to questionable actions or even push us towards certain sins. So, we need to develop an emotional immunity to travel on the questionable grounds, build brakes to avoid sins and acquire connections to recovery methods in case we sin.
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