Anger Engine - 5

If a little child threatens you with a toy gun, you would smile and ignore. That is because you know the difference between the real world and the dream world. However, the same is not true of that child, who is expecting you to get scared and take action. So, your indifference to the child's threat is an act of rebellion and, so, is deserving of punishment. Pew Pew...

What is the life of this world but play and amusement? But the best is the home in the hereafter for those who are righteous. Will you not then understand? (6/32)

The contrast of a true believer and a true disbeliever can be seen through the above example. True believer knows for sure that anything and everything in this world, all the actors in life take their power from God. However, unable to visually see this reality, we, humans, imagine ourselves as the true actor, when in fact this is no more than a supposition.

And you do not will except that Allah wills - Lord of the worlds. (81/29)

Still, even if we are not the true actors but supposed ones, the acts and effects are real. That is we are in a real game, and we are going to be judged according to our actions therein. A believer lives knowing this fact, whereas a disbeliever plays the game thinking that they are the real power holder in a life that is sure to end without a judgment of the past. Whatever the case, we really experience this game of life, regardless of the intentions and identities of the involved actors. Sometimes, we are negatively affected by those holding the power, and sometimes it is us who is tested with power over others. The question is how to take action in perspective of the transience of these opposing situations.

If you get hurt, certainly others have also experienced injuries. We have made people pass through the different turns of history so that God would know the true believers, have some of you bear witness to the people's deeds, God does not love the unjust. (3/140)

At this point, it is important to identify and be aware of what our natural instincts say and what the Lord wants us to do. Yes, it is God who created our instincts and it is Him who sent the Quran, and the mismatch between the two, if any, sounds irrational. However, mismatch points at a journey, a transition ahead of us, and so it is not really irrational. What would be truly irrational is incompatibility between the basic nature of humans and the goals defined for them. That is, while mining an iron ore, you don't extract a knife, but the iron ore has the ability to transform to that end. So is our case in terms of anger and power. We must strive to tame and guide our instincts towards what is pleasing to God.

O believers, look after your own souls. He who is astray cannot hurt you, if you are rightly guided. Unto God shall you return, all together, and He will tell you what you were doing. (5/105)

And the servants of the Most Merciful are those who walk upon the earth easily, and when the ignorant address them [harshly], they say peace, (25/63)

Now, let's think. Yes, peace is the best, and it must be the goal all the time. The book of God tells its adherents to seek peace all the time. Still, it is the same book of God that gives guidance in case a fight breaks out. In fact, it sometimes encourages the believers to fight, if their fear is undermining the peace and helping establish a system of oppression.

What! will you not fight a people who broke their oaths and aimed at the expulsion of the Messenger, and they attacked you first; do you fear them? But Allah is most deserving that you should fear Him, if you are believers. Fight them, Allah will punish them by your hands and bring them to disgrace, and assist you against them and heal the hearts of a believing people. And remove the rage of their hearts; and Allah turns (mercifully) to whom He pleases, and Allah is Knowing, Wise. (9/13-15)

Before we go further, let's remember how we came to this point. At first, we said that much has been talked about anger management, but anger towards God is not as much studied; less so in Islamic context. Then we came to an interim conclusion that if we are getting angry towards God, it is quite likely that we are in a state of consistently ignoring His messages to us either through the Quran or through the events around us. That is we are trying to stay as we are when the Creator wants to transform us, hence our anger.

Once we become aware of this fact, we open ourselves to change. As we change in the ways God leads us, we realize that we need to do something about the injustices going on around us. Neither individually nor as a society can we truly become believers, if we are not eliminating the injustices against people and against the nature (2/204-206, 2/251, 3/110, 44/29). So, the good Lord wants us to take action. But wait a minute! Hasn't He seen that we have been angry with Him? Shouldn't He have given us at least sometime to calm down and relax?