Anger Engine - 7

When you have the power and when you are angry, you are within a dangerous context. The same context, however, is necessary for the realization of utterly needed transformations that are later going to be named as "historic revolution". Eliminating the problems that have been ailing the society for too long needs such a dangerous juxtaposition as anger and power. Keeping that anger and power under control, however, is essential in order for this historic transformation to be for the good of everybody. Speaking of control, there are two extremes that must be avoided. One, you must make sure that you are not going beyond the limits and committing oppression while conducting your rightful mission. A proper target does not justify the unjust means to it. Two, you must avoid falling into the misuse of mercy when delivering justice related to the past events. Forgiveness must be exercised in a way not to encourage those committed to evil.

It is not fitting for a prophet that he should have prisoners of war until he has thoroughly subdued the land. You look for the temporal goods of this world; but Allah looks to the Hereafter: And Allah is Exalted in might, Wise. (8/67)

The above verse was revealed after the battle of Badr, when the Muslims had given the Meccan oppressors an unexpected and a dire blow. The details of this event can be read from the relevant sources. My intention here is to focus on the two points I raised above. Here, the Ruler of the universe tells His messenger that a lesson of mercy cannot be taught to the minds that have learned to exercise their own will through killing the innocent and stealing from the weak. A lesson of tolerance cannot be learned by the minds that have uprooted freedom of thought and expression through ways including, but not limited to, torture and pressure.

Such was the case with the Meccan opponents against the first Muslims. A permanent lesson had to be given to the evildoers so that the people in the aftermath will not dare to repeat the same. At this conjunction, forgiving even the most evil act sends the message that "you can get away with whatever you do". Plus, a temporary loss on the side of those evil people will seed a revenge. All of these must be blocked. Besides, those who were not as evil but were siding with the evil group for whatever reason must understand that they are given a free will in order to choose to counteract the evil pushes from people and from devil. Lack of good will and simply joining the crowds is not a valid excuse to support evil will.

If these sound to harsh for you, remember that it is the similar behavior on your side that led to the conditions in which you felt the anger towards God, because He was keeping you under heavy loads with no "apparent" reason. It took a long time and grave losses in order for you to realize things. The same is true of the other side. Psychology of herd and the psychology surrounding the status-quo are the same, no matter under what banner they are present, be them religious or otherwise.

So, let's delve into the first topic: not committing injustice when exercising power. It is very easy to misguide a person who is angry and who holds power. With unsubstantiated news and rumors, one can lead another person to give undeserved or excessive punishments. It is crucial at this point to cling to the basic principles of justice:

• a person is innocent unless proven otherwise
• benefit of doubt goes to the suspect
• crime is individual; hence no crime by affiliation
• crime and punishment must be proportional
• penalty is the same regardless of the identity of the criminal

Although these principles of justice have been established and known for long, they are violated many times due to pressure from outside or prejudice from inside. Both are not fitting to a believer: 

O you who have believed, be persistently standing firm for Allah , witnesses in justice, and do not let the hatred of a people prevent you from being just. Be just; that is nearer to righteousness. And fear Allah ; indeed, Allah is Acquainted with what you do. (5/8)

Believers, if one who publicly commits sins brings you any news, ascertain its truthfulness carefully, lest you harm people through ignorance and then regret what you have done. (49/6)

Second topic is not exercising unlimited forgiveness. As explained above, forgiving everything, no matter what, gives the message that individuals can commit anything without having to face any punishments or sanctions. It is important, however, to distinguish between the rights of God and the rights of people. A person not believing in God, i.e. atheists, are committing a crime against God, and it is due to Him to judge the situation. The same is not true of crimes against people, however. If, for example, the freedom of thought, expression and religion or another basic freedom and right of a person is violated by whoever, this violation is deserving of punishment.

Of course similar limitations can be put in place due to authentic reasons supported by proven, concrete crimes. Nevertheless, evil actors who use the public power to abolish the basic freedoms always come up with pretexts to do so, too. Therefore, it is important to distinguish between the limitations taken due to concrete actions and those built on prejudices and evil will. If a person or group has banned the basic individual freedoms and rights without relying on concrete crimes, then that person or group must be punished not only as a recompense to their acts but also as a lesson to the rest of the people.

The recompense of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and do mischief in the land is only that they shall be killed or crucified or their hands and their feet be cut off on the opposite sides, or be exiled from the land. That is their disgrace in this world, and a great torment is theirs in the Hereafter. (5/33)

And those who accuse chaste women and then do not produce four witnesses - lash them with eighty lashes and do not accept from them testimony ever after. And those are the defiantly disobedient, (4/24)

After these two important lessons, remember that anger is not a state that is intended to last forever. It is there for a reason, and once that reason is fulfilled, the lead must be handed to wisdom and mercy. Never-quenching anger is a sign of going astray and itself an invitation for future troubles.

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. (9/14-15)

So they defeated them by permission of Allah , and David killed Goliath, and Allah gave him the kingship and prophethood and taught him from that which He willed. And if it were not for Allah checking [some] people by means of others, the earth would have been corrupted, but Allah is full of bounty to the worlds. (2/251)

Relevant Quranic verses to the topic: 

And what is [the matter] with you that you fight not in the cause of Allah and [for] the oppressed among men, women, and children who say, "Our Lord, take us out of this city of oppressive people and appoint for us from Yourself a protector and appoint for us from Yourself a helper?" (4/75)

Have you not seen those who were told, "Restrain your hands [from fighting] and establish prayer and give zakah"? But then when fighting was ordained for them, at once a party of them feared men as they fear Allah or with [even] greater fear. They said, "Our Lord, why have You decreed upon us fighting? If only You had postponed [it for] us for a short time." Say, The enjoyment of this world is little, and the Hereafter is better for he who fears Allah. And injustice will not be done to you, [even] as much as a thread [inside a date seed]." (4/77)

And the thief, male and female: cut off the hands of both, as a recompense for what they have earned, and a punishment exemplary from God; God is All-mighty, All-wise. (5/38)

O you who believe! Whoever of you reverts from his religion, (know that in his stead) Allah will bring a people whom He loves and who loves Him, humble toward believers, stern toward disbelievers, striving in the way of Allah, and not fearing the blame of any blamer. Such is the grace of Allah which He gives unto whom He wills. Allah is All-Embracing, All-Knowing. (5/54)

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 thus have We made in every town its guilty ones become the greatest ones, that they may plan therein; and they do not plan but against their own souls, and they do not perceive. (6/123)

So We make the evildoers friends of each other for what they have earned. (6/129)

Is not Allah sufficient for His servant? And they seek to frighten you with those apart from Him; And whoever Allah leaves astray - for him there is no guide. (39/36)

Verily, We have given you (O Muhammad SAW) a manifest victory. That Allah may forgive for you what preceded of your sin and what will follow and complete His favor upon you and guide you to a straight path And that Allah might help you with a mighty help. It is He who sent down tranquility into the hearts of the believers that they would increase in faith along with their [present] faith. And to Allah belong the soldiers of the heavens and the earth, and ever is Allah Knowing and Wise. (48/1-4)

O believers, take not My enemy and your enemy for friends, offering them love, though they have disbelieved in the truth that has come to you, expelling the Messenger and you because you believe in God your Lord. If you go forth to struggle in My way and seek My good pleasure, secretly loving them, yet I know very well what you conceal and what you publish; and whosoever of you does that, has gone astray from the right way. (60/1)

"I" for Information?

A recurring theme in the sci-fi movies nowadays is the notion that self or conscience is nothing but the aggregate of information in our brains. Classically expressed, according to this notion, what I call "I" is equal to the accumulation of all of the information throughout my life in my memory. I would like to put this interpretation under scrutiny in the light of basic human experience, modern scientific findings and pillars of faith.

At the foundation, let's see what makes a human being in terms of information. First, there is the genetic inheritance. The genetic information contains your talents, your weaknesses, your organs, etc. This code alone, however, is not enough to engender what we call life experiences. Aside from the genes, there is the chemical environment both in and around our bodies. These chemicals, be them good or bad, sometimes limit or boost the genetic activity, and sometimes they dictate how our genes are going to work. Aside from these, there are the people around us. Our experiences with them (parents, siblings, friends, relatives, society) shape our memories and our psychology. You can still dump all of these into the chemical bath in an individual's brain. Having distilled everything into material components, that is not considering any spiritual factors, if you look at what you have in hand, you'll see countless molecules interacting with each other through a unique structure. So, the first question is can you even make a copy of this?

Decoding a person's life events from their memory is not the same as decoding their psychology, since each person reacts and changes differently upon the same or similar events. This is true both in the biological sense and in the psychological sense. Therefore, in order to call something an exact replica of you, there is this daunting task of deciphering what you are, in the first place.

Second, according to the uncertainty principle in quantum mechanics, there is a limit of what you can know about a system. You can not learn everything about it, let alone copying. Then again, can you call something, which is at best similar to you, a replica of you?

At this point, let me make a clarification. By these comments I don't mean to discourage any studies to learn about how human mind works etc. My intention is to criticize the subjective philosophical attachments to the objective scientific studies and findings, since those attachments either don't make sense or contradict with the basic tenets of belief in Islam.

Going on with our discussion, let's assume somehow you deciphered all the information that makes you you, and then you copied this digital you. Now, are there two of you? For that matter, is there a limit to how many times you can "recreate" yourself? Furthermore, what if someone deletes you? Is that person a murderer?

Plus, what if that "you", by virtue of working on a digital computer, commits a cyber crime? Is "you" going to be punished for this? If yes, how? Or let's make it funny. Assuming that you and your digital copy are alive in the same time frame, and your digital copy commits a crime, and the officials put you in prison, or worse, they give you capital punishment. How would you like it?

What about in the afterlife? If there are hundreds of you, which one is going to be the real you to go to hell or heaven? This idea, in this sense, is similar to the idea of reincarnation, and has a fatal error in terms of the pillars of faith.

It is flattering to think that you can evade death by creating a digital you, but is it really you? The push by the materialistic and atheistic philosophy is the expectation that concepts like free will and conscience are all going to be proven as an artifact of the chemistry and electrodynamics in our brains. This is a mere wishful thinking on their side, which they are free to do, but it is not fair to advertise it or talk about it as a scientific truth.

Also, on the believers' side, it is important to be cautious, because an idea is not necessarily true only because it contains bits of scientific information and it is voiced by scientists or influential people. Such feelings of inferiority arises due to lack of information, weakness of faith and a disconnection with the revealed word of our Creator.

Emotion Management - 5

A machine is a machine because it does exactly what we design it for. However, there are machines that do the same thing no matter when and where, and there are machines that can learn and adapt to who, when and where. Today's smart technologies are distinguished from the past technologies, mainly because they can evolve and do things that were not explicitly registered in their memory in the beginning. More technically speaking, they "learn". How do they do it? Of course by "reading", "analyzing", "predicting", "trying" and "not fearing failure".

Wait a second! I said "not fearing failure". A machine has no emotions. How can it fear? If you think so, too, this is exactly the point I am trying to make. A machine has no conscience and no free will to deliberately try something. If there is no intention, there is no failure. So, failure and the feelings and emotions coming with it are the things that we, humans, have in our minds. That's why it is meaningless to shout at your car when it breaks down; or a car is not guilty in case of an accident but its driver, although it is the car what made the harm and damage. Therefore, both success and failure comes with a prerequisite of intention.

Accordingly, when we talk about the learning of the machines, we are automatically considering the intentions of the designers and manufacturers manifest in that machine and its actions. Also, when we say that machines don't fear failure, we are basically confirming the famous observation that "success usually comes from consistent trials and learning from errors, without succumbing to the shame of failure."

Although virtually everybody is in favor of the development and deployment of technology, which feeds from the tolerance shown for the mistakes on the way, we humans are not as welcoming to the human mistakes. We have a tendency to curtail the "courage to stand up and try again" in others and in ourselves. Except for babies and sometimes little children!

Remember, failure or success has a prerequisite of intention. A baby or a little child has no clear intention, and are innocent. That's how they get away without being reprimanded or punished for their mistakes as an adult, and that's how they go on trying.

Why is this topic important for us, when we are discussing emotion management? At the end of the previous episode, we had said "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." A rule of thumb in all of the three cases in this sentence is to keep going. That is, no matter what happens, as quickly as possible, as much as possible and as diverse as possible, go on doing good deeds.

"Indeed, Allah leaves astray whom He wills and guides to Himself whoever turns back [to Him]. Those who have believed and whose hearts are assured by the remembrance of Allah. Unquestionably, by the remembrance of Allah hearts are assured. Those who have believed and done righteous deeds - a good state is theirs and a good return." (13/27-29)

In order to better digest this verse, remember that in the Quranic terminology, heart does not refer to the biological heart (7/179). It refers to our thinking ability with common sense. If anything, the word heart in the Quran refers to the brain. One can ask at this point why, instead of saying brain directly, is the heart mentioned? If you think in terms of our topic, you can have a glance of the answer. Thoughts are not free of emotions, and emotions are linked to the heart in the public speech. So, the concept of "a heart that understands" comprises all of these.

The verse quoted above admonishes that Allah guides those who return to Him. In order to return, you must first be heading away! Upon your experiences, whatever they might be, you must return to Him through remembrance of a thinking heart that energizes good deeds. With this state, you are promised a warm welcome with your Lord. And such warm welcome is the manifestation of the fact that your Creator does not define you through your mistakes but through your returns; a fact that encourages further attempts of discovery and an attitude that fosters love and belonging to your Friend.

In this context, you can remember the story of Nuayman ibn Amr, a companion of the prophet Muhammad pbuh. This companion, although fought in the name of God in many battles and pursued other good deeds in his life, could not give up alcohol despite the clear ban by Allah. Nevertheless, he never succumbed to his failure to give up, but always stood up and tried again. And for this attitude of his, he was praised by the messenger of God.

Emotion Management - 4

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?

"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.