Allah has given men desires as well as the mind. With the mind, men can think and know about the truth. Allah has given men the desires so that men can get married, reproduce, eat and drink. Without the desires men will not be able to reproduce, eat and drink. Without the mind, men would not be able to think and to judge what is right and what is wrong. Humans are given by Allah both the desire and the mind while the animals are given only the desires. When men utilize only the desires and not the mind, then men will be acting like the animals. Desires in men are only to be used under the direction of the mind and guidance from Allah by following the orders of Allah in the ways shown by Prophet Muhammad saw. When men follow their desires without the direction of the mind and the orders of Allah, then men are using the desires similar to the animals following their desires. Animals are not given by Allah the mind to think and to know what is right and what is wrong and no Prophet had been sent by Allah to any group of the animals. Whenever men follow their desires as the animals do, men will behave similar to the animals. It is unfortunate for men to act like the animals as men were created by Allah to be superior than the animals. Animals are created in order to serve men but men are created in order to serve Allah. Allah has created men for Him. Allah has created men to love Allah and not to love other than Allah. Allah has created men to serve Allah and all other creations other than men are created by Allah to serve men. When men behave like animals, men degrade themselves to the status of the lowest creation of Allah.Animals were not given the mind to guide them to the correct path and neither they were given the orders of Allah to follow. When the animals died, they will not be asked on whatever actions they did in this life and after justice has been established between the animals, all the animals will be turned to soil. When men who used to behave in this world similar to the animals saw that the animals were turned into soil, they will make request to Allah to also turn them to soil, but their request will be turned down by Allah and instead they will be thrown into the hellfire.

Desires are to be used under the directions of the mind and the mind should direct the desires to be used in accordance to the orders of Allah in the ways shown by Prophet Muhammad saw. When men do not use the desires under the directions of the mind and in accordance to the orders of Allah, the desires will certainly succumb to men’s own whims and wishes. When men use the desires under the command of their own whims and wishes, men will experience a life or excitement and enjoyment . All men in this world except a few want this kind of life. All men except a few regard the lifestyle of enjoyment and excitement as paradise in this world. Many choose to have a lifestyle like paradise in this world and to those who chose to have paradise in this world would not be able to have the real paradise in the Hereafter. Men have to make the choice, either to simply follow the whims and wishes of their desires or to control the desires in order to follow the directions of the mind and the orders of Allah. When men follow the directions of the mind and the orders of Allah, men will have to suppress the whims and wishes of their desires. This lifestyle is known as the lifestyle of “Mujahadah”. Allah has promised to those who lead the lifestyle of Mujahadah, the guidance or hidayah by Allah. In other words, men can choose either to have or not to have the guidance or hidayah from Allah. Guidance or Hidayah is a matter of choice and not a matter of fortune or nasib. Men who choose to lead lifestyle that follows the wimps and wishes of the desires and having excitement and enjoyment in this world would not be given guidance or hidayah by Allah. Men who choose to lead a lifestyle that suppresses their desires and follow the desires of Allah and living a life of Mujahadah in this world would be given guidance or hidayah by Allah. Men were given the freedom to choose between two ways of lifestyles. Men would not be force by Allah to choose the lifestyles that Allah loves. Allah has given men the ability to choose their own lifestyles in this world and upon the choice that men made, men have to bear the risks and the consequences that come with the choice they made.

Allah does not give Hidayah or guidance by chance but by choice. Hidayah or guidance is given to a person, according to the choice of lifestyle that the person has made; either he or she chooses a lifestyle of fulfilling his or her own desires or a lifestyle of fulfilling the desires of Allah. When a person chooses the lifestyles of fulfilling his or her own desire, Allah will not give that person hidayah. When a person chooses the lifestyles that fulfill the desires of Allah, Allah will give that person hidayah. Allah has given men the choice to have hidayah or not to have hidayah. Among all the creations of Allah, only men are given the choice, either to have hidayah or not to have hidayah. When men choose to fulfill their own desires, men will not have hidayah and the final destination of men will be hellfire. When men choose to fulfill the desires of Allah, men will be given hidayah and the final destination of men will be paradise. Allah has given men the mind and the desires and men were ordered to use their mind to know at any particular time what are the desires of Allah and they were ordered to strive to fulfill the desires of Allah. When men are not using their mind to know and to fulfill the desires of Allah but to subject themselves only to their own desires, men are behaving like the animals. There was a time in history when Allah really turned men (a group of people from Bani Israel) into monkeys.

Why so many men in this world choose the lifestyles similar to the animals? Why so many men turn down the choice to become a human being? There are many men in this world who shun marriage as a mean of fulfilling their sexual desires and turn to the way of the animals. Many men simply do not chose hidayah or guidance from Allah and they deliberately choose the lifestyles of the animals. It is very unfortunate for men to choose to live like the animals when Allah has made men the vicegerent (Khalifah) of Allah.

Who is to be blamed when men do not get hidayah? No one is to be blamed except the men themselves. However, it is the habit of men that when they are in trouble, they always like to blame other people for their troubles. Men often blame other people for their misfortunes, when men have made their own desires as God. Our desires do not like to admit faults and our own weaknesses. It is painful for the desires to admit faults and wrong doings. Iblis blamed Adam for his misfortunes and Iblis swore to Allah that he will try to persuade all the progeny of Adam to choose the path of making their own desires as their God. Allah told Iblis that he may do so but he will not be able to persuade those who are sincere. Men need desires but the desires should be under the control of men. Men will be able to control the desires and use them in accordance to the wishes of Allah only when men have the correct faith or real Iman towards Allah. When men do not have the required level of iman as desired by Allah, men will not be able to control the desires and use them according to the wishes of Allah. Iman become correct only when men are able to obey all that are Fard and to leave all that are Haram. As long as we are not able to prevent ourselves from doing the Haram, we have not obtained the true level of iman as required by Allah. Once the iman is correct, men will be able to control the desires and men will be able to use the desires as commanded by Allah. When we are able to use our desires as commanded by Allah, then our desires elevate to superior level.

We need to rectify our desires until our desires come to a level whereby whatever we desire is the same as what Allah desires. Whoever has reached that level of desire will find peace and contentment in following the orders of Allah and will not find peace and contentment in pursuing his or her own desires. It is the order of Allah that we rectify our desires. Allah has ordered us to rectify or to do islah on our desires. When our desire is to have more money, wealth, power, positions, sex and all the material pursuits, our desire is similar to the desires of the animals and Allah has ordered us to rectify our desires. We cannot have desires like the animals as we are humans and to be human Allah has ordered us to rectify our desires. To be human, we have to rectify our desires to only wanting to become the lover of Allah. All things other than Allah, be it wealth, power, position, children and whatsoever Allah has given men are supposed to be used to obtain the love of Allah. Men will only be guided or obtain the guidances or hidayah from Allah when men want only Allah and strive hard towards obtaining the love of Allah. Once men have rectified their desires and only wanting to have Allah, Allah will guide men towards the path of obtaining the love of Allah and that path is the path that was followed by Prophet Muhammad saw. When men want other than Allah, men will not obtain guidance or Hidayah from Allah and Allah will not show men the path towards achieving the love of Allah.

Although in our heart we desire for money, power and all other things under the sun but not Allah, we have to rectify our desires because wrong desire is the beginning of men’s downfall and to have the correct desire is the beginning of men’s success. Allah has ordered us to rectify our desires and in order to do that we have to start to say that we want Allah and only the love of Allah that we want. We have to start conveying to all people that we want only the love of Allah and doing this and the other orders of Allah with sole intention to please Allah until Allah is pleased.

Prof Dr Nasoha Saabin
November 2011
Integrative Holistic Wellness Centre