According to Muslim scholars, the feelings that are the source of human pleasure are examined under 3 headings. These are insights, desire, and anger. These feelings have no limits. If the individual does not determine his own limits, he always seeks and wants more to experience these feelings.[1]
Although Islam does not forbid people’s emotions, it does not give them an unlimited freedom so that they can experience these emotions. Islam is the religion of balance. Allah showed the best ways to meet the needs that were placed in human nature in the morality and life of the prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him).
The prophet Muhammad (PBUH) wanted feelings, attitudes and behaviors to be normal and balanced in general: He warns that excessive love can cause blindness and deafness, and calls people to love their loved ones in moderation[2]; while prohibiting extremism in religion, he states that it is a bad habit that prepares Societal collapse in ancient societies[3]; not only does it reject excessively becoming worldly, it also prohibits deviating to such extremes that completely break away from worldly affairs in the name of religion and worship.[4]
Allah has ordered people to meet their basic needs in correct, healthy and halal ways: “Eat of the good, lawful things provided to you by Allah. And be mindful of Allah in Whom you believe.”[5] “They do not accuse adultery.” [6] According to Islam satisfying the need (which is shaped around these 3 emotions) for pleasure in halal ways will make people profitable both individually and socially in this world and in the other world.
According to Islam, insights has been given to man so that he can distinguish between right and wrong: “Indeed, there have come to you insights from your Lord. So whoever chooses to see, it is for their own good. But whoever chooses to be blind, it is to their own loss. And I am not a keeper over you.”[7] However, if the person uses his mind excessively, he gains the ability to reflect the right and wrong differently than they are. The fact that a person does not use his mind at all means that he lives without being aware of what is right and wrong.
The feeling of desire provides satisfaction and satiation in the needs related to the upper and lower stomach. If a person carries too far with this feeling, he can suffer from various diseases such as obesity. A person who does not feel the feeling of desire cannot lead a healthy life. Because when the individual is hungry, he must feel it so that he can fill his stomach.
According to Islam, the feeling of desire for the opposite gender is not wrong. The mistake is shaped by how the individual experiences this emotion. Experiencing this feeling by choosing one of the right or wrong ways is also the test itself. The Prophet Muhammed (PBUH) advised individuals who feel this emotion to marry (halal satisfaction) so that they do not go deprave, and fast if they cannot find the opportunity, so that they can control this emotion: “O young men, whoever among you can afford to get married, let him do so, as it lower the eyesight and guard his modesty and whoever cannot afford it, let him fast, for that will be a shield for him.”[8]
Anger is a person’s reaction to injustice. Anger needs to be experienced in a controlled way. The religion of Islam associates the mind and will of man with the fact that he is a being that can control himself. The greatest blessing for a person who acts with his mind, not with his anger, is the ability to will. The strongest aspect of man is his will to not do something even though he wishes. The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) expressed this situation with the following example: “”The strong is not the one who overcomes the people by his strength, but the strong is the one who controls himself while in anger.”[9] It is not a healthy state to feel no anger at all. Because, according to Islam the individual should be angry and react to injustices, evils, and tyranny.[10] As a matter of fact, a person who does not get angry even though he does not have a psychological disorder means he has lost contact with the world he lives in. However, according to Islam, this world is like the field of the hereafter. The life, preferences, and reactions of the individual in this world shape the life in the hereafter.[11]
[1] Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali, The Revival of the Religious Knowledge. Said Nursi(Bediüzzaman) Signs Of Miraculousness-İşaratül -İcaz,Al-Fatiha, Risale-i Nur.
[2] Abu-Dawud, General Behavior (Kitab Al-Adab),116
[3] Al-Bukhari, “I’tisam,” 5.
[4] Al- Bukhari, Fasting, 51.
[5] Al-Ma’idah,88
[6] Al- Furkan, 68
[7] Al-An ‘am, 104
[8] Al-Bukhari, 5065
[9] Muslim, The Book of Virtue,107
[10] “Whosoever of you sees an evil, let him change it with his hand; and if he is not able to do so, then [let him change it] with his tongue; and if he is not able to do so, then with his heart — and that is the weakest of faith.” Muslim, Iman(Faith),78
[11] Aclûnî, Keşfu’l-Hafa, I, 412.