IDEA 21
Self-Discipline
The greatest discipline is of those who transcend their own discipline, and confess their failings that they might be helped to go beyond them. For no one enters this world, or leaves it, alone.(IIQ, page 150)
The greatest discipline is, by GOD’s Grace, right where our greatest enemy is located — in ourselves.
We are considered mature — ready to fight in battle, marry, and have children — when we are able to get along with our better nature, fight our vices, and show the next generation (our descendants among them) how all of this is done.
Unlike GOD, we are not unitary beings. Rather we can feel the clash and jostle of opposing forces within us — the call to virtue, the lure of sin, and the confusion of contradictory ideas that combine half-truths and outright lies in intricate patterns of complexity.
We have to navigate all this amid the demands of family, communal expectations, social pressures, and popular trends and pastimes. GOD never intended it to be easy. Many of us spend a whole lifetime trying to master these currents, and yet never turn to AL-LAH for the help or guidance that would lighten our load and widen our perspective. What a shame!
The beauty of having GOD planted deep in our mind and conscience is that we always have a stable standard and absolute reference point to steady our ship and repair the holes that a rocky life will inflict on us.
Self-discipline is not just struggle and disappointment. By having GOD within us, we can appreciate the sweetness of verses like this: O you who have believed! repent to GOD with genuine repentance. Your Lord may cover up your faults and make you enter gardens beneath which rivers flow. (Q66:8)
We are not perfect, not did AL-LAH design us to be so. He has angels enough to cover every square inch of the sky with hordes of holy worshippers to sing His praises night and day without letup. Rather He threw us into the stew, this potpourri of distractions, amusements, tragedies, and temptations to see how we would apply His Word to our lives in all sorts of novel situations. The angels were not built for that.
Rejoice that your Lord created you to experience the good, the bad, the ugly, and the beautiful of where you are now and what you can be.
Download the PDF version for free at Ideas Inspired by the Qur’ān – Mont Redmond complete version, or purchase a hard copy at Ideas Inspired by the Qur’an: Redmond, Mont: 9781738842506: Books – Amazon.ca.Photo by Damon Hall on Pexels.com
