Should we become emotional?

[mastermind1]

Asalam Aalaikum

I have noticed that several muslim people become emotional on certain issues,and lose their temprament very easily. I want to know that Should Muslims become emotional or not? According to my opinion, we should not become emotional since emotions causes extremism and extremism is something which Prophet Muhammad(pbuh) has prohibited.
When a person becomes emotional he loses his conciousness which is not right .


What is the opinion of the members of this site especially the administrators?

Regards,

[The_Other_Admin]

According to my opinion, we should not become emotional since emotions causes extremism and extremism is something which Prophet Muhammad(pbuh) has prohibited.

ditto

[Ammar]

estremism is prohibited? .i wud like to see proof of wat u r saying.

[inquisitive]

I am sure mastermind means 'extremism' with specific reference to debates and exchange of ideas.

"Call unto the way of thy Lord with wisdom and fair exhortation, and reason with them in the better way."

[PersianPuma]

angry extremism? It would make sense that it is prohibited, but if you are talking about sad emotions then I don't think so. I think love would also be prohibited, no?

[MF]

if you get emotional you can also get irrational

[Ratatosk]

Salaam,

I guess that's one of the reasons we act as we do when we fall in love.

-JC, Finland.

[Halima]

Salaam,

I guess that's one of the reasons we act as we do when we fall in love.

-JC, Finland.


Oh really? :p I've never been in-love before ;) J/K..lol Can you elaborate more on that please?

[hamid_al-murid]

salaam,

the prophet (saws) got angry, but only for His sake. he also cried when his infant son died.

it is not wrong to be passionate about Allah, or about the deen. it is very far from wrong to feel the extremety of one's need for Him, or to feel very strongly the longing to know Him and serve Him.

but strong emotional reactions sometimes come when we have idols in our hearts and someone bumps them. that is, a strong reaction is a sign that we have become enslaved to something other-than-Him--an opinion, a cherished belief, a strong point of view. we take these things as protectors, that's why we're disturbed when they're challenged. this is part of why Allah sends us these trials, so we can find out within ourselves where we are committing shirk so we can stop. this is the meaning of 29:41 (do i have that right?)...the parable of the spider. the spider gets upset when someone breaks his frail house, but the we should not be like the spider who puts his trust in so frail a thing. when we do, we must turn to Him.

strong emotional reactions are like strands of web breaking.

when a web strand breaks, whenever anything happens that disturbs our peace, it is very important to call upon Him in His mercy, to ask His light to come into the place in our heart that is feeling the pain. this way we turn our hearts from the idol we were enslaved to directly toward Him and ask His forgiveness, and this is the purpose of the deen: to let Him send His mercy into the dark places in our hearts, into our belief systems. this way mercy is not just a word, it is an experience that changes everything inside.

we can't be merciful to anyone else unless we're merciful with ourselves in His name. the more His light penetrates our being, the more authentic and deep our surrender to Him becomes.

this is emotional healing. it is not accomplished by trying to stop feeling strongly about things. it is only accomplished by turning directly to Him with our strong feelings and asking Him to send His mercy.

if we try to supress our feelings, we won't know what parts of our hearts have become dark, we won't know what parts of us are in most need of Him.

does this make sense?

wa s-salaam,
hamid

[THE_ICONOCLAST]

but strong emotional reactions sometimes come when we have idols in our hearts and someone bumps them. that is, a strong reaction is a sign that we have become enslaved to something other-than-Him--an opinion, a cherished belief, a strong point of view. we take these things as protectors, that's why we're disturbed when they're challenged. this is part of why Allah sends us these trials, so we can find out within ourselves where we are committing shirk so we can stop

All praises due to Allah!

Exactly! and this why so many here are so hostile to my assertions. Well stated. I hope the people here will read and contemplate what you wrote, because it is exactly the case with them...I've disturbed their idols and long cherished superstitions.

[hamid_al-murid]

i'm trying to think of an example of this.

let's say ash-shaytan whispers into my heart that there's something wrong with me, or that i don't deserve Allah's mercy. almost of us, at some point growing up, learned this. that is, we heard his whispering and believed it, and that place in our heart is still there. at the time we may have covered over it with something else...for instance, i may tell myself that i'm good because i'm smart.

then my idea of being smart has become an idol in my heart that i worship/am enslaved to in order to take the pain away from where i believed ash-shaytan. when something happens that challenges that belief that i'm smart, i feel the pain of where i believe i'm unworthy. then, rather than letting myself feel the pain and calling upon the Merciful to help me, i get angry at the person or thing that made me feel like i wasn't smart.

you see how this works? whenever we believe ash-shaytan, this is something that we need to protect ourselves from on the inside, and we either turn to Allah for protection, or to other-than-Him.

our brothers and sisters are here, partly, in order to disturb us, so we can uncover what we have covered up and turn back to Him.

wa s-salaam

[hamid_al-murid]

salaam, iconoclast and everyone else:

you said:
Exactly! and this why so many here are so hostile to my assertions. Well stated. I hope the people here will read and contemplate what you wrote, because it is exactly the case with them...I've disturbed their idols and long cherished superstitions.everyone, and i do mean everyone, winds up wearing a mask. we use these masks to cover over our feelings of shame, but the mask is a lie to cover a lie.

these masks are idols.

in my case, i'm the "smart insightful wise one" who "always has the right answers", that's my mask. i never let a spelling mistake slide, and snicker in my heart at other people's bad spelling and bad grammar. i write each message very carefully, and i go over it and over it to get the wording perfectly right, and make sure my argument has no holes. each post is like an essay. all this to cover my feelings of shame.

if i did let a spelling mistake slide, or said something obviously wrong or stupid, i would get upset and self-conscious. and chances are i would forget to do what i'm sitting here advising you all to do: chances are i would forget to call upon Him in His quality of ar-Rahman to help me heal my emotional wound.

you, my dear iconoclast, also have a mask. since you seem to be able and willing to talk about the shortcomings of others, can you name your own, just to be fair?

if not, then please call upon His Mercy for yourself, if you can. ask for Mercy from Him to help you with your version of the shame we all feel.

people thank me for being wise! but if i was really wise, i wouldn't feed off their praise, even a little.

nor would i have spent the last hour being furious at my wife, all over silly little nonsense!

and here i am preaching to all of you....
astaghfiru'llah al-Adhim

someone asked why Allah sends us trials...it's for this. some of us have strong egos and it takes a lot to break us down so we are truly humble before the Mighty, if He lets us be.

this ramadhan is very hard for me....

i'm sorry iconoclast, i haven't been liking you for many weeks. i think it's because you remind me of me. please, if you can, take a breather from what you usually do--most of us know what you think by now--and let us love you.

wa s-salaam wa rahmatu'llah,
hamid

[hamid_al-murid]

and icono:

if you tell me you don't need or want our love: i respectfully suggest, that's the mask.

we all need each other's love...although i think, it's not the love that we receive that makes us happy, but the love we give.

wa s-salaam

[xp²]

people thank me for being wise! but if i was really wise, i wouldn't feed off their praise, even a little.

Salaam,

I too consider you a wise soul, and I understand what you mean by that, it also reminded me of another great quote:


If someone remarks: "What an excellent man you are!" and this pleases you more than his saying, "What a bad man you are!" know that you are still a bad man.


Sufyan al Thawri

:)

[THE_ICONOCLAST]

you, my dear iconoclast, also have a mask. since you seem to be able and willing to talk about the shortcomings of others, can you name your own, just to be fair?

I don't target peoples shortcomings.


if not, then please call upon His Mercy for yourself, if you can. ask for Mercy from Him to help you with your version of the shame we all feel.

I have no feelings of shame, please do not mistake for yourself or others. When I call upon Allah, it is to ask Him to forgive my sins, grant me Paradise, and grant me good arguements against those stand against Faith.


people thank me for being wise! but if i was really wise, i wouldn't feed off their praise, even a little.

Pride [the dissatisfaction with the truth], is the idol/enemy of those who refuse say..."I bear witness that there is no god but Allah only and alone and I submit myself to Him, the Lord of the Worlds". Can you say that...wise one?


i'm sorry iconoclast, i haven't been liking you for many weeks. i think it's because you remind me of me. please, if you can, take a breather from what you usually do--most of us know what you think by now--and let us love you.

If you don't like me, then stop posting for awhile and look deep into your soul as to why you do not like me. You will find, no doubt that, you don't like me because I have disturbed your idols and challenged your superstitions. My concern is to discuss the truth of Allah and to promulgate that truth in order to save myself, my family and as many as will listen...from the permanancy of the Fire.

[Lamp Of Light]

There is some very good wisdom here on these message boards. You are a very wise man Hamid. I think most of us are guilty of the things you say, and for the reasons you say it.

My only position against your insights would be that we might not necessarily only have such a strong emotional experience for just the reasons you are saying, but also likewise it can be because of great sorrow at the evils of the world being exposed to us on a deep level.

In another post somewhere I had confessed that psalm 22 and a certain battle hymn make me weep in certain specific ciscumstances. I do not think those particular instances are as result of what you say (unless I cannot see somthing about it), but rather I think the response is a direct response to the obvious wrongness of the situation that is visible to my heart upon manifesting the actual words. I think that is what grieves me so much I cannot help but weep to see such affronts to God manifested by my own mouth. ie: Psalm 22 an innocent God loving man is horribly perescuted, but he fast to God through the end (lets not forget either it describes what the gospel says happened to christ, and the first line is words Christ is said to have spoken from the cross)... and there is a battyle hym which gets to me also (I think) because their is so much life and destruction that have been caused in the name of the naked truth... and it is so wrong.... it is like mankind when we can't do what God wants us to do, and can't decide in a certain matter, we then draw weapons and say "let God decide". It rips my heart apart.

Anyways, I agree with everythign you are saying. I just thought that was a worthy comment to add. I think there are those instances to and there is not necessarily "somthing wrong" within us.... it might be entirely right in such circumstances.

I always try to always remember that if anything good comes from me, it was not me. If I exercise my will, only harm and misfortune can result. I try then to never exercise my will, but only to submit to His will, that it might become manifest through me and then enlighten those around my being. Like sowing seeds I suppose.