In the previous talk, we discussed what anger is, the different types of anger and what purpose it serves. Once anger is felt, damage follows. We are forced by anger to do something harmful and hurtful. ,. . It causes a person to do something they will regret, but also something that will cause themselves or others serious harm. Look at crimes around the world as an example, whether it is murder, assault, or abuse – all of these are the result of some sort of anger. On a smaller level, even if a crime is not committed, how many verbal and physical fights take place? No one gets into a fight when they are calm and collected. Fights happen and damage occurs when they are angry. One of the first things that we must recognize is our own anger. When we allow our anger to spin out of control, results in something bad. Moreover, when it is acted out, it tends to result in something terrible for everyone involved. Therefore, we must take a step back and make a conscious decision to not let that happen.
What kinds of things would we be giving up by giving into anger? In some cases, our reputation, our friendships, or our education because our actions have caused our enrolment to be terminated. . For serious offences it lands us behind bars with no freedom or we lose a huge sum of money because of our destructive actions. Our Anger incurs huge losses for everyone involved. To manage our anger, we must utilize the logic and the intelligence that Allah (SWT) has given us.
When we do not approach our emotions intelligently, they will get the better of us and result in our failure. When we find ourselves in a state of anger there are several healthy decisions we can make. The first decision is to suppress our anger and prevent loss. The second, is to follow what the prophet (SAW) has taught us. From him we learned that the first and easiest things to say is, “I seek refuge in Allah from Shaytan,” and to repeat it over and over again, because it is Shaytan who pushes us to given into our anger. We take protection in Allah (SWT) from Shaytan and the inclinations that he sparks inside us. The second thing is that we change our posture. When we become angry, our posture becomes very aggressive. The prophet (SAW) taught us to change our posture; if a person is standing, they are in a better position to hurt someone or something, but when we are sitting, we do not have many options. The prophet (SAW) told us to sit down in our anger. When people are sitting and in anger, they get up and it makes them even more aggressive. Instead, we should do the opposite. If we are sitting and filled with rage, we should make it more neutral, by lying down somewhere. The third thing is to use water, because it will calm down our blood flow and heartbeat Drinking water or performing wudhu to cool off your limbs can provide immediate relief and dissipate your anger allowing us to control it.
