Page 36 - The Solution To Secret Sorrows

THE SOLUTION TO SECRET SORROWS

Egotism
In the Qur'an, Allah tells us of a weakness in people's natures
with the verse, "... people are prone to selfish greed..." (Surat an-
Nisa': 128). Indeed, man is prone to succumbing to selfish desires.
He is ready to put himself first at every opportunity, look after his
own selfish benefits and love himself above all others. If a person is
not sufficiently strong-willed in his fear of Allah and in superior
morality, this will prompt him to selfish desires such as "Let only me
be loved," or "Let me be admired" and "Let me be praised." Such an
immoral approach invariably puts the comfort, tranquility and hap-
piness of others in second place. Instead of thinking such self-sacri-
ficing thoughts as, "First, let me ensure the comfort of others," or
"Let it be to their advantage and if necessary, I'll sacrifice my own
benefits," and "Let others be happy and let me take pleasure from
their happiness," he will come to act with the idea of "Me first, no
matter what!"
Believers conquer this tendency in their natures and live out the
morality which Allah approves. But some people fall into the error
of thinking "I already fulfill certain religious obligations, what can
be wrong if occasionally I look after my own interests?" and regard
this as a harmless deficiency in their morality. They go further and
view protecting their own advantages as "a fact of life." In other
words, even though the Qur'an tells them this is wrong, they pri-
vately believe that to stay alive and prosper, they need to put their
own interests first. They think that nobody else can look out for their
interests and that others will suppress and harm them. Moreover,
when everyone else demonstrates this morality and looks after his
own interests, but one of them is generous and self-sacrificing, they
believe this one is making a fool of himself. Because of these ideas,
they cannot direct their thinking toward self-sacrifice. In fact, there

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