Page 19 - Romanticism: A Weapon of Satan

Legitimate and Illegitimate Love

fought you over religion or driven you from your homes, or from
being just towards them. God loves those who are just. God
merely forbids you from taking as friends those who have fought
you over religion and driven you from your homes and who 17
supported your expulsion. Any who take them as friends are
wrongdoers. (Quran, 60:8-9)

In the above verses, as well as the one cited previously (Qur'an,
60:1), God, in His great wisdom, teaches us a matter that is very
important to understand. Emotions must not guide a person's
behaviour, because they can lead into grave error. A person must act,
not according to his emotions, but according to his reason, his free-
will, and the commands of God. Moreover, he must train his emotions
to conform to his reason and will.
We can recognise this need in all who has fallen into the quagmire
of sentimentality. Hundreds of millions of people are enslaved to the
desires of their hearts, their ambition, passion, hatred and anger. They
do things irrationally, and justify their acts by claiming helplessness,
saying for example, "I can't help it. I just like it." or "I can't help it. I
want it. I feel like it." But, the fact that a person "feels like" something
does not mean that the thing is good or legitimate. Our inner-self is
always urging us to do wrong, with Satan instigating us to commit
even greater wrongs. When someone acts contrary to the will of God,
and says, "I can't help it. I feel like it," his inner-self is actually acting
as the tool of Satan. In the Qu'ran, God refers to such people in the
following manner:
Have you seen him who takes his whims and desires to be his god-
whom God has misguided knowingly, sealing up his hearing and
his heart and placing a blindfold over his eyes? Who then will
guide him after God? So will you not pay heed? (Quran, 45:23)
In the pages that follow, we will examine various examples of
excessive romanticism, a kind of sentimentalism. We will discuss the
dangers posed to people by this way of thinking, and explain how the
disease can be treated.