Desires... what comes to mind when you hear this word, would it go along the lines of “wow that girl/guy is fit”, “a wild night of clubbing with mates”, “smoking and getting high on drugs”, “driving a beamer to impress the ladies” or is it “being with my boyfriend/girlfriend” ... you get the point right?

When you do any of the above it is out of enjoyment, it’s great being “loved” by someone who says he/she will do anything for you (ever tried asking them to jump off a cliff for you?), it’s great dancing to the music in the club and at the same time checking out fit gals/guys and pulling and how wonderful is it when you’re joy riding, all this dangerous excitement, how cool does it feel?!

Problem is that all of that is wrong and there is a negative side, yeah you heard right, NEGATIVE, want to hear what that is? you got no choice because I’ll tell you anyway...

But it feels so good!

Most people may think, but why do these things make me feel so good? That’s because Satan is always trying his best to make things which are against Islam seem very very tempting and in most cases he succeeds.

We may not realise what affect this is having on us but slowly our inner self becomes clouded with darkness and therefore when we continuously persist upon the same sin we no longer think it is wrong.

If we are faced with the desire to wrong we should always listen to our mind as opposed to the ego which will lead us to do bad and not good.

As humans, we have free will, we can either choose to do something or not, so its important that we think before we act and remain in control.

Whenever you are about to act upon a bad desire you might think “oh it’s do with hormones, it’s out of my control” but fact is, at the end of the day it’s up to you whether you act upon this effect of your hormones, after all we are humans not animals, we do have self-control!

Everyone has the will to say “no I will not do this” as opposed to saying “I’m weak and Satan gets the better of me” (wrong answer I am afraid), everyone is responsible for their own actions.

It’s a matter of taking control of your own body and not letting your body control you, basically “live as a ruler of your body, don‘t live as a slave of your body“(1)

Consequences

Put yourself in this situation, you’re in love with someone and you’re willing to do anything for him, and when he asks you to give up your chastity you’re willing to do that too, let’s say once he’s got what he wants and dumps you and goes for another girl (most cases this happens, so don’t sit there thinking my man would never do that to me he loves me, could happen to anyone).

How would you be feeling in this situation? The answer is obvious, rubbish! Someone who claimed to love you left you at the drop of a hat.

A person should seriously consider very hard before getting themselves into this situation, is a guy who just wants to use and abuse you worth losing your self-respect over?

Of course not, any girl would vouch for that. Same applies to those who drink and smoke drugs, in the long-term this is seriously affecting your health, when you are on drugs you do things out with your control, so regretting later what you have done will not change the consequence of taking the drug and it has a major affect on your loved ones and your relationship with them.

As for drinking, you are left with a hangover and the embarrassing memories of what stupid things you did the night before and in some cases you don’t even remember anything! Our life in this world is temporary we should do things out of only one desire and that is, to please Allah (swt) and the Holy Prophet Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him.

So... how do you do control your desires?

There are ways to help you from acting upon these desires and if a person acts upon the following advice, Satan will not be able to play with your mind;

1 - Have pious mates/company - Hang about with those people who help you stay away from the bad things.

2 - Stop watching programmes or listening to songs that bring the desire for bad things - i.e. Movies which promote wrong things and channels like MTV. So instead of watching these programmes listen to Islamic lectures on the topic of your interest.

3 - Keep up your 5 daily prayers - This will make you connect to Allah (swt) and also make you conscious that He is watching you, which in turn will make you stay away from bad deeds.

4 - Remain in state of wudhu - This not only cleans your body but it’s a means of cleansing yourself from minor sins which keeps you in state of purity at all times. Also fasting has been recommended by the Holy Prophet Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him for those who can’t control their sexual desires.

5 - Eat less - Eating too much makes a person lazy and a person is more likely to waste time in sin and skip prayer as he/she can’t be bothered to read it.

6 - Speak less - When I say this, I don’t mean totally walk about like a zombie saying nothing! It is referring to talking less so a person avoids gossip and useless talk.

7 - Sleep less - Sleeping too much again is a way in which we become lazy and it’s a damper on our spiritual state, a person requires rest as this is a basic need of the body but no more than 8 hours!

References

(1) - Quote from Shaykh-ul-Islam, Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri at Al-Hidayah Camp 2006.