Tag: Shaykh Alee Al-Haddaadee

How to Overpower One’s Own Soul to Do Good – Shaykh ʿAlī al-Ḥaddādī حفظه الله
Translated by Mikail ibn Mahboob Ariff حفظه الله
Video Courtesy: Brother Bilal Nahim

Shaykh ʿAlī ibn Yaḥyá al-Ḥaddādī said:

[The question] says: “How can I fight my [own] soul in [making myself] love acts of obedience, seeking knowledge, learning knowledge, and praying in congregation?”

How do you fight against your soul…. This means you compel it. Compel your soul. Your soul says, “No, don’t attend the lesson.” Tell it: “Rather, I will attend the lesson.” Start your car and head off to the lesson.

This is the solution.

You hear the call [to the prayer] while your soul is feeling sluggish, loving sleep. Tell it: “No, there’s no [more] sleep; there’s prayer.” Get up, perform ablution, and walk to the mosque.

Once, twice, three times, it’s over. [Your soul] will become compliant. Your soul will become compliant and give in to you.

But if you pamper it—every time it tells you, “Don’t do it,” you say, “Hearing and obeying”—it will overpower you. You will not be able to direct it.

So then the issue, after Allāh gives one true success and [one] puts [his] trust in Allāh, is one of your overpowering your soul and compelling it, and it will become compliant for you after one, two or three times, if Allāh wills.