By Ustadh Dr Adekunle Mikail
Some call it “small madness” while others tag it simply as anger! But what is unique in it is the fact that it is a universal ailment common to every known indigents, rich men, the knowledgeable of mankind and their ignorant counterparts!
Nobody is immune from getting angry or being angered! Even the sage and prophets among the mankind are prone to it except that they are endowed with wisdom, equanimity, collectedness, balanced temperament and divine tranquility needed to manage it better than any other category of men in the planet earth!
Psychologically, anger is an emotional state induced by displeasure. It is the state of the mind that pushes man to want to hurt other man. Though scholars in the field of psychology has also described it as a completely healthy human emotion, but they have added that, when it gets out of control, it is destructive!
But from the staple of the Blessing of the earth, the last and noble Prophet Muhammad, he has described anger as a spark of fire thrown into the mind of the children of Adam by the accursed and the head of the transgressors, the Satan!
The prophet (salawatu llahi alehi) explained further that, the reason that anger is a spark of fire thrown to the mind of human being by the Satan, is that it blocks human sense, reddens his eyes, irked his nerves and sometimes, peels off his hair!
In a hadith collected and certified authentic by Imam Bukhari and which is reported by Abu Hurairah ( may God be pleased with him), a man told the prophet( salawatu llahi alehi) :”admonish me, the prophet replied him: do not be angry “, the prophet then said repeatedly: “do not be angry”!
In the meantime, the scholars of hadith are unanimous in their view as to the reason why when the man sought the Prophet’s admonition, the prophet did not advise him to fear God, be righteous or tell him to be wary of any other negativities Islam has warned man of, except that he told him not to get angry!
In the same vein, the scholars of the hadith have disagreed on the true import of the hadith above. While some of them are of the opinion that the prophet has admonished the man not to be angry but not to get angered as nobody can be free from being angered except that he may decide not to be angry!
Others among the scholars, have interpreted the hadith to mean that one should not be angered, I.e,that one should refrain from being angered even when he is angered by the attitude of others!
Allama Uthemin, rahimahullah has opined that, the position of the first scholars is difficult as nobody can be free from anger and possibly the prophet as a naturalist does not mean that one should not be angry. He explained further, that the second scholars seemed to be on the natural way ,for their explanation is that ” it is natural to be angry but it is a choice not to be angered”!
The religion of Islam, especially its last Prophet, Muhammad (saw) has not left man in the lurch without offering him ways out of it. The prophet (saw) in many of his ahadith has proffered two solutions to man to apply, whenever he is angered, as anger is a corrosive emotion that can burden one’s mental and physical health. They are Medicinal statements and medicinal deeds!
The medicinal statements are many in the books of Islamic references but the common one we are to recite when anger is looming is :”A-huthu billah mina saetani rajimi “,I. e, ” I seek refuge in Allah from the Satan, the accursed “!.
This is premised on the incident that happened in the presence of the noble Prophet Muhammad (saw) himself as follows :
It is reported that the prophet saw a man who was full of anger and he said
” I know a statement if he had said it, what bedevilled him would have gone away from him”
The Islamic medicinal deeds for an angered man as advised by the prophet (salawatu llahi alehi) are:
– if the angry man is standing when the anger is in, he is admonished to sit down but when he is on his sit when he is ire, he should lie down. This is because changing the physical state of an angry man will equally change his emotional state!.
– but when the above do not extinguish the fire of Satan in his mind, he is advised to perform ablution. Ablution is surely an antidote to the ranging fire of Satan.
– the angry man can also change his environment by moving out of the scene of the anger!
Anger kills, no doubt. It is also the tool of destruction while it is an harbinger of ailments such as hypertension, stroke and their like. This is the reason it pays to move away from the people or anything that can predispose one to anger.
Anger suffered by others are drug- induced. They are suffering anger like disease as a result of what their hands bought with their money; cigarettes, unprescribed drugs, killer wine and alcoholics.