DISCOVER SOMETHING EVERY DAY

T here is a simple piece of advice that contains great wisdom: “Save yourself.” When someone insults you, opposes you or behaves unfairly towards you, your first impulse may be to react. You become angry, enter into an argument or begin thinking of revenge. You imagine that by reacting you are punishing the other person. But, in reality, the first victim of your reaction is yourself. Anger disturbs your peace of mind. It weakens your judgement and consumes precious mental energy. The person who offended you may forget the incident within minutes and continue with his life. But you may carry it in your mind for hours, days or even years. He harmed you once; by repeatedly remembering the incident, you harm yourself many times. This is why the wise person learns the art of saving himself. A saying attributed to Prophet Yahya, or John the Baptist, contains an insightful observation about anger: “Anger is often connected with pride.” Consider human behaviour: a person may become furious with someone below him in position, yet remain remarkably controlled before someone more powerful than himself. This shows that anger is not always as uncontrollable as we imagine. Very often, behind anger stands a wounded ego. To save yourself means refusing to allow another person’s bad behaviour to enter your mind and destroy your inner balance. His behaviour belongs to him; your response belongs to you. Why surrender control of your inner world to someone else’s misconduct? The Quran praises those “who restrain their anger and forgive others.” (3: 134) Restraining anger is therefore not weakness. It is an act of strength. It means that you possess sufficient selfSAVE YOURSELF FIRST Freedom From Needless Anger