Tag Archives: Islam

A Collection of Scriptures for Guidance: Islam, Part 4

Note: the first two paragraphs are introductory and are derived from the first post in this series. I’ll continue to repost them, in case this is your first time reading a post from this series.

When I was still a doctoral candidate at Sofia University, one of the courses I completed was “World Religions.” This was one of the classes I enjoyed the most during my time at Sofia University. I’d never had such broad exposure to the world’s religions before and this class really allowed me to gain a better understanding of them.

One of the papers I wrote for that class really tied in the fact that I was in a clinical psychology PhD program. The purpose of the paper was to collect quotes from scriptures of the various world religions that I could use with clients/patients when I became a therapist. While I’m no longer pursuing a PhD in clinical psychology, the quotes I collected could certainly be of use, so I thought I’d share them here.

Today’s collection of scriptures for guidance comes courtesy of Islam. Enjoy!

Anxiety

Any who believes in his Lord has no fear, either of loss or of any injustice. (Qur’an 72.13)

Anger

Abu Huraira reported God’s Messenger as saying, “The strong man is not the good wrestler; the strong man is only he who controls himself when he is angry.” (Hadith of Bukhari and Muslim)

Addiction

You who believe! Intoxicants and gambling… are an abomination – of Satan’s handiwork: eschew such that you may prosper. Satan’s plan is to stir up enmity and hatred among you by means of liquor and gambling, and to hinder you from the remembrance of God and from prayer. Will you not abstain? (Qur’an 5.90-91)

Death

And He originated the creation of man out of clay,
then He fashioned his progeny of an extraction of mean water,
then He shaped him, and breathed His spirit in him. (Qur’an 32.8-9)

Know that the present life is but a sport and a diversion, an adornment and a cause of boasting among you, and a rivalry in wealth and children. It is as a rain whose vegetation pleases the unbelievers; then it withers, and you see it turning yellow, then it becomes straw. And in the Hereafter there is grievous punishment, and forgiveness from God and good pleasure; whereas the present life is but the joy of delusion. (Qur’an 57.20)

Depression

Who is it that Sustains you (in life) From the sky and from the earth? Or who is it that Has power over hearing And sight? And who Is it that brings out The living from the dead And the dead from the living? And who is it that Rules and regulates all affairs? They will soon say, “God.” Say, “Will ye not then Show piety (to him)?” (Surat Viunus, 10, 31)

O my Servants who have transgressed against their souls! Despair not of the Mercy of God: for God forgives All sins: for He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful. (Surat al-Zumar, 39, 53)

Grief

Abu Dharr reported God’s Messenger as saying, “I see what you do not see and I hear what you do not hear; heaven has groaned, and it has a right to groan.” (Hadith of Ahmad, Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah)

Though wouldst only, perchance, Fret thyself to death, Following after them, in grief, If they believe not In this Message. (Surat al-Kahf 18, 6)

Guilt

Say, “If you love God, follow me, and God will love you, and forgive you all your sins; God is All-forgiving, All-compassionate.” (Qur’an 3.31)

Say, “O my Servants who have transgressed against their souls! Despair not of the mercy of God: for God forgives all sins: for He is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful.” (Qur’an 39.53)

If you were not to commit sins, God would have swept you out of existence and would have replaced you with another people who have committed sin, and then asked for God’s forgiveness, that He might grant them pardon. (Hadith of Muslim)

If you liked this post, you might like one of the other posts in this series:

Thoughts on the Movie “Life of Pi”: Letting Go

Life of Pi 3DFirst and foremost, the story is fantastic. If you haven’t seen it, be sure to — you’ll be glad you did. As I have with other movies, I’m going to talk about some of the plot, so if you haven’t seen it, save this post and come back to it after you have (if you don’t want some of the plot spoiled for you).

*Spoilers!*

There’s a really important lesson that Pi expresses towards the end of him telling the story to his lunch companion: letting go. So many times throughout Pi’s life he’s had to “let go” and if he didn’t “let go,” he probably wouldn’t have survived his time on the Pacific.

Throughout Pi’s early life, we learn of his experimentation with many religions. As a young boy, he first learns about Hinduism and the multiple Gods. Later on, he learns of Christianity and Islam. As a result, he starts to follow the teachings of the three religions — no easy feat. I find it a bit ironic that when we meet Pi in his adult life and he talks about the story of his time with Richard Parker, the lesson he believes is the most important: “letting go.” That’s Buddhism. Do a quick Google search for Buddhism and let go and you’ll find almost 4,000,000 results. Of course, Buddhism doesn’t have some sort of trademark on the idea of letting go, but of the religions, Buddhism is the one I’ve most heard the idea of letting go expressed.

There’s one more thing I wanted to touch on about this movie — the ending, and I can’t quite put my finger on it. Someone asked me if it was because of Pi telling the different story to the two Japanese fellows from the company and I don’t think that’s why. Just for me, there was something about the way the film ended that didn’t match the fantastical story. Throughout the whole movie, I was right there with Pi on the Pacific and scared as ever for him. I can’t imagine floating on a lifeboat on the Pacific — much less — a self-made raft, so that the tiger doesn’t have me for lunch.

There are two things I can do:

1) I can go and get the book and read the last few chapters (or the whole thing) — to see if maybe there wasn’t something carried over from the book to the movie (with regard to the ending).

2) I can simply let go.