Don't Be Triggered- Shaykh Hamza Yusuf

another sacred text message the verse that i'd like to look at today is in surat al-baqarah it's the 216th verse which says that struggle fighting um obviously in our tradition related to defending uh defending the faith is prescribed upon you that it's an inc it's incumbent upon you but then it says but it's it's distasteful to you allah and perhaps you dislike a thing and then it is much good for you and perhaps you love a thing and in it is much harm for you or evil for you or it's not good for you and and allah knows god knows and you don't know so this is a very interesting verse in in in relation to something that in traditional psychology was identified and something i learned from a really brilliant synologist and scholar dr cleary but uh in in in traditional psychology there was a real recognition of the relationship between thinking and feeling uh that they're they're these are two capacities that are constantly in interplay in human beings both from the external environment but also internally so we're affected a word that people use today is triggered that that people are are affected by other people by what they say uh there there's a great story of a uh um a pakistani hakeem uh who uh used to treat with rookia and uh so this physician had a patient uh who he treated and then and then the patient got well and and the the physician said i'm i'm so happy that the medicine worked and she said no that medicine didn't help me and he said well what helped you and she said the hakeem did a real for me and that's what cured me and and and the doctor was like what do you mean he said i i after i came here i went to my hakeem sabin and he actually gave me a duane and that's that's what cured me so this physician he was a materialist he was very upset about that he wanted to meet the hakeem and explain to him that you're really misleading people and so he went and visited him and then the hakeem said when he met him the doctor said to him you know you all this mumbo jumbo that you're doing misleading people telling them that you know you can say magical words and they affect them and change their their body and you know we have science now we don't need these things anymore and and then the hakeem said you're a donkey and he's got really angry you know he started turning red and puffing up and what do you mean how dare you call me i'm i'm a physician i studied at king edward medical college and you know i'm well regarded and he said you know you're worse than a donkey i think you're you're something else and he started getting then he started like just really really getting angry and and he was he was about to explode and and the hakim just said to him he said look at how these few words i've said to you have just completely changed your internal state and they're only words i didn't i didn't give you anything to you know i didn't give you anything physical how is it that those words could have such an effect on your internal state and and this is really about triggering and thinking and feeling and so one of the things about thinking and feeling is that that people can use them for really nefarious means like because we're so susceptible to the the changing of our inward states based on what's being presented to us that people who have bad intentions can really do this so one of the things traditionally that was understood when you look at thinking and feeling they're related basically to the emotions and to logic so there's a relationship between the emotions and logic and and so when we have this kind of lack of knowledge of what's being done to us from others who might have real uh nefarious intentions in in in manipulating our internal states so when we're unaware of that we can really really be used to to they can excite us and they can arrest our attention and take hold of us it's a type of possession really if you think about it so people can become easily possessed groups can become possessed whole entire nations can become possessed under the spell of people that know how to manipulate them when they have a type of unconscious vulnerability to these things and so one of the things this is what this great teacher taught was that that there's two classic models of emotional reprocessing which illustrate how these differences in individual intellectual development are related to differences in emotional development so one of the traditional ways of doing this was to rethink our likes and dislikes and this is exactly what the verses is reminding us that maybe you dislike a thing and then it is good for you and maybe you like a thing and actually in it is harm for you so this is actually telling us to reprocess the way we're thinking about things and so if you look at what could be termed as emotional logic so for instance uh somebody does something to you and and you and you feel uh sorrow about you you feel sadness from it and then that in turn leads to self-pity so you feel like you're a victim somebody's harmed you and then that leads to anger so you start becoming angry and then that leads to blame so you're going to find a source of your anger so you blame that person and then that leads to rationalization why you're doing it well i'm justified in doing it so that is a type of emotional logic where your feelings have really taken over and they've taken over your internal state and you actually have no control now over them and you become basically a victim of a type of mind control that denise nguyen talks about in a book called manipulated mind which is a very interesting book and it's worth reading because this is done constantly and and rulers and uh governments use these techniques to manipulate the masses there's a chinese manual of uh of of for the emperor of how to control whole nations and one of the chapters is translated as the art of letting all hell break loose so there are times when governments will actually let what they call a purge they'll let a society purge itself because they know they're so pen there's so much pent up frustration that it's kind of bloodletting so they they it's it's like it's it's it's like when you lance a boil so that uh so you can diffuse the the poison so these are all techniques but there's another model which we which could be termed logical emotion which is where you you're you're you're really reprocessing your thoughts and and it's a type of it's a way of thinking that you can detach yourself so so you so something's happened somebody's done something to you so you feel this sorrow but then you detach yourself so you step away from it and and really what's going on inside me why why do i feel quote unquote triggered like what what what's happening inside of me that this person has taken control of my inner state so you detach yourself pull yourself away from and then you reflect and that actually can lead to compassion where you begin to actually have a different response that's a free person's response the first is the default setting so all of us have default settings when you get when you buy new technology they're always on default settings and then you have to read the manual the operating manual and then then you can actually set them to suit what what you need that thing for well we also are come into this world with default settings one of them is me me me that's a default setting that's why children scream when they don't get the what they want but you have to reset and if you have good teachers they'll help you like because you're like that new technology that they're going to reset the default setting and put into something else but the book the operating manual for the human being is called the quran that that is the operating manual so you can actually learn how to understand yourself and then you can reprogram yourself because allah tells you all these things like when they get angry they forgive oh so i don't have to blame and attack and like it's like somebody who's been watching television and they think there's only one channel and their whole life they've just been watching this one channel and then somebody comes in the room and says what are you watching and you say i'm i'm watching the tv no no what channel are you on what do you mean channel what's a channel that looks like a really stupid thing to be watching what it's what's it called jackass you know so you're watching people do stupid things no there's other channels here look here's the nature channel you know oh look here's a documentary about mecca oh here's recitation of quran there's whole other channels that you can turn on to but if you don't know they exist then you're just trapped in these in these empty mindless states so really getting out of the default setting is is the life's challenge that's what we're here to do because if you're constantly of anger and blame which is based on self-pity it makes you susceptible to divisive and defensive feelings and so people can manipulate you because you're angry and there's all these people that a lot of their social work is actually personal pathology so they're out there shouting and screaming against this that or the other they're actually just angry at their father for neglecting them i mean i'm not this is just i'm telling you the truth people might not want to hear this and i and i can speak from my own personal uh internal self-reflection and dealing with my own childhood traumas and things that happened to me and and my own evolution but i think a lot i was once with a really remarkable uh psychiatrist from ghana and he was beautiful uh he was from a traditional family his father had been a scholar but he had a phd in he had actually md in psychiatry and we were at a conference and i won't say which muslim group that there was a muslim group and they had a series of speakers and one of them he was just just shouting in such agitation and and he was really going on and on about this that and the other and this this uh this man from ghana he said isn't it tragic that people can use public platforms to express their personal pathology and and i don't think he it wasn't like backbiting like he genuinely felt sorry for this person like he could see that they weren't well and that they and that you know they had this public platform and so that i mean that's a lot of what's out there that just people aren't well there's there's all these unwell people and so we shouldn't allow ourselves to be psychologically manipulated by people that understand how to manipulate us and they do it through these techniques and so one of the ways that people are vulnerable to this this uh internal manipulation is is this tendency to mix likes and dislikes with judgments of good and bad so that's why the quran is telling us maybe you like a thing and it's it's actually bad for you and maybe you dislike i think it's actually good for you so this is one of the ways that you can actually reprocess your feelings and judgments by considering what is bad about what you like and what is good about what you dislike um and send when it become when you know dr cleary says when when when the exercise becomes an ordinary reflex then it is much harder to be deceived by appeals to emotions disguised as appeals to reason the really important point i think that's being made because both you know individuals and groups can be fixated on things from outside and this is real manipulation and we're living in a time of manipulation and let us not forget that the multitudes follow the antichrist they follow the antichrist he has at bah followers that's what the prophet sam called them and he said that that um that he would have drones yeah i see the prophet literally said drones that the the that that that's that the the antichrist would be followed by drones and and i just you have to wonder about these drones that they called them drones and that was the word salallahu and he said the prophet saw is him used to describe something that the antichrist would have with him so i hope people just reflect on this this idea of being triggered this idea of not being triggered is is clearly in the quran because allah says that those who the servants of the merciful they tread lightly on the earth and if ignorant people speak to them they say peace they just simply say peace and then allah says also that when they hear any vain talk they just pass by it nobly and and and in the tough series they say either [Music] they overlook it they don't because the only way we can live together the prophet saw i saw him said that the best people are those who mix with people and are patient with their other with their harm that that that it's like this is the world people are going to bother you people are going to upset you don't let them take control of your internal states don't let them control you because allah has we have made some of you a trial a trigger for others will you show patience that's what allah says we've made some of you a fitnah a trial for others will you show patience so again patience is moving from the default setting of impatience of getting angry of blaming of feeling victimized to moving to what allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is given us in that operating manual here's how you need to reprogram from the default setting to the higher setting like don't allow people to trigger you don't feel triggered don't even use the word you're triggering me no have control of your internal emotions and just recognize who's that person to for me to allow that person to take control of my internal world one of the things about and this something that kierkegaard pointed out he said people demand freedom of speech as a compensation for for lacking freedom of thought that we we have an internal world that we completely control if we learn how to control it but if we don't other people will control it don't let other people control your internal world take control of it you can do it it's called merakatunas the prophet sam told us to take control of ourselves i'm sickly sanic he said take control of your tongue right i mean the quran tells us to to take control of ourselves cool i'm fusakum save yourselves don't let yourselves take control of you you take control of yourself don't be the don't let the elephant ride you you ride the elephant but if if if you let the elephant ride you it'll crush you and destroy you don't let other people control you control yourself and the only way you can do that is by reflecting and that's why reflection is so important about thinking why am i getting upset why am i feeling this way these are things that are they're actually they're things that we can do we wouldn't have been commanded to do it i remember when i read with more hajj the yuja naf at the end of the beautiful text and i said to him you know it says you know that yujahido nifsahu he struggles with his self for the sake of the lord of the world i said i ask what if the self overwhelms you he said no no you have to fight it that's the whole point and he told me that allah would not give us this taklif if it wasn't in our capacity la you could live he will not give you any responsibility that was not in your capacity that's what he told me and he said you just have to keep doing mujahiddah until you take control of it but don't let other people control you don't let other people manipulate you this is really really important especially in an age where there's so much mass manipulation you can't trust any of the news you can't trust you think you can trust what you're being told what world do you live in how many times you have to be lied to before you realize that you you you just that's why the best advice i think i've ever heard from any western tradition was the advice of henry david thoreau and it was his the advice he gave about newspapers he said don't read the times read the eternities and what everybody's doing today is reading the times now on it's now it's on new york times or whatever london times now it's the internet but that's what it is whereas we actually have a book of the eternities it's called the quran if you want to know everything it's all in there and i'm not i'm not just saying it really is i'm i mean that it's a difficult book i'd be the first to admit that it's not an easy book but nothing that's worth achieving or attaining in this world is easy nothing all the easy things are the default settings it's easy to overeat it's easy to over speak it's easy to waste time it's easy to be lazy all the default settings are easy it's when you change those default settings which which is the mujahida which is the struggle and those who struggle in our way we will guide them to our paths and these are the paths of righteousness may allah make us from the people of righteousness i mean salaam alaikum

Channel: Ihya Archive

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Length: 22min 5sec (1325 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 24 2021