It is impossible to achieve any reform without first
developing our willpower.
If we want our youth to be able to keep their
emotions in check, refrain from overindulgence, exhibit courage in times of
hardship, and uphold justice in the face of oppression, then we must realize
that all of our advice will be of no avail to them if they lack willpower.
People need to develop their willpower before they can put their convictions
into practice. It takes willpower for a person to do something arduous, even if
he thinks it is for his own benefit. Likewise, it takes willpower for him to
shun temptation, even when he knows that indulging such temptations will be
harmful to him. You can advise him all day long if you like, but it will do no
good if the one receiving your advice is weak-willed.
How, then, can we
cultivate our willpower and strengthen it?
Consider a child who wants to
learn to ride a bicycle. When he starts off, he cannot even keep the bike
standing straight, let alone go forward on it. When he does get going, he weaves
wildly to the left and to the right and ultimately ends up falling flat on the
ground. With a lot of hard work and perseverance, he gets it in the end. He
learns to ride smoothly and easily. He even learns to do a few stunts.
What happened? The bicycle definitely did not change – except for
possibly a few dents. It is just as willing to obey its rider as it ever was.
All the changes have taken place with the rider.
The same can be said for
all of our goals in life. We have to get control of ourselves before we can
tackle our environment. The first step in this is to develop our willpower.
A weak-willed person is as shaky when it comes to life’s problems as
that child was when he first climbed onto his bicycle. If this person begins
trying to strengthen his will, he will slowly but surely learn to move through
life more steadily. And just like when our nascent cyclist first took to the
road, the weak-willed person is going to need a lot of hard work and
perseverance to get through his problems. However, as time goes on, facing his
problems will become easier and smoother. This is why the Prophet (peace be upon
him) said: “The time for patience is when misfortune first
strikes.”
Strengthening our willpower is arduous at first, but once it is
strengthened, life will become much easier.
A weak-willed person always
resolves on something and then gives up. He goes through life like a weaver who
constantly unravels his own yarn. However, once a person actually goes forth
with determination until he reaches his goal, he will find that he can do so
again with much less difficulty.
A pious man finds the performance of
good deed as easy as a sinner finds indulging in vice. The difference between
the two is that the pious man directed his willpower toward virtue while the
other directed his towards sin.
Many young people get into bad habits
without thinking. They just go with the flow, thoughtlessly aping their peers
without thinking about the consequences. Many of our youth succumb simply
because they are weak-willed.
Imagine a boy sitting with a couple of his
friends. They start smoking and urge him to join them. He declines and they
start to put pressure on him. They justify what they are doing by saying that it
eases stress or by offering some other baseless claim. So he takes his first
puff, but he finds it irritating and has no desire to smoke again. However, a
few days later he finds himself in the same situation again. This time the
irritation is not so bad. Now he joins in with them wholeheartedly. Another bad
habit is born.
If this boy had been strong-willed to begin with, he would
never have smoked. It takes willpower to resist peer pressure, whether the
temptation at hand is smoking, drinking, or chasing girls.
Our youth have
to learn to follow their reason instead of their desires. They need to have a
strong sense of responsibility.
When a person stays in bed even though
it is time for the Fajr prayer or time to go to work, he gives in to sloth and
laziness and this weakens his willpower. However, if he has a strong sense of
responsibility and obeys his intellect, he will be able to get himself out of
bed and do what he has to do. The same thing goes for every other aspect of
life. Whether a person gives in to sleep or to peer pressure, he dulls both his
mind and his willpower and he becomes less responsible as a person.
The
great people we read about in history were strong willed people who obeyed their
minds and not their fancies. They built up their willpower by working hard and
surmounting the obstacles that faced them. Great people take pleasure in
resisting temptation and in the sense of power and self-control that doing so
gives them. Our history testifies to a great number of such people.
Take
Abû Bakr at the time when many of the Arabs turned their backs on Islam and
refused to pay Zakâh. Many people advised Abû Bakr to be lenient on them.
However, he rejected their advice and demanded that the Arabs accept Islam
wholeheartedly without subtracting anything from it. We can see in this his
determination, his strength of will, and his ability to stand up in the face of
the most trying of circumstances.
Consider Ibn Taymiyah’s stance when the
ruler wanted him to abandon the opinions that he had arrived at through careful
study. When Ibn Taymiyah refused to do so, he was imprisoned and tortured but he
still refused to recant. Instead, he spent his time in prison writing books
wherein he explained and defended his principles and teachings. When they took
away his pens and paper, he took up pieces of coal and began writing on the
walls. His determination in the face of imprisonment and torture is a great
example of the triumph of the human will over adversity and his writings are an
enduring legacy of this triumph.
Willpower is one of the greatest secrets
of success. By cultivating our willpower and strengthening it, we can stand up
to the trials that face us. A strong-willed person is someone who can improve
himself and someone who can benefit from the advice and guidance of others. By
contrast, a weak-willed person cannot improve himself and will not be availed of
the efforts of others to better him. Before anything else, he needs to
strengthen himself. He needs to treat his weakness as if it were a disease and
be patient during the healing process.
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