Ward Off Passing Thoughts, For If You Do Not, They Will Become Ideas:
Our Thoughts, Feelings, and Behaviours are intertwined — When one changes, the others change as well.
Magnification and minimisation are two of the most common Forms of cognitive distortions.Most of us Fall prey to them occasionally—even people with relatively healthy thinking patterns.
Magnification occurs when you look at imperfections in your life, your own errors, or the mistakes of others and exaggerate them —This involves looking at mistakes or the struggles you Face as huge and insurmountable.
Minimisation occurs when you look at your strengths or positive things in your life as small and inconsequential.
One of the biggest issues with these cognitive distortions is that they lead to more and more self-defeating thoughts — We tend to Find what we look For.When we begin to scan our environment, relationships, and ourselves For negatives, our reality will become increasingly Filled with darkness because that is what we are searching For.
Consider how Allah(swt) comforts the Prophet Muhammad(saw) in the Qur’an: We know how your heart is distressed at what they say. But celebrate the praises of your Lord and be of those who prostrate themselves in adoration. (15:97–98)
Whenever the Prophet Faced a difficult time, he would rush to Salah and say: Give us comfort through prayer, O Bilal — This shows that a change in our behaviours can be an effective way to transform our thoughts and emotions as well.
Ward off passing Thoughts, For if you do not, they will become ideas. Ward off ideas, For if you do not, they will become desires — Fight them, For if you do not, they will become resolve and determination, and if you do not ward them off, they will become actions.
If you do not resist them with their opposite, they will become habits and it will be difficult For you to get rid of them. (Ibn al-Qayyim)
Here, again, there is an emphasis on the link between thoughts, emotions, and actions.
The Prophet Muhammad (saw) said, Allah(swt)said: “I am as my servant thinks (expects) I am. I am with him when he mentions Me. If he mentions Me to himself, I mention him to Myself; and if he mentions Me in an assembly, I mention him in an assembly greater than it. If he draws near to Me a hand’s length, I draw near to him an arm’s length. And if he comes to Me walking, I go to him at speed.”
Consider one of the wisdoms of this Hadith: Allah(swt) is to each of us what we expect Him to be because those who think well of Allah(swt) will mention Him, will draw closer to Him, and will walk to Him. All of these are behaviours that can change our perception of Allah(swt)—the more we reach out to Him, the more we move toward Him, and the better our expectations of Allah(swt)will be.
It is only when we give up hope that we Feel that Allah has abandoned us. Furthermore, we tend to Find what we look For. If we seek out examples of what is missing from our lives, our positive thoughts of Allah diminish. However, if we seek out examples of the blessings within our lives, our perception of Allah is enhanced, which leads to Further connection with Him.
The Prophet (saw) said: “Allah will Forgive my Ummah For whatever crosses their minds, so long as they do not act upon it or speak about it”.
Thinking a lot about something could lead to a person doing it; at the very least it distracts a person From thinking about something useful that he could do. The Scholars of Islam used to call For reform of one’s thinking and striving against bad thoughts, because they may gradually lead one to disastrous consequences.
So,the point is that — we need to keep our thoughts pure and positive because thoughts become ideas and then come into action. For this we should take productive knowledge.
May Allah(swt) protect us From evil thoughts and grant us the ability to do good deeds. (Ameen).
JazakAllah (May Allah Reward You [with] Goodness)For Reading.
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