The Poisonous Arrow of Shaytan

Rasūlullāh (peace be upon him) says that woman is one of the poisonous arrows of shayṭān.^*** This does not mean that women are physically a poisonous arrow. In other words, shayṭān will use a woman's attractiveness to change a man's heart, to change his psyche, to change his thinking, because he has a weakness toward her, a magnetism toward her. It does not mean that woman is evil. It means that shayṭān will use this particular negative aspect to change the heart: it is a poisonous arrow. So not everybody is capable of closing his eyes — before a wonder woman, or whatever the case may be, he cannot control it. Again, in a ḥadīth qudsī, Rasūlullāh (peace be upon him) says that Allah (swt) says that for every single human being there is a naṣīb, a share, of the zinā of the eyes. Every human being — it cannot be avoided. But if a person makes an effort not to commit that ḥarām, then Allah (swt) will give him such ḥasanāt for that patience as he can never imagine.

During the time of Sultan ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd (may Allah have mercy on him), the last khalīfah,^**** there was a huge fire in Istanbul, in one of the major suburbs. They did not have the underground water mains and everything else, and everybody was trying, in the middle of the night, as some fire broke out and came on. There was one young man, a student in one of the madrasahs. Everyone else had gone home for the holidays, so to speak, and he was in his room with a little candle, his pen and his paper, studying. All of a sudden — bang, bang, bang, bang — there was knocking at his ḥujrah, his little room, his study room. Salām ʿalaykum; ʿalaykum salām. There stood a beautiful woman, a beautiful girl, an amazingly beautiful girl, and almost half naked. She was frantic. I am so scared, she said; everything is burning down; I have lost my parents. She was not a loose woman or anything of the kind — it was simply three o'clock in the morning. Come, come, she was told, sit down, sit down. He went out and looked at the fire. The fire was far away…

The heart is a vessel with outlets. The eyes are one inlet into it; the ears are one inlet; the tongue is another inlet; touch — all the senses are inlets into that pure heart. In its original state the heart is pure; the mind is pure. But through what comes in from outside, it is poisoned continuously. So if a person resists — if he really fights this filth coming into his pure vessel — this is what is meant when ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with him) says that there are two forms of ṣabr: one ṣabr is against calamities, hardships and difficulties, but the other form of ṣabr is against the ḥarām of Allah (swt), and that is the higher form. So if a person can resist looking at ḥarām, resist going into ḥarām, resist touching ḥarām; if he can resist, for the sake of Allah (swt), that hamburger with a slice of bacon on it; if he can resist the girlfriend of his, resist the drug of his, resist whatever his particular ḥarām is — then Allah (swt) will give him ḥasanāt beyond his imagination. ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with him) continues: the second form of ṣabr, the one made against the ḥarām of Allah (swt), is the highest form of ṣabr.

And know, O Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī, he says in the letter, that a person who does not have ṣabr verily has no īmān. A person who does not have proper ṣabr — his īmān is down the gurgler; it is not a good one. What maintains īmān, he says, is ṣabr; and what maintains ṣabr is taqwā, fear of Allah (swt). Why does a person put up with all these difficulties, or with his afflictions? Because he fears Allah (swt). He fears the consequences of what is going to happen to him.