How do you take your ‘nature’ under control and go beyond your compositional make-up?

Taking your nature under control is taking your impulses to eat, drink, sleep, and have sex under control. Performing salat, fasting, engaging in dhikr etc. are all advised for this purpose. 

For example, your nature will not be inclined to waking up at a really early time and taking ablution and praying. Or let’s say you didn’t perform your isha salat (the last salat of the day) it’s late and you’re really sleepy. Clearly it goes against the nature of your tired body to get up, take ablution and pray at that time.

One must resist his natural bodily impulses and overrule his nature to accomplish this. This includes all bodily pleasures from food and sex to shopping and dressing up in fancy clothes. When you can’t rule over your body then your body rules over you. There’s no other way around it!

The point is to gain the ability to resist these things when the body desires it or to give it up entirely until the addiction ends. 

This is the aspect pertaining to the physical body. There is also the aspect regarding one’s compositional make-up. That is, the Names that comprise one’s being, and hence the natural pull in that direction. 

Think of the things that have been eased for you. Things you naturally find easy to do. These are things that are facilitated by the Names that compose your being. For a time, you also have to omit these practices. Until you can fully control and govern your self you must do this.

Say for example, your compositional make-up is such that running for the aid of those in need of help has been made easy for you. You constantly find yourself in positions where you’re helping others out, giving, teaching, etc… Such a holy act! Right? Well not really. Not until you can control the impulse that drives you to do this ‘autonomously’! This is your programming! It’s not such an exalted or sublime act when you’re programmed to do it. So, you must omit it for a while. That would be a greater challenge! Until you can gain control over this impulse you must stop doing it.

For those who find this controversial and want evidence, think of the many saints, like Abdulqadir al-Jilani, who practiced silent retreats in seclusion for long periods of time, made no contact with anyone, stopped teaching and preaching and applied intensive, strenuous spiritual practices until they were able to take full control over themselves before going back into the public as guides and teachers. 

Running around in service to others before fully comprehending and experiencing the reality and disciplining your body will only empower your ego, giving you no benefit at all. In fact, it’ll only keep you from doing the things that you should be doing!

 You may think abandoning such allegedly benevolent acts may have a discrediting effect and leave you in a disadvantageous and unrewarding position. Yes, this thought is totally valid. It is driven by your compositional make-up. But it is not true. For, as long as you ‘the person-identity’ is in charge, all of your benevolent and charitable acts will be the works of the ego, and hence futile. 

Moreover, you must first rid yourself of the idea of a false god you’ve created in your imagination and named “Allah”! 

In the previous chapter we spoke about the formation of the personality and faculties such as the intellect, thought, comprehensions, illusion etc. The effect of conditioning precipitates a deity-god conception. First you must purify yourself of this! For your deity-god is the very source of your delusion:

“Did you see the one who deified his baseless desires and thus who Allah led astray in line with his knowledge (assumption) and sealed his ability to sense the reality and veiled his vision?”[1]

You’ve conjured up a deity in your head and named it Allah. You are worshipping nothing other than your own conjecture!

In respect to the human factor, the universe –that is the infinite existence including heaven and hell- knowledge is determined by the creation. However, in respect to the origin and quintessential reality of existence creation is determined by precedent knowledge. 

What does this mean?

If we observe the essence and origin of creation we may deduce that creation is determined by knowledge. But if we look through the lens of our compositional make-up and observe the infinite universe and the oneness of existence we may arrive at the conclusion that knowledge is determined by creation.

At the level of consciousness where creation is determined by knowledge there is no room for any conjecture and wishful thinking such as, “Oh Allah is al-Ghafur He’ll forgive… Allah is Rahim, surely He’ll have mercy…”

“The Satan deceives you by telling you Allah is ar-Rahim and al-Karim (generous and bountiful)”.

The Satan instigates your illusion and succumbs you to the delusion of a separate deity god in some far away galaxy who is All Merciful and who’ll forgive you no matter what you do. 

As a result, you deviate from the reality and start creating your own hell. 

Do you want examples? Look around yourself my friend.