RECTIFYING UNDESIRABLE INTERNAL ATTRIBUTES: 2 (talk by Mufti Taqi Usmani DB)

 The word ‘Salik’ literally means a ‘traveler’. In the terminology of Tasawuf, a person who goes to a Shaykh for the purification of his inner-self is known as Salik, meaning he is traveling on the way of self-improvement. And the Shaykh is like a mentor who guides him like, go this way, don’t go that way. Hazrat Thanvi RE has recommended that the Salikshould get his internal negative attributes rectified and treated by the Shaykh one by one. For example, a person is prone to outbursts of uncontrolled and explosive anger, which lead to him losing control of his temper, and then screaming and yelling at people, and hitting them unjustly. This is a negative internal attribute and it needs to be treated. Now his responsibility is to inform his Shaykh that he suffers from excessive and uncontrollable anger, and he commits a number of transgressions under the influence of that anger. The Shaykh will then guide him towards bringing that anger under control. It does not mean that as a result of that treatment he will stop getting feelings of anger altogether. Anger is a natural drive which is experienced by all human beings at some point in their life or another. He will still feel anger after undergoing this treatment, but as a result of this treatment his anger will become subservient to the limits imposed by Shariah on how much anger a person is allowed to express, and under what circumstances.