The subject of personality and how to form an Islamic personality and how to build its two components (the mental and the psychological parts) is discussed in the books and many of the leaflets that were issued by the Hizb. In what follows, we will not repeat what the Hizb has explained in this regard. Instead, we will talk about what it means to form a personality, the meaning of making the creed a base for the mentality and psychology, the meaning of building both the mentality and the psychology, and the importance of keeping this a continuing process while realizing the effects of forming the Islamic personality on the progress of the Hizb.
The human being regarding his humanity has three instincts: the religious instinct, the instinct of preserving the human race, and the survival instinct. These instincts have many appearances. The religious instinct appears in worshipping God or glorifiying idols; the instinct of preserving the human race appears in sexual inclination, motherhood, and fatherhood; the survival instinct appears in ownership, selfishness, selflessness, the desire to dominate, fear, and curiosity. In addition to the three instincts, humans have many biological needs. The instincts and the biological needs create vital energy in the human that pushes him to satisfy his instincts and biological needs. The way to satisfaction can be odd, wrong, or in the right way if it was done according to the commands of Allah (swt) (what he obligated and what he prohibited).
In addition, the human has the ability to think and relate things together. In other words, the human personality is composed of a mentality and a psychology. Building a personality means to make the mentality part and the psychological part from the same kind such that a person will have a distinct personality that can be distinguished easily from other personalities. In other words, things are thought of and realized based on a particular foundation which is used as a base to fulfill one’s instincts and biological needs. Thus, a distinct personality is formed in which there is a unique intermixing between the process of thinking and that of feeling which pushes the human to work and do things in an organized and controlled manner.
If the base, on which the human mentality and psychology is built, is a comprehensive ideology that is sound and correct and the mind is convinced of its soundness and it satisfies the human nature (fitrah), then the personality becomes more stable, more able to influence its surroundings, produce more, continue, and last. The Islamic creed is the only faith that is based on the mind and satisfies the human nature and provides peace of mind. It should be the only base on which the personality is built.
The effects of basing the mentality and the psychology on the Islamic creed will be clearly evident in many aspects. Some of these aspects are related to the mentality and the way of thinking and others are related to the psychology and how to satisfy one’s needs.
In regard to the mentality, to base it on the Islamic creed means to realize the role of the mind and its limitations and to see the fine line that separates the mind from the revelation (Wahy). In addition, any idea should be measured by the creed before it is accepted or rejected.
To make the Islamic creed as a base for the mentality is what may be difficult for people to perceive. It may be easy to talk about the Islamic laws and how it control the person’s behavior and it may be easy to submit that the creed is the base for actions, deeds, and behavior. But it is difficult for many people in most cases to comprehend the meaning of making the creed as the base for the mentality. In addition, it is will be difficult to comprehend how the creed should control the way people think. Such people have forgotten that Islam does not only control the behavior but also controls the thinking and limits the role of the mind. For example, the mind is not to think about the unseen, and the mind is not allowed to legislate, although it has the role of interpreting and understanding the revealed legislation and apply it to the situation.
Prophet Mohammed (saaw) used to clarify to the people the matters of law that deal with their actions; he used also to direct their thinking and make clear for them the limitations to their thinking. This is evident when the sun was eclipsed during the time of the prophet on the same day that his son died (when people suggested that the sun was eclipsed because of his son death, he told them that the eclipse is a sign from Allah (swt), and it does not happen for someone’s death; therefore, there is no relationship between the two events). Also when the prophet cleared the misunderstanding of a group of his companions when they said that a star provided the rain. Even the expressions of the Muslims and their sayings were the subject of revelations where Allah (swt) says in the Quran:
Therefore, there is a great need to understand all of this and to try to get the people to understand it in order to establish an Islamic personality based on the Islamic creed. After such mentality is established, it becomes easy to develop it and maintain it by learning more about Islam through studying the Islamic culture.
In regard to the psychological part of the personality, making the Islamic creed a base for it means to fulfill one’s instincts and biological needs according to the law which is based on the Islamic creed. Satisfying the religious instinct, with all its appearances, has to be based on the rules that are related to prayer, fasting, pilgrimage, Zakah, or to other things that strengthen the relationship between us and the creator. This is the positive aspect of fulfilling the religious instinct. The negative aspect, on the other hand, is to avoid any sign of worship or submission to any other deity besides Allah (swt), the creator. Islamic rules came to clarify both aspects: the positive and the negative.
Fulfilling the instinct of preserving the human race is done by sexual relations within the framework that Islam prescribed, by being kind to the next of kin, and by treating the parents in a good manner. This is the positive aspect of such fulfillment. It also can be fulfilled by abstaining from fornication and adultery, for women to avoid uncovering themselves, and for an unrelated male and female to avoid being alone, and by avoiding intermixing between the different sexes in an unlawful manner. This is the negative aspect of fulfilling such instincts. Similarly, fulfilling the survival instinct is done by abiding by the means of ownership positively ( do what Allah allowed) and negatively (not to do what Allah prohibited in that regard). This also can be done by fearing Allah (swt) alone and not fearing things that we are not allowed to fear. Such things can be clarified and pointed out easily.
But the survival instinct has other aspects that need to be fulfilled according to the rules of Islam. This is because Islam by its legislation directs the human to fulfill their instincts and its appearances. The way Islam treats this depends on two ways: the first is to direct the humans to satisfy his instincts in the right way, and the second to eliminate some selfish and individual tendencies not through suppressing certain instincts, but by satisfying other appearances for certain instincts. This will be cleared by the following.
Islam, for example, fulfills all the instincts in an organized and coherent manner without suppression or looseness. It does not prevent the human from fear, but it directs him to fear that which should be feared “Do ye fear them? Nay, it is Allah whom ye should More justly fear”(9-13). Islam also treats selfishness by encouraging sacrifice for others and both are appearances of the survival instinct. This applies also to the inclination to dominate. Such inclination is part of the survival instinct and is part of the basic human inclinations. Islam does not suppress this inclination, but it directs it from personal domination, where an unintellectual person wants to dominate others, to the inclination that the ideology should dominate. As a result, the person will work hard to achieve the ideology domination.
As the person becomes more involved and convinced with the Islamic creed, and as his intellectual level increases and as he becomes more devoted and sincere to that cause, all of his selfish and personal tendencies become low until he reaches to a state of pure sincerity. At that point, his inclination for self domination goes away, and he does not associate with the creed any personal aspects and Allah (swt) and his prophet become the most beloved to him as the Hadith says and “so that Allah and his prophet will be beloved by him more than his wealth, children, himself, and all people” as another Hadith says. At that point, such a person will not feel angry for himself, will not look at the people from above, and behaves as a servant for the Ummah.
If this will be expected from any Muslims, the person who carries the Islamic Dawah would be expected to do much more. It is for such meanings that Ali (ra) stopped the killing of one of the unbelievers in a battle after he intended to kill him with his sword when that man spitted in Ali’s face. When the man was surprise at such behavior because he expected the spit to accelerate his killing, Imam Ali told him that he wanted to kill him initially because he is an enemy of Allah, but when the spit incident took place, the Imam feared that he was killing him for that reason and for personal revenge, and that is why he did not kill him! Such and other similar examples show how the Islamic creed can be made a base for the psychological part of the personality.
Contrary to the mentality, the psychological part is more difficult to develop and maintain than developing and maintaining the personality. This is despite the fact that it is more difficult to establish the mentality in the beginning. If developing and maintaining the mentality requires that a person knows more about the Islam, which is only one thing, developing and maintaining the psychological part requires the continuous process of coming more closer to Allah (swt) by worship and other things that enhance the relationship with Allah (swt), and the continuous relating between ones desires and inclinations to his understandings. In other word, to watch Allah (swt) for all the things that are said or done.
It should not be said that some people or individuals have their instincts so strong and therefore it will be difficult to control them by Islam and it will be difficult to establish an Islamic psychology for them. This should not be the case because when the human is convinced beyond any doubt of the existence of Allah (swt) and his oneness and realizes that the relationship between himself and the creator includes his creation and legislation and not just creation only “Verily, His are the Creation and the Command “(7-54). In addition, if this realization was combined with the human instincts of feeling his own limitations and his shortcomings and his needs for the creator who manage things. In other words, when the human believes in the Islamic creed based on his instincts and mind together, and then he realizes the meaning of abiding by the Islamic commands, and knows the highest values in life and that after this life there will be a day of judgment and he will be held accountable by Allah (swt), and realizes that he will end up either in the paradise “whose width Is that (of the whole) Of the heavens And the earth”(3-133) or to the ” Blazing fire Plucking out (his being) Right to the skull”(70-15&16). When the human realize all of this, it will become easier for him to abide by the commands of Allah (swt) even in the absence of the Islamic State. This is because we are talking about the individual level and not the Ummah level.
Therefore, the Islamic creed and what rules and regulations are derived from it is enough to establish that psychology regardless of the strength of the human’s instincts and its strong manifestations. Similar things can be said about developing the psychology because going the road of continuous improvement and continuing the work to be accepted by Allah and doing the things that bring the human closer to Allah and continue watching Allah. All of this should be enough to develop one’s psychology and to eliminate all of what is associated with an individual from the days of ignorance regardless of the extent of it. Islam eliminates all of what remain from the day of ignorance either if it related to the personal or the inclination to dominate and arrogance and the wrong bride and control the actions and control his talk. It is enough for one of us to realize the saying of the honorable prophet Mohammed to Muath Ibn Jabal”… and are the people thrown in the hell fire on their faces (or he said on their noses) except as a result of what they said”. Indeed the Islamic creed and what comes out of it from commands control all of this and move the human, not to mention the one who carries the Dawah, to a higher standard which continues to move upward. All what is needed from the person who carries the Dawah is to get rid of some imaginations from his mind so that he can deal with his own condition and elevate himself.
Despite all of this, the failure or even death can come suddenly. That is why it is a must that the continuation on the things that were mentioned should be at all time. In here we quote the supplication of prophet Mohammed when he said ” Oh Allah, don’t leave me to myself for a moment “, and ” I commanded you before not to visit the graveyard; do visit it because it reminds people of the Hereafter “, and also the supplication of Omar Ibn Al Khatab (ra): “Oh Allah, give me the opportunity to mention you under all circumstances, and to remember death all the time”. What should be realized is failure could be slow but also it could come very fast. In all circumstances, the continuation of observing these meanings should help, by the will of Allah (swt), to prevent the failures.
It is true that deficiencies in the behavior of the human may occur, but if it was dealt with promptly, the person goes back to be an Islamic personality. In the case that the problem went untreated and was neglected or the person starts justifying things for himself even on a matter like the inclination to dominate or saying an offending word, then the problem will become greater and could lead to other unwanted results. And here come the saying of Omar Ibn Al Khattab (ra): ” Held yourselves accountable before you will be held accountable”.
Furthermore, making the Islamic creed the base for the mentality and psychology will act as the engine, the steering wheel, the car breaks, specifies the goal and show how to get there at the same time. Here comes the importance of the creed as a base. The creed will establish a creative way of thinking, and specifies an aim for one’s life, and a higher example, and direct the human to fulfill all of this in an organized and controlled manner. But it should be noted that all of this comes from the creed, what comes out of it from rules, what builds on it from ideas, and to realize all of this and insist on abiding by it. This will result in a better human and as a result will create the Nahda (revival) in the society at large.
From all of this, we understand the meaning of what the Hizb says in the book Atakatol Alhizby’:” this person can’t be a good material to become part of collective organized work, unless and until he is treated by finding coherency between his mentality and his feelings in order to enhance his mentality from the beginning with the true ideology which is the Islamic culture, and this treatment assumes that he is a student with a mind that needs to be formed. After solving this problem, the next step is to establish coherency between him and his society, and then it will be easier to solve the problem of progress in the society”.
Therefore, building Islamic personalities among the people who carries the Dawah is the first step in advancing the society, and to march toward establishing the state. Thus, it is necessary that each one of us should check on himself to clean his behavior from any abnormality which have to do with personality or the feeling of arrogance or to look at people from above, or not able to control himself when he is angry, or if it is related to a personal behavior or not obeying a command of Allah (swt). This person needs to treat himself fast and the Dawah needs to treat him in an effective way.
After that, interaction with the Ummah will be the target to give her the ideology so that it will be her ideology, and to concentrate on the ideas that are in books that deals with this, which will be the cornerstone of this work. To discuss the subject of the mind and its role when discussing Islamic divine rules with people is more important than discussing a particular rule. This is because after people realize the role of the mind and its limitations, and the good and the bad are thing that are determined by Allah (swt) and not by our minds, after that talking about a particular rule becomes a matter of teaching that rule. But if the other party kept thinking that the mind has an absolute role, then the problem will remain even if he agrees with us on a particular command. This is because realizing the role of the mind is a cornerstone in building an Islamic personality, while knowing a particular rule is needed during the work of Dawah and is to be learned and abided by.
In other words, we need to realize how to we can rebuild the thinking of the Ummah and how to rebuild the Islamic personality. This is a very important matter in building carrying the Dawah. So we should approach the Dawah with full knowledge and to do things with great awareness. This is because our role is beyond discussions and arguments, and it is much more beyond that. It is the task of rebuilding and reformulating the way the Ummah thinks, and this requires much more than discussions and arguments. Among other things, we have to be aware of where to start and how to start and to be patient and persistent, and beyond all of this the fact that we need to rely on Allah (swt) in the right way, and to get help from him. This is because this work which is related to the process of rebuilding and reformulating the thinking of the Ummah is difficult and very precise one.
