BY: LESLIE SCHAFFER
EARTHLY LIFE BURDENS
people. Yet there is an argument to make that the weight of the world now presses even heavier upon us than it did our predecessors. Natural and man-made political and social disasters abound. Their effect on mind, body, and spirit can be overwhelming. By the millions we now seek out counseling in search of relief from anxiety, depression, or addiction—often for all three. At the base of most maladaptive behaviors is a single, urgent desire: To escape the world’s intensity and one’s own life challenges.
We are ‘Mukallaf’As Muslims, we know and accept that the life of this world is an ongoing test, and how we respond to its travails either makes the heart pure and sound or corrupts and hardens it. Yet how many of us fail to realize that the things that determine the suppleness of the heart are not just the outward religious duties, such as salah and fasting, but also the myriad details of one’s everyday regimen of living. At any given moment, we are, in fact, choosing to purify –or harden– our hearts. Such is the trust conferred upon the human creature, for he accepted the divine amânah of volitional faith and will and the burdens of obligation and accountability –as well as the risk of Hellfire that comes with this– when other creations refused the trust (Sûrat Al-Sajdah, 32:13, Sûrat Al-Azâb, 33:72). We are each one of us, as the scholars say, mukallaf, burdened with the obligation to choose right action and divinely accountable for the choices we make. Thus each time we practice, for example, empathic listening with spouse or child, or friend or co-worker, we are choosing. Each time we refuse to indulge in negative and self-defeating thoughts, we are choosing. Each time we act out in anger, pray mechanically and without focus, allow resentment to build, reprimand our child with hostility, we are, likewise, choosing.
Purity or corruption. Purity or corruption. Purity or corruption. On and on our choices tally.
Yet some say: “I feel like I don’t have the strength or the will to choose.” Or: “If it were a simple matter to choose a smaller portion so as to control my blood sugar and not have to use medication or inject myself with insulin, I would do it. My problem is that I can’t control myself.” The issue of self-control or self-restraint is a crucial one. Consider the following verse:
And do you realize what is the steep road? It is the freeing of a human being from bondage, or offering food on a day of starvation to an orphan who is a relative, or to an indigent person who is down in the dust—all the while, being of those who believe—and who exhort one another to [persevere in faith with] patience, and who exhort one another to mercifulness. [Sûrat Al-Balad, 90:12-17]
In this verse, “freeing the human being from bondage” is literally in Arabic “freeing a neck.” This phrase holds the general meaning of liberating a human being from any sort of bondage. Bondage, by extension, can be any type of servitude or captivity. One can be captive to addiction, to any sort of self-destructive habit, to ignorance, to poverty, and so on. To “free a neck” of another human being is thus to help him when he is in need, protect him from harm, contribute to his healing, or to intervene on his behalf in any other benevolent endeavor. So in accordance with this verse, we can say that beyond the core level of belief the steep path entails three obligations:
1: ENSURING SOCIAL JUSTICE:
Represented in the verse as feeding the needy.
2: ENGAGING IN THE PRACTICE OF SELF-MASTERY:
Represented as promoting and practicing ‘sabr,’ or patience and perseverance.
3: CULTIVATING THE QUALITY OF MERCY:
Represented as promoting and practicing loving-kindness and compassion.
Source: aljumuah.com/
Friday, May 1, 2026
