Why the Prophet Commanded: Do Not Become Angry
Controlling Anger: Understanding the Prophetic Command Against Anger - Sahih Bukhari Chapter on Patience
Summary
This lecture analyzes a hadith from Sahih Bukhari about controlling anger, specifically the narration where a man repeatedly asks the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) for advice and is told "do not become angry." The speaker explains that while natural emotions like anger are largely beyond human control, the Prophet's command means believers should avoid situations that lead to anger and must control their responses when anger occurs. The lecture clarifies that this prohibition does not mean prophets and messengers never became angry, but rather that their anger was directed toward worthy causes—violations of Allah's boundaries and prohibitions—not trivial personal matters.
Note: This transcript was generated using YouTube's automatic captioning, with AI-assisted cleanup for readability. It may contain inaccuracies due to background noise, audio quality, or limitations of the transcription software — particularly during Arabic recitation. Listener discretion is advised; please refer to the original video for precise wording.
Alhamdulillah. Continuing.
[Silence]
In authored by the chapter of patience narration number 48 on on the authority of Abi who narrates that a man said to the prophet sallall.aii wasallam advise me to which he responded do not become angry and so the man repeated his request and upon each time the prophet sallallahu alaii wasallam would repeat do not become angry. This narration has been collected by Imam Bkari. We've mentioned before that this statement is largely a type of a a rhetoric that is used a type of speaking that articulates exaggeration in the particular statement. So what does that mean? A person is not in control of what makes him angry. He's not in control of what makes him happy largely. A person is not in control of who he loves. He's not in control of who he naturally dislikes etc. As the prophet sallall.aii wasallam would say in the narration of that the prophet Sam would be very just with his wives and he would then say, "Oh Allah, this is what I am able to do. So do not hold me to account for that which is out of my control." meaning love, meaning that he may love one more than the other in his heart, not in his actions. A person having a natural or dislike, anger, happiness, pleasure, etc. These are things that are largely out of a person's hand. However, when the prophet sallallah.aii alaihi wasallam prohibits that. It means do everything in your power not to become angry including what leads to anger and including your response to anger. It's kind of where Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says. He says, "Do not die except in a state of Islam." Death is not something I control. It's not something you control. How is it that Allah is prohibiting us from doing something or commanding us to do something that is not in our control?
[Silence]
Asb said, "Do not die except as Muslims." meaning live upon Islam in your days of health and in your days of ease so that you may die upon it. Because when a person lives upon something, he will die upon that thing. And whoever dies upon a particular thing will be resurrected upon that thing. And so the scholars of Islam tell us that this statement of the prophet It means two main things. Number one, do not do things or put yourself in a situation that will lead to your inevitable anger. Right? Number two is that if a person becomes angry that they are to control themselves. That a person is to control himself at his time of anger. As we will hear in a later narration that the truly strong is not the one who can who can wrestle people to the ground. Rather the truly strong is the one who is able to control himself in times of anger. Now when we look through the Quran if we look in the Sunnah of the prophet sallall.aii alaihi wasallam. We see that the prophets and messengers would become angry. We see that the prophet Muhammad sallall.aii wasallam has become angry. But there's a difference between their anger and the anger which is prohibited here in this narration from two aspects. Number one, what they would become angry about. They didn't become angry over silly things. There's too much salt in their food. They felt somebody looked at them wrong. They didn't appreciate this or that or they felt they were owed something they weren't given or someone spoke to them. This is not how the prophets and messengers would become angry or pleased. Rather the prophets and messengers they would become angry for worthy reasons. Misam Allah praises him in the Quran for his anger. Why? because of why he became angry that Musam when he came back to his people he found them worshiping a calf made of gold not all of them but a large portion of them and that they had disobeyed Harun and that they had threatened to kill Harun if he got in their way and Mus Alisam became so angry that he threw the tablets that Allah had given him down and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala praises him for his anger for this issue. He praises him for his anger for this issue and this is why he mentions it to us subhanahu wa ta'ala because this is worthy of a person's anger has said about our prophet Wasam.
[Silence]
She said that the prophet would never take vengeance over a personal issue unless a boundary of a law and a prohibition had been crossed. And if it came to the prohibitions of Allah and the boundaries of Allah, there is no stopping his vengeance for the sake of Allah. And so we see another instance of our prophet becoming angry when a woman was of a high tribe. She was of of you know of of higher lineage in Medina. And she was the way this woman did things is she would ask to borrow things from people and then when she would borrow the things valuable things not petty things people would come and ask for their property she would deny that they ever gave her anything. And so the prophet sallall.aii alaihi wasallam had it was raised to him and he had judged that her hand be cut off for for stealing. And so she was of a high ranking tribe member, right? This is not just any old person. So the companions debated whether or not to send someone to try to intercede on her behalf to try to ask for some leniency they figured the best person to send to him would be Z. And then when he came to the prophet sallallah alaii wasallam the prophet sallall.aii wasallam became very angry and he said He said to him rhetorically, "You are interceding with regards to a boundary of Allah and a judgment of Allah." And then he said to the people.
[Silence]
He then said, "Oh people, I swear by Allah that if Fatima, the daughter of Muhammad were to have stolen that no one would cut her hand off but.
[Arabic recitation]
Why? Because this is worthy of a person's anger. This is anger which is praiseworthy. As a matter of fact, this is anger that if you don't have it, something is wrong. Something is deeply wrong with a person and deeply flawed if they do not become angry for the sake of Allah. If they do not become pleased for the sake of Allah. If they do not become jealous for the sake of Allah. This is how the prophets and messengers are. If a person is just cool, cool as a cucumber, nothing rocks his boat. Whether Allah is disobeyed or obeyed, whether Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's religion excels or doesn't, whether the prophet sunnah is trampled on or not, but he's cool as a cucumber. This is someone, this is someone who has deeply flawed morals.
[Arabic recitation]