Why Islam Never Suppresses Your Nature
Harnessing Human Nature: How Islamic Commands Redirect Natural Human Drives
Summary
Sh. Ali Mashhour delivers a lecture on a hadith from the book of knowledge discussing how no believer will be satisfied until they reach paradise. He explains how Allah's commands work in harmony with human nature rather than against it, using the concept of redirecting natural human drives and inclinations toward productive ends. Sh. Ali Mashhour emphasizes that Islam harnesses human nature through proper channels—such as knowledge, jihad, marriage, and worship—rather than suppressing it, and warns against attempting to unnaturally dam up natural human forces, as this leads to destructive outcomes. He addresses modern misconceptions about gender roles and fulfillment, arguing that trying to change Allah's design of human nature will ultimately backfire.
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.
[Arabic recitation]
We have a narration here which has been collected on the authority of reported by on the authority of which we hear mentions in the book of knowledge which we've been reading for quite a while now. In the vein of the virtue of knowledge, the virtue of seeking knowledge, the virtue of the people of knowledge and the dangers of ignorance or seeking knowledge for ignorant reasons. This is another point that he will come to inshallah. This particular narration he mentions that our messenger sallall.aii wasallam said that no believer will ever have his fill of good until he has finally arrived at paradise. No believer will ever be satisfied, will ever have his fill of good until his final arrival is in paradise. This is the only thing that will suffice him. Now in order to understand this narration in the spirit in which it was intended, it's important for us to understand something about the human nature and the way that the commands of Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala do not go against necessarily that human nature, but rather harness that human nature. You and I, every human being, we all have proclivities. We all have things that we tend towards. We all have what you would say impulses. We all have driving forces that bite at our heels and tend us forward in different ways. We just heard in the tonight.
[Silence]
We just heard in the verses tonight of surah in our prayer that Allah tells us and for each individual his direction that he is most prone to. So race and hasten to good deeds, Allah has made good at every direction you can take in this world. Just there is bad at every direction, there is good, there is potential at every direction. You have driving forces, I have driving forces. You have things that urge you forward and I have things that urge me forward. If we all had the same urges and we were all urged towards the same common goals then society would not be able to function. This world would fall apart. The idea that we have here in the west is that everyone needs to be a CEO. Okay? Everyone needs to be the company manager. Everyone needs to be the president, the big shot, the main character, the tough guy in the room. Everybody needs to be number one. This is a farce. Allah has made it that there are people who do not want actively do not want to be in those positions. They actively seek positions of subordination. And there are people who actively seek positions of leadership. And alhamdulillah that is the way because this is how the world will function. You can meet a garbage man, you can meet a seamstress, you can meet a janitor, someone that in this society is considered to be a lowly job. We know there is no such thing as a lowly job. All jobs need to be done. But what is considered to be a lowly job, you will meet many of them who not only are content in what they do, but they wouldn't have it any other way. They it just as it is. And that's not because they don't have drive. It's because they have different proclivities. They have different driving forces. You cannot stop a human being's driving force. And he tells us that trying to take on an urge, a human being's urge, a force, trying to take it on directly is like trying to build a dam that has no outlet for the water to go. What will eventually happen? It will crash through. There is no dam big enough nor strong enough that can ever stop even the smallest of flowing rivers completely. It has to have an outlet. So he tells us that the commandments of the Quran and Sunnah they do not ever try to stop and cut off something that is a natural force in the human being. Whether that's creativity, whether that is drive, whether that is rather it harnesses and redirects. That's why there's no celibacy in Islam. It is actively haram to refrain from marriage, to go out of your way to refrain from marriage and to be celibate. Why? Because that is a driving force of human nature to want to have love and to want to reproduce. And if you try to stop that unnaturally bad things come. What have we seen from celibacy in our modern world and even in ancient world? Things pedophilia, things homosexuality, things extreme sexual perversion. Why? because you are meddling with the forces that Allah has constructed in the human being. The commandments of the Quran don't ever try to dam up a flowing river in human being. It always what redirects it. The human being in this narration we have an appetite. Human beings we have an appetite. What does Allah tell us about this appetite? The prophet sallall.aii wasallam says.
[Silence]
He tells us that if a a human being had an entire valley of gold, eventually he'd wish he had two. And if he had two, he wish he had the third. The human being's mouth and stomach will never be filled except by dirt, meaning at death. That is the only time he will become satisfied. So what does Allah give us? He gives us a way to redirect. Redirect the appetite to the hereafter. Redirect that appetite. Don't try to cut it off. Don't starve it. Because when you starve a natural force in the human being, it comes back with a vengeance. Don't starve it. Redirect it. Redirect it towards that which is productive, that which is good for the hereafter. And that is found in knowledge. And that is found in the struggle of jihad. for men and for women it is found in Omrah it is found in her marriage with her husband and you know in in the west now it's shameful for a woman to be sufficed by just having a family like you're just a breeding factory right and you're just some man's play thing neo feminism has absolutely rotted an entire generation's brain however Ever this is what Allah has created the human being as you try to change that nature it will bite you back with a vengeance says.
[Silence]
He says that the man was created from where? From the earth. And so he will always find his fulfillment in the earth. And a woman was created from what? From what? A man. And so she will always find her fulfillment where? In a man. And it's good that he created them that way. Could you imagine if all men and women were exactly the same? It would be a nightmare. It would be a disaster. We wouldn't even be able to get along as roommates. How many grown men do you know that live with other grown men as roommates long-term, very rare, and they're very strange folks usually. Or they're here on some kind of mission. Two men living together in a house, two independents having their domain. Impossible. They will clash. Allah created them that way. That's how they've been created. And a woman has been created to fit into that. This is how Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala made us. If you try to ch if you try to mar that or build a dam on that force, it will break the dam and it will destroy.
[Arabic recitation]
That's fine. You could set that chair back up on.