8. THE BELIEVER AND SINS
A believer does not indulge in sins (deliberately and willingly) otherwise his whims (hawa) and self-desires (shahwa) become stronger and the flames of lust erupt, causing him to fall badly. Nor does he consciously decide to commit sins, nor has the intention to repeat his sins afterwards, nor is he interested in seeking revenge (intiqam) when he is angry (ghadab). He is also determined to repent (tawbah) prior to committing his sins.
The best example to reflect upon is the case of the brothers of Prophet Yusuf (‘alayhi as-salam) who decided to repent before executing their plot against him and try to rid of him— thus they said, as stated in the verses, in their meaning,
“Kill Yusuf.” [Yusuf (12):9]
Then they became more loathly suggesting,
“or cast him away [to another land].” [Yusuf (12):9]
while accompanying their plot with the predetermined intention to repent afterward, said,
“and you will be after that a righteous people.” [Yusuf (12):9]
After they managed to take him with them to the desert and were about to kill him, due to the effect of envy in their hearts, the eldest brother suggested,
“Do not kill Yusuf but throw him into the bottom of the well.” [Yusuf (12): 10]
as he wished him to stay alive and be picked up by passing a caravan in that area, thus everyone complied with his idea.
This change [intending to kill him then suggesting to cast him away but then deciding to keep him alive so someone else would pick him up and look after him] is explainable because suppressing self-desires depends on the strength of faith (man).
Thus sometimes it succeeds in overpowering evil desires when intended but in some cases it is feeble at the beginning but manages to avert such evil desires when they are determined, or even avert the evil deed partially.
However, when inadvertency dominates and sin is committed, the innate desires become torpid [lacking vitality and energy to provoke] causing the resurrection of iman to encourage the doer to perform good deeds, and let the grievance of regret and remorse multiply by the joy reached from the committed sin.
(Source: al-Hafiz Abu’l-Faraj ibn al-jawzl [d. 597AH] “CAPTURED THOUGHTS being” a translation of his masterpiece ‘Sayd al-K hatir)
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