When you look at yourself in the mirror, do you see your real face? Is it your real ‘self’ reflected in it? Suppose, one is ugly, do you believe that s/he is imbued with evil characters? No way, neither an ugly face mirrors vice nor does a pretty face epitomize virtue. I believe that there are two conflicting egos in a person. For instance, besides feeling hungry and thirsty, you feel a voracious appetite to sacrifice your life for your faith, your society or your nation. In other words, one often feels a deep sense of feelings which transcend all natural or physical boundaries. Whenever I feel a vacuum in my soul, it is satiated through communing with God, helping the poor, smiling at orphans, shedding tears for the deprived widows – who are fighting tooth and nail to survive the frigid nights of December. Which ‘I’ forces tears into my eyes?
What does it mean that ‘man is alienated from himself’? These days, people feel self-phobia in loneliness. In other words, when they are alone, they can hardly tolerate themselves and busy themselves with watching TV, playing game, calling to their friends, etc. just to get rid of being alone. My understanding of self-alienation is to be devoid of moral values and self-esteem. When one is estranged from virtue and ethics, it must be frightening to be with your ‘self’ filled with vice. Hence, alienation means to be alienated from your moral characters, doesn’t it?
Being in conflict with yourself seems amazing, but it is possible. Suppose a delicious food whets your appetite and tempts you to eat to the last morsel, however your rationality goes up against it since you are on a diet. In such a case, your natural feelings are in conflict with your rational advice. Now, it is you to choose between your natural persistence and rational resistance. Which of the calls will you answer?
Perhaps, you are mostly in dilemma whether to agree or disagree with yourself. In other words, some believe that man is a wicked animal and must be disrespected. As a result, Sufis used to ignore all their physical needs, even not taking shower, and their abbeys were spreading nauseous odor from very long distance. According to their mentality, the more one exposes himself to disrespect, the sooner he will gain nirvana.
Paradoxically, it is said, in Islam, to practice self-esteem and self-denial. It is further said that whoever discovers himself, he will discover his God. On the other hand, when Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was returning victoriously from a holy-war along with his companions said that they had to gain victory in greater jihad – which is the jihad against yourself. “Self” does not necessarily mean our body or physical parts and harming or killing yourself is a big sin in Islam. So, what is ‘self’ and which ‘ego’ one is supposed to respect or reject?
Besides physical wants, men cherish spiritual needs led by their soul. Human beings are asked to identify their spirituality – which bears moral values. Moreover, one has to resist against his/her moral decline and devilish temptations. Spiritual and material tendencies are in serious conflict inside us. It is we to keep a tight rein on our material tendencies so as to cherish our humane character. In short, one’s soul is a door to virtue and moral desires.
It is said that one day the Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was passing a group of youths racing one another by lifting heavy stones. When they saw the prophet, they asked him to be as an umpire and judge who the hero of the game would be. The Holy Prophet said, at the end of the match, that the hero was the one who could dominate his whims and carnal desires.
Sometimes human beings objectify their essence by an alien being such as money, property, lust, and so on. “Objectification is the practice of alienation. Just as man, so long as he is engrossed in …, can only objectify his essence by an alien and fantastic being; so under the sway of egoistic need, he can only affirm himself and produce objects in practice by subordinating his products and his own activity to the domination of an alien entity, and by attributing to them the significance of an alien entity, namely money. Money is the alienated essence of man’s work and existence; the essence dominates him and he worships it.”
“Finally, alienated man is also alienated from the human community, from his ‘species- being.’ Man is alienated from other men. When man confronts himself he also confronts other men.”
Discovering the real self is not an easy task. Sometimes one mistakes his/her devilish characters for divine ones. Mawlana Jalaluddin Balkhi, a Persian outstanding and popular poet, illustrates this fact in his poems. He says that a person builds a building on others’ land thinking that it is his own. He puts a lot of effort and spends much energy to build it perfectly. After the completion, he suddenly finds his own land vacant on the other side and, to his unmitigated chagrin; the building was mistakenly built on his neighbor’s land. So, all his effort and energy were in vain. Hence, we have to be cautious enough not to satiate our devilish needs mistakenly. We have to discover our real self – the divinely characters – and respect it, and wrestle with non-self – the evil characters in us which appears in the frame of ‘self’. In short, a serious clash is going on between moral and immoral characters in us and we have to give the first a free rein and keep a tight rein on the second. Let’s gain victory through practicing virtue and moral standards in our daily life.