What does the Quran say about desires?
In the previous blog I talked about temptations and desires that are mentioned in the Quran. I received many wonderful reflections.
Of the many replies, I saw that many people view their desires negatively.
“I hate my desires” they said.
In my study of the Quran, hawa (desire) is not negative by itself.
My friends:
Would God make our very nature negative?
There’s no original sin.
Allah guides our nature.
He wants us to be responsible.
To consume and earn ethically.
The problem is when:
1) Those desires become god:
“Have you seen the one who takes as their god their own desire?” [25:43]
2) We follow our desires or the desires of others over God and without knowledge:
“Those who follow their [own] desires without knowledge…for them there are no helpers.” [30:29] (and in 24 other verses)
What do you think? Share your reflections below!
Want to be able to read and understand the Quran without translations?
Allah (SWT) reminds us in the Quran that humans were not created to be slaves to culture, inclinations, or the desires of other humans.
“Have you seen him who takes his own desires as his god?”
(Surah Al-Furqan, 25:43)
When you live by borrowed dreams, you are not living as ‘Abdullah’ (servant of Allah). You are living as a slave to society, status, and fear.
True freedom is aligning your dreams with Allah’s purpose. Living in harmony with your role, your vision, and your legacy – not the fleeting praise of men.
I appreciate receiving this. It is very timely for me.
Desires can be controlled through self discipline and mastering of emotions. May Allah aid us in all we do cos a lot of resisting temptation surround us like an aura
I have drenched my self in so much desires.
All I do is to day dream because I lost someone dear in the process and that only bring warmth to my heart.
Reading the comment of self discipline and so on. Can’t help but think in this era where no one give a listening ear or checkup on each other. We have our self to wobble through and trying to hold firmly on not to slip again.
This duniya is hard , may Allah help each one of us to to stray to far for the feeling of why come back to your Rabb because you will be turned away. Aameen
Ameen Ameen
We need to be aware of our own self with these temptations around us God gives us trust to trust ourselves
Desires are real, and when you try to deny them, they grow more. For me i think prayers work and don’t go to places that can actualize your desires. Always surround your self who talk about the word of Allah and just keep praying you don’t fall into it. May Allah continue to forgive us and guide us
Instead of “Hate”, I would prefer to use the word “Control”.
Shukran for the brief explanation barakaallah
Desires are neither bad nor good.when we are in limits and in our lane than we live a happy and peaceful life.Each desire is fulfilled by All’ah SWT in a halal way.Its a nafs who control our mind and heart who speaks louder that we want more.. All’ah SWT has created everything for his believers & taught his believers to live a life .when we listen to Sharia and Sunnah of beloved prophet Muhammad SAW than we are in a good desire & when we forget our Sharia & Sunnah than we cross our limits & we are out of our lane in another way we can say that we destroy our world & akhirah,than these desires are bad.
Alhamdulillah, thanks for the letter. Now can you focus on how we can increase our self control and protect ourselves from fitnah? By the way that’s all
Assalamualaikum
desires in wordily possession is not harmful until there is extravagance for example food, clothes or maybe even cars or houses
1) desires are not bad by default.
2) implementing all of them are.
3) pursuing permissible one with permissible means are permissible.
4) impermissible are not allowed to be expressed.
Substitut our desire by a good desire like u like read so read islamic book
As-Salamu Aliakum in the Name of Allah the most High the most Merciful the most Beneficial Lord of the universe to whom all praise is truly forever due. I thank Allah for his blesses messenger Peace and blessings be upon Muhammad. You know I have always learned that my only one true desire is that of Allah to me a desire is whatever Allah wills for my life my desire is to see all of my Brothers and Sisters do well and that Allah bless there path. My desire is to see a chance in the way this world and the people in it learn to get a long with one another without all this hatred and bigotry. We must have those very same desires as our beloved prophet did peace and blessings be upon him it’s my desire to allow to do as he wills within my life and give me the desire to be a shining example for others around me desire can be whatever you allow Allah to show us may Allah bless each and every single one of you.
I think it is of vital importance to recognize that “desires” are not all inherent. You could watch an ad right now for a product and following that, desire something from the advertisement that you never desired before. Desires can be instilled within us. And one of the many ways “negative” desires get instilled are through satanic whispers. These are magnified further by giving attention to them – even if that attention is hatred.
Beloved Muhammad pbuh said “if you curse the devil, he becomes large as a house. If you seek refuge in God, the devil becomes as small as a fly.”
Do not give your negative desires further attention – rather search within yourself as to what good you really want. And give that your attention as you make dua for it, and work towards it.
I see desires as neutral until acted upon. Sometimes you desire a better job or better home for your family and I don’t see anything wrong with that as long as you’re grateful to Allah SwT for the job or house that you already do have what’s wrong in wanting better for your family. You have to be careful with desires though because even well intentioned desires can lead to sin. If I desire a new home for my family there’s nothing wrong, but if that desire was so strong that I decided to make haram money to buy that home then you have a problem. I think shaytan knows how strong desires can be so he uses them a lot for ill will so be careful out there to my ummah!! Jazakallah!
اَلْحَمْدُلِللّٰهْ, by the will of ﷲْسُبْحَانَهُوْوَتَعَالَى, the guidance from the Quraan you have shared is amazing. But the problem here is, the words. The translation of the aayats do not match properly with the appropriate translation taken from any Quran. If the translation is not appropriate or improper, people might get easily diverted to the wrong path. So, please take care of it before posting. For example: in this you have posted the translation of Surah Furqan Aayat 43 as: “Have you seen the one who takes as their god their own desire?” Which conveys the wrong meaning. The words god and desire should have their places interchanged.
I feel like desires were made for a reason, I think what the person meant by that was that they hated their evil desires. Stuff like lust. I completely understand the feeling. Whenever our iman isn’t as high as we want it, and we become more vulnerable to our desires, that’s among the difficult tests we hv to go through. But these desires come with a great opportunity for good deeds. See avoiding sin is also seen as a good deed, when we voluntarily, and strive to avoid a sin that we desire to do, we get rewarded for it. And if we replace it with something better, Allah replaces our sins with good deeds. I feel that it makes me see my desires as less of a burden, more like a challenge I have to defeat.
I think desires are important for a human being to go forward in life. But, when this desires take all the place in our hearts, makeing our brain “egoist” because of the overthinking of these desires and the importance of makeing these desires true, can unfourtenetly misguide us in our path and make us forget Allah SWT
If we don’t have desire rather good or bad they what shall we do? If one desires to move up in a company is it bad even if they gathered all the knowledge.
Desires….
Everyone has desires ,it is normal for an human being to have desires.But what the thing is all our desires should be under the boundary that are permitted by Allah .
Islam is not a tough religion but the teens and young take it to be tough, they leave all the things that are permitted for us by Allah and desires for what Allah has prohibited
To desire is not at all a topic to be noted but what is to be noted is what we desire
May Allah grant us all to have halal way of desires
Jazakhumullah,
Assalamu Alaikum
When I just reflected on my relationship with my base desires, I realized that indeed there seemed to be the tendency to “obey” the desires in a particular manner/means despite me being aware of the manner/means being unlawful. Ya Rabb, your Quran surah 25 ayah 43 has truly warned me. Ya Rabb, I seek your forgiveness.
Assalam alaykum warahmatullah wabarakatuh.
I once had desires but when they led me into temptation and I was almost giving up my dignity just to get what I really desired. Luckily Allah made me realize that what I was going to do was Haram since then I prayed to Allah to cut off my desires. What I now ask for is a necessity because things that you may think that you desire can sometimes be a test.
My desire was to have a fon and a caring life partner. But to get a fon the person that was to give it to me asked for sex in exchange. But when I refused, he told the people we were working with that we had actually had sex. Since then I no longer have the desire to have a new fon. And then I realized that when you leave a bad act Lillah, Allah grants you even better.
For the man I desired, when I needed him he was never there. So I stopped desiring earthly things.
What I need and look up to is Paradise.
Salam
I hate my Desires……in this topic …
Desires are not bad . Because … when we understand Islam … we turn desire into Allah and deed. Because… First Allah love then last final allah punish.so .. My opinion is desire is not bad. .. we change the desire bad.
1) first .. “Iblis used our desire as a tool .”
It is in 15:39=
Al-Hijr 15:39
قَالَ رَبِّ بِمَآ أَغْوَيْتَنِى لَأُزَيِّنَنَّ لَهُمْ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ وَلَأُغْوِيَنَّهُمْ أَجْمَعِينَ
[Iblees] said, “My Lord, because You have put me in error, I will surely make [disobedience] attractive to them [i.e., mankind] on earth, and I will mislead them all.
= Iblis used the word ATTRACTIVE. So , Iblis take bad things to show attractive.
2) desires are not bad. Because… When Ibrahim (PBUH) turn his desire into find their god. He is so curious to find their god . Because…he have high amount of desires to find a truth.(6:79)
Al-An’am 6:79
إِنِّى وَجَّهْتُ وَجْهِىَ لِلَّذِى فَطَرَ ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضَ حَنِيفًاۖ وَمَآ أَنَا۠ مِنَ ٱلْمُشْرِكِينَ
Indeed, I have turned my face [i.e., self] toward He who created the heavens and the earth, inclining toward truth, and I am not of those who associate others with Allāh.”
Allah mention
“Inclining towards truth “.. so .. we change the way of desires.
✨❤️
As a woman of academic pursuits, I have studied all faiths, teaching World Religion. I am mature and have lived a very adventurous life and wish to state this now.The present desire of humanity is screaming for attention through social media. Why? Vanity and selfishness have taken over peoples minds with the desire for a mythical number of followers. Princes, Royals, Politicians, Parents, Children all neglect former normal relationships and communication as this new desire for followers is out of control. I have overcome this and have purposefully limited my future followers to 50. This shows humility and wisdom and I pray I become a global leader to assist humanity to retain its true love. In days of old, we each probably had only 20 good friends plus family. I have dearly loved a UAE Prince, however I think he will die with his iPhone in his hand doing selfies. My love has died now, only Allah may revive this hope.
I recommend people embrace the desire for food, healthy physical relationships and the patterns of the past. I have written in truth.
Melody Grace Godwinsdatter
I love this question regarding desires. Speaking about things that are actually related to my life in Qur’an and can be applied to everyday life is very helpful in understanding what “deen” is and how I am living it.
I think desires are part of the human condition and is a great way of self-reflection, and like someone mentioned earlier, a way to become stronger in one’s convictions. Desires aren’t all bad. My desire to finish graduate school is an example; the desire to get married is another. Even if I had the desire to partake in medicinal drugs, this merely exposes a deeper need for something else; which I would not have known if it weren’t for the need to partake in something medicinal.
So, thank you for posting this question.
Wonderful reflection 🙂 You are absolutely correct – ‘desires‘ are not innately a bad thing. It is what we do with them that matters. Thanks for reading!
I have nothing to say about all these, since everythings has done normal by commenters. Desires is good especially if it’s for the good path.
I’m new learner of The Blessed Quran and I want to understand Allah’s advice to us as much as I can.
Desires are wonderful part of a man, it can greatly help him if he is in control of it and it can also destroy him if it controls him. When a desire becomes greater than Allah in a man’s heart, he is near to going astray. That’s a little from my point of view, assalamu alaykum
Masha allah very best (hadith)
…. may allah bless you
Assalaamualaikom
Desire is within us, with desire we live our life, however, we need to tame it with guidance from al Quran and hadith, to be contented and satisfy for what we have given by Allah. In other word it is our friend and enemy within us, thus we need to tame and guide the desire to be our companion, otherwise it will be our greatest test in our life where life can be miserable. So we always need al Quran as a guidance or road Map to Jannah if we follow, if we don’t than surely desire will lead you to hell. Mind or brain is our analytical to choose between right and wrong, if we don’t take al Quran as our guide then desire will lead us to choose…… Al Quran is for those who have brain and no al Quran for those who has no brainer. That’s the reason the mad people is exceptional and they live with desire to get them go on. In surah al Fajr ..Allah calls the contented desire enter into His paradise or heaven with the guidance of al Quran from Allah as mentioned in surah 2:2-3, Insha’Allah, Allah SWT knoweth all.
As salaamu ‘alaikum,
Do I understand correctly that desires themselves aren’t sinful, but to act on those desires is? The desire itself can be something that is haram, but if we control our nafs and not follow through with it, then there is no sin, is that correct?
Precisely, yes. We are not judged for having desires, as Allah (swt) created us with them. We are judged for the actions that may come from these desires.
Yes, of course, a human being can have desires, negative or positive, with the aims to achieve them. Whether they are achieved or not, they are determined by Allah and that is for a reason designed by the Creator. We will not achieve anything except what Allah permits.
Assalam alaikum Imam Adam.
The only desire we should have is the desire to please and serve Allah alone and only.
However we are all put to the test as was the first ever man put to the test. The positive side of this is that when shaitan “attacks” it is also an opportunity given to us to turn it into a good deed instead by not indulging in it.
The way I understand it is that when I see it coming I thank Allah for this test since it gives me the chance to earn rewards if I turn it down.
When the intention to do an evil comes around we should welcome it to better crush it because Allah wills to reward us for it.
May Allah make us among the righteous and May he accept our modest deeds. Ameen
Jazak Allahu Khairan.
Desires are something we all have. When I first saw this post in my email, my initial thought was “me too, I hate my desires”. But it’s important to know that Allah tests us with these to see if our desire to please him is stronger than worldly desires.
Yeah it’s hard to control. We get overtaken by what we see or what we see others doing. It’s important to know that even if we may have the intention to give in to these desires, refraining from them will give us a great reward.
May Allah keep us steadfast on the deen and keep us from giving in to this dunya
Desires are only negative when they are inclinations to things against what Allaah says are best for you… Submission is training your desires to be in coherence with what Allah wants for us