An obsession for revenge is poison that flows through a diseased soul. The Crucified Ones in History is a book full of stories about revenge-seekers who inflicted harsh punishments on their enemies. What one realizes as one reads this book (which is probably what the author wants us to realize) is that killing their enemies was not enough to quench their thirst for revenge.
The irony that the author conveys is that the crucified person actually ceases to feel pain after the soul departs from his or her body. Meanwhile, the revenge-seeking killer will never find peace or happiness because the fire of revenge has enveloped, or rather taken over, his entire being.
The book relates the lives of some of the leaders of the Abbasids; they missed the opportunity of killing their rivals from the Umayyads simply because the latter group died before the former group took office. Still enraged, one of them would remove the corpse of his enemy from the grave and whip it or crucify it and then burn it. So understand this: the seekers of revenge will always feel more pain and misery than the objects of their revenge because they have lost both peace and serenity.
Enemies do not afflict the ignorant person nearly as much as the ignorant person afflicts himself.
“And when they meet you, they say, ‘We believe.’ But when they are alone, they bite the tips of their fingers at you in rage. Say: ‘Perish in your rage…'”
(Ali Imran 3: 119)
Pause To Reflect
When the believers are overcome by misfortune, only by repenting can they truly find a way out of their difficulties. Rather than looking outward, at extrinsic influences, the believers should search inward and recognize that they are blameworthy and deserve what has befallen them. Only when they reach this level of consciousness can they begin the process of correcting, or in some cases redressing, their errors, and repenting to Allah for past mistakes. When they take care of these inner matters, Allah will take care of their outer ones. These words might sound simple, but there are very few who put them into practice.
Source: Don’t Be Sad by Dr Ai’d al-Qarni
mymuslimin.com 
Leave a comment