The 5 Steps Before an Action Becomes an Action - 207

Est. Read time: 5 min
Edition Number: 207
Adapted from: Tour of Tales: The Journey of Yusuf (AS)
Instructor: Mufti Abdul Wahab Waheed

Assalamu Alaykum,

Today’s gem is from Mufti Abdul Wahab Waheed’s course, Tour of Tales: The Journey of Yusuf (AS). In this gem, Mufti Abdul Wahab explains Imam Ghazali’s 5 steps before an action becomes an action.

Hope you enjoy!

We begin in the Name of Allah ﷻ, the Most Merciful and Compassionate,
We ask that He ﷻ sends Peace and Blessings upon our noble and beloved
Prophet Muhammad ﷺ

Imam Ghazali says there are 5 steps before an action becomes an action.

The first step is what is called Ham.

What is a ham? Ham is a passing thought. You're driving, and as you're driving, you see a billboard. You move ahead. What is it? A passing thought. It doesn't mean much. It comes and it goes.

Now, the next step—if you let that ham (passing thought) keep coming back—hence Allah ﷻ says:

It is a whisper that leaves and comes back. It leaves, then it comes back. It retreats, but it does not retreat to go away. It retreats so it can come back faster.

That's Shaytan. He only moves back to come back harder. And he may come in a different way; he may come through a different process. That's ham (passing thought).

If we let a ham (passing thought) sit, then it marinates. What's the next step? The next step is niyah (intention).

Now the thought sits. For the sake of example, let’s say it was something that looked nice. The thought comes to mind:

“Maybe I should go watch that.”

“Maybe I should consume that.”

And then it becomes a niyah (intention). Now it's not "maybe." Now it's, "I need to do this," because you let it sit.

One of the objectives of Shaytan is to make a person believe what they're doing is good. And that's the first sign of an addict—they believe they're not an addict because they think what they're doing is okay. So the next thing is, "I need to do it."

The third step is irada.

What is irada? Irada is where you start planning it. "Okay, on Friday night, I'm doing this." That’s irada. You put a plan in place. You write it down.

The fourth step is ‘azm.

‘Azm is conviction. Now, it doesn’t matter what happens; I will make sure to do this deed. That’s called ‘azm.

‘Azm is very scary when it comes to sins because that means, regardless of what takes place, you’re still wanting to do it.

That’s what the brothers of Yusuf did. They had ‘azm. They had so many barriers between them and getting rid of Yusuf but they didn’t stop.

And then after ‘azm the fifth step is amal, the action itself.

You know what’s scary about this? When we were younger, this process would take a long time. Like, “Yo, how are we going to convince our parents?” We’d have to come up with excuses:

"Don’t worry, it’s okay, Amiji. We’re going to Tahajjud on a random Friday."

It’s not Ramadan, though, but it’s okay; we’re doing Qiyam al-Layl.

It would take time. By the time these five steps would take place, it would be like two weeks. So even that deed doesn’t seem as satisfying anymore because it took so long.

But the scary point is, now those five steps take place instantaneously. Our phones and our environments give us instant access.

So it’s very scary. These are the five steps—for bad and for good.

For good as well, the thought comes. Let the thought sit. Don’t push it away; let it sit, let it marinate. Then make an intention. Then make a game plan. Then make conviction. And then you go ahead and do it.

May Allah ﷻ grant us tawfiq to do good.

أقول قولي هذا وأستغفر الله لي ولكم، فاستغفروه إنه هو الغفور الرحيم

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