And that is the secret of this world. If you remove love of dunya from your heart, the dunya is yours for the taking. You can have the dunya because it's in your hand and not in your heart
Hamza YusufRead
The weak are dominated by their ego, the wise dominate their ego, and the intelligent are in a constant struggle against their ego.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the relationship between ego and personal strength, wisdom, and intelligence.
In this quote, Hamza Yusuf emphasizes the differing ways that individuals interact with their ego. Those who are weak allow their ego to control them, leading to manipulation by pride and self-importance. Conversely, the wise actively seek to dominate their ego to attain greater understanding and humility, while the intelligent recognize the ongoing internal battle with their ego, striving for self-awareness and balance. This suggests a journey towards personal growth where overcoming or managing the ego plays a crucial role in one's development.
Themes
EgoWisdomIntelligencePersonal GrowthSelf-Awareness
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about self-improvement, one might quote this to illustrate personal growth.
More from Hamza Yusuf
All quotes βPeople say to you, 'you've changed', or something like that, well, I hope, for the sake of God, that you have changed, because I don't want to be the same person all my life. I want to be growing, I want to be expanding. I want to be changing. Because animate things change, inanimate things don&'t change. Dead things don't change. And the heart should be alive, it should be changing, it should be moving, it should be growing, its knowledge should be expanding.
Hamza YusufRead
Hypocrisy is wretched because the hypocrite says with his tongue what is not in his heart. He wrongs his tongue and oppresses his heart. But if the heart is sound, the condition of the tongue follows suit. We are commanded to be upright in speech, which is a gauge of the heart's state.
Hamza YusufRead
Islam is based on naql (texts) and βaql (intellect). Some people just have the texts β we call them naql-heads.
Hamza YusufRead
Opinion is not knowledge. You're entitled to your own opinion but you're not entitled to your own facts.
Hamza YusufRead
Why do we need to justify God's existence? He exists. We need to justify our own existence.
Hamza YusufRead
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