Adnan Oktar A9 TV; November 19th, 2015

Have a look at some people around you, at those who do not let anyone say a single word about themselves. They come up with an explanation to every single thing they are told. They do not even accept something that should certainly be criticized about. That kind of attitude would create heavy damage and cause a very significant problem in one's psyche. Look around you and you will see; but those who criticize themselves are very lenient. Such people are very stable and very consistent. You can see that around you as well. That is a miracle of the Qur'an.

If one does not criticize himself and sees himself as sufficient and above criticism, he would become insane. A Muslim should certainly criticize himself and have others criticize him. This is necessary for one's sanity or else one's mental health would be disrupted; his judgment and reasoning would be impaired. His foresight and perception would be blocked. Have a look at those around you, you will see. Avoiding criticisms would cause instability and would prevent one to be reasonable.

God has given very nice secrets that would keep one's mind sane. Before all else, one's commitment to God would keep away all immorality, all abnormality. Putting one's trust in God would take away the torment one does to himself. When he becomes patient, he would become friends with everyone around. When one is loyal, he would attain a personality everyone would love. When one criticizes himself, he keeps his sanity intact. When one is criticized by others, he becomes a rational, stable and loveable person.

Forgiveness is a characteristic God appreciates greatly. That is because revenge might give a lowly pleasure to one's soul, but forgiving is hard; I mean it [forgiveness] necessitates will-power and wisdom. That is because in forgiveness one does not achieve satisfaction, but revenge might bring satisfaction. That is why God takes forgiveness as a basis.

The human body tends to behave like an animal when left to its own devices; it will just want to eat and sleep, it will easily get scared and act selfishly. One should balance out that animalistic side by means of faith. One shouldn't allow oneself to act like an animal.

If one allows his lower self to take control, the lower self will start acting like an animal; it will act primitively like one.

If you told those [who are weak in faith] to remain sleepless for the sake of God, to serve Islam, they wouldn't do that; but if you told them that they would win a car if they waited standing up for days without any sleep, they would do it without hesitation. This shows the tendency of the inner self to assume an animalistic, dishonorable, low character.

Fiercely defending one's own desires is a mental illness. One should get a grip on himself in this situation and take refuge in God. He should ask himself, "How did I turn into such an abnormal person?" He should listen to what others have to say in a reasonable manner. A Muslim is open to 'al-amr bi-l-maʿrūf wa-n-nahy ʿani-l-munkar' (enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong). Therefore, he becomes wiser with ease.

How can something be considered right if the opposite of it does not exist? How will we be tried if satan and the lower-self do not exist? How can we recognize what is beautiful, what is right? It is impossible. It is impossible to achieve any higher love, any higher wisdom in this way. Then we would be no different than a child, we would not be able to develop.

Of course, a believer should be open to advice. A Muslim might make a mistake, there is nothing wrong with this but he should always pay heed to advice of others: In other words, a Muslim shouldn't be arrogant, disrespectful and snobbish, right? Even though he won't follow the advice, he should politely listen to it within the limits of the Qur'an and say, "I will try hard to do so."

It is quite natural for a Muslim to make a mistake. People should not be afraid of making mistakes. Even if it is a big mistake, it can be solved by giving advice. But reacting angrily to advice is not normal. You could say, "Okay, I will consider this. May God bless you. I will try my best." That's it. But angry overreaction to advice is abnormal behavior.

"... Enjoin the right, and forbid the " this is the duty of a Muslim. Muslims criticize Muslims, appreciate each other's nice characteristics and remind them of their shortcomings.

Man is unbridled in seeing himself as self-sufficient. One should not see himself as self-sufficient. He should constantly criticize himself. He should criticize himself openly and thank those who criticize him. He should say, “May God be pleased with you”.

Blind, angry criticism is very wrong. Criticism is necessary, but it should be done to help, not to humiliate.

Criticism should always be constructive and include a solution. It’s important to point to solutions that will help people.

Self-criticism is crucial to prevent arrogance. If one thinks of himself as immune to mistakes, he’s already fallen into satan’s trap; self-criticism is a remedy. God forbid, those who refrain from it will only hurt themselves.

One criticizes those he loves. Friends criticize; the criticisms coming from a friend might feel bitter, but they are like medicine.

Many people give in their lower-selves and the pressure of the satan but forget about love. Without love, the body collapses, sanity regresses, foresight and perception would be lost.

A Muslim’s rank in Heaven raises with the intellectual struggle he gives against hypocrites, against satan and his lower-self.

The lower self, jealousy and egocentricity make one’s body do abnormal acts eventually. People assume that nothing bad will happen if one follows his lower self; actually lots of things happen. It would ruin a man. The lower self is the propelling force in those who commit suicide. It drives them mad and drags them into committing suicide. They also commit murders because they abide by their lower selves.

God gives one aggressive, abnormal wrong feelings to the lower self, but He also shows the ways to be protected against those with the verses of the Qur’an. The whole system of trial is founded upon that anyways. People need to recognize this highly dangerous threat and be alerted and be careful against it. We are to look for the acts that please God the most.

It is not possible to carry out possitive studies with one’s lower self. Lower selves cannot be exonerated. It is a force that is active in a person’s soul constantly commanding evil.

The most important thing for a Muslim is to have a strong faith. Weakness in faith ruins people. Weakness of faith is the biggest problem in the world. At least 70% of the Qur'an refers to weakness of faith and to the importance of the facts leading to faith.

With weakness of faith comes weakness in morality. That is because one learns good morality from the Qur'an. Without Islam, one would not try to be patient. He would say, 'Why should I be patient?' 'Why should I be generous? Why should I self-sacrificing?' And that would ruin a person in every aspect.

When the Qur'an is carefully studied, we see that all of the perfect rules that could make it possible to live in this world like it is Heaven are very thoroughly covered. That is to say, when the Qur'an is practiced completely, individuals lead a perfect life. They become very stable and societies lead a very perfect life as well.