Professor: Mr. Panāhiyān
1-Subject: A person who is captured by lust has already surrendered to the desire for comfort
Perhaps, the first and most important instinctive desire of humans is seeking comfort. Enjoying pleasure and the lust for wealth and status (passions of finance, and states) are all in the next steps.
Comfort is the first natural human will. If someone knows their duties to comfort and seeking comfort_ especially in their childhood, adolescence, and early stages of youth_ they will know clearly what to do with lust.
If you manage to control your own comfort seeking, your lecherous behavior will be controlled. Whoever yields to lust means they haven’t solved their mental problems by seeking comfort. Also [it means,] they haven’t had the right attitude to your problems
2-The first duty of mothers is controlling children’s comfort-seeking
Mothers are expected to know, their first duty is controlling children’s comfort seeking. Sometimes, dear mothers treat their children as comfort seekers, in indulgent and casual ways! Hence, they will not be able to manage these comfort-seeking children in the future!
Usually, families, when they achieve some level of comfort, give free rein to their children to seek ease. However, a child who grows up seeking ease will never reach the heights of spirituality, even if they become a religious and faithful person. And if they study, they will never become a scholar.
Do you know why our lives have become disrupted? Because we have surrendered to ease-seeking and do not know how to achieve comfort. The problem lies in our inability to manage our desire for ease, which leads to us becoming increasingly discontent.
For example, someone who commits a sinful act, such as indulging in forbidden pleasures, seeks enjoyment. However, if they truly desire greater pleasure, they should refrain from sin, because indulging in forbidden pleasures diminishes their enjoyment of permissible ones. As a result, they do not fully experience the share of pleasure they could have had, and it torments them. To alleviate this discomfort, they pursue more forbidden ways to enjoy themselves, which causes further suffering. It starts a domino effect in which the further they go, the more their nerves become shattered. Do we, when promoting modesty and the concept of hijab, explain its connection to shattered nerves and living a more peaceful life?
So, if we want to achieve comfort, what should we do? Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) was asked: “What is the path to comfort?” He replied: “It is in opposing desires” (Where is the path to comfort? – Tuhaf al-Uqul, p. 370).
If you oppose your desires, you will live more comfortably. Opposing desires are the opposite of opposing God, and following desires contrast with following God. With even a slight sacrifice of comfort, a person draws closer to God by leaps and bounds.
Of course, we should manage our ease-seeking tendencies rather than completely eradicate them! Peace and comfort are the lost treasures of today’s humanity, the same humanity that ease-seeking has made unfortunate! This person is both ease-seeking and has lost their comfort because they do not know how to achieve true comfort.
Should human beings even pursue comfort at all? Does Islam advise, “Do not seek comfort”? The answer is: there is a reprehensible type of comfort and a praiseworthy type of comfort. Praiseworthy comfort is mostly spiritual and mental comfort, while reprehensible comfort is primarily (though not entirely) physical comfort and improper ease that results in misery. Islam not only does not oppose comfort but also provides guidance on how to achieve it. Because if you want to grow, you need to live more peacefully, since many hardships lead us away from religion!
In fact, a person should pursue comfort to better engage in servitude to God. The philosophy of praiseworthy and good comfort lies in this. There is a narration that states that if God does not favor someone, He entangles them so much in worldly affairs that they do not find the time for remembrance and supplication. (أَمْلَأْ قَلْبَکَ شُغُلًا بِالدُّنْیَا)
(I will fill your heart with preoccupation with the world – Al-Kafi, Volume 2, page 83).