notifications_active Weekly Meshkat-e Noor Session: Thursdays at 20:30 at Haj Reza Mosque
What is a habit?
1- Is it good to make a habit of doing good?
2- How can we tell whether our actions arise from habit or from love?
For example, how can we know whether we pray out of habit?
Making a habit of doing good is praiseworthy when it means being steadfast in one’s actions and cultivating good qualities. But repeating an action without feeling its sweetness or acting with intention is blameworthy. To keep repeated acts of worship alive, renew your intention and approach each one with a sense of freshness. The best worship is to overcome habit, and changing our habits makes acts of obedience easier.
If by “habit” we mean a steady practice and the lasting presence of a virtuous quality until it becomes ingrained, then habit is always praiseworthy. But if it means repeating a good deed without feeling its sweetness, without willing it, and without a noble intention, then it is blameworthy.
With every repeated act, the intention must be renewed, illuminated and refined. An act that rises toward God is one performed with love and eagerness, with intention, yearning and desire. Without these qualities, a repeated act is lifeless and empty of meaning.
Each time a repeated act is begun, it should feel as fresh and new as it did at the outset; otherwise, it becomes an unthinking habit.
With each repetition, an act should grow in beauty; otherwise, it will become a bad habit.
Acts that cannot be abandoned, or whose abandonment would be sinful, may be performed merely to discharge an obligation—and then they are an unwelcome habit. But if those same acts are done with love and eagerness, they become the most beautiful and praiseworthy of deeds.
Bad habits taint and entangle a person’s character, intentions and actions, making them take on the very color of those habits!
العاده عدو متملک .
Habit is an enemy that takes a person captive.
العاده عدو متملک .
Habit is an enemy that takes a person captive.
العادات قاهرات ، فمن اعتاد شیئا فی سره و خلواته، فضحه فی علانیته و عند الملأ .
Habits are overpowering: whoever becomes accustomed to something in secret and in solitude will be exposed by it in public, before everyone.
أفضل العباده غلبه العاده .
The finest act of worship is to overcome habit.
بغلبه العادات الوصول إلى أشرف المقامات .
It is by overcoming habits that one can attain the highest stations.
The hadiths concerning the changing of habits affirm the value of good habits and the transformation of bad ones into virtuous habits.
غیروا العادات تسهل علیکم الطاعات .
Change your habits, and acts of obedience will become easier for you.
Habits formed with insight are virtuous, growth-giving, illuminating and spiritually elevating. Good habits formed without insight are still good, but they are like a tree that bears little or no fruit, or a flower without fragrance, flavor or sweetness.
الخیر عاده .
Goodness is a habit.
خیر لنفسک من کل خلق أحسنه ؛ فإن الخیر عاده ،تجنب من کل خلق أسوأه ، و جاهد نفسک على تجنبه ؛ فإن الشر لجاجه .
Choose the finest quality from among every kind of character for yourself, for goodness is a habit. Keep away from the worst in every kind of character, and strive against your lower self to avoid it, for evil is stubborn.
کفى بفعل الخیر حسن عاده .
It is enough that doing good becomes a virtuous habit.
عاده الإحسان ماده الإمکان .
The habit of doing good is the essence of one’s capacity [to attain one’s aims or to earn standing and esteem among people].
عود نفسک الجمیل ؛ فإنه یجمل عنک الاحدوثه ، و یجزل لک المثوبه .
Accustom yourself to virtuous deeds and qualities: they will make your name well spoken of and increase your reward.
عود نفسک حسن النیه و جمیل المقصد ، تدرک فی مباغیک النجاح .
Accustom yourself to good intentions and noble aims, and you will succeed in attaining what you seek.