The Hidden System Behind Desire, Dopamine and the Nafs - Shaykh Hamza Yusuf

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-06

[00:00:00]If you look, knowledge is what is necessary, but knowledge is not enough because you can know the truth and you don't follow it. So, what was the dua of the prophet? Allahumma arini al-haqqa haqqan warzuqni ittiba'ah. Show me the truth as truth cuz you can see the truth as falsehood and you can feel see falsehood as truth. Wa arini al-batila batila and show me falsehood as falsehood warzuqni ijtinabah and give me the ability to avoid it. This is tawfiq.

[00:00:31]So, knowledge is not enough. The knowledge has to be coupled with practice. We have to practice what we we learn. And so, if you look, all of the sharia according to our scholars, all of the sharia can be reduced to two fundamental principles.

[00:00:49]Anybody studied usul al-fiqh?

[00:00:52]What are they? Okay, those are the five or six universal, but what are the two Izz ibn Abd al-Salam and other usulis scholars reduced everything down to two fundamental principles in sharia. All of sharia is to do two things. Yeah, jalb al-maslaha, jalb al-maslaha wa dar' dar' al-mafsadah. So, it's to accrue good or benefit and to avoid harm. Jalb al-maslaha is the accrual of good.

[00:01:21]Yajlibu al-maslaha. What's good for you.

[00:01:23]Wa dar' al-mafsadah and and to avoid what's bad for you. Now, the way that we do that is through these two powers in our in our soul because the the shahwa the shahwa desires good by its nature and and and the quwwa ghadabiyyah is there to protect us from harm. That's the purpose of quwwa ghadabiyyah. It's to protect you from harm. That's why you get angry when you see wrongs done either to yourself or to others and you want to change it. So, you want to ward off the harm. The shahwa is to yash shahi. He desires what what he deems good. Now, the problem is if you don't have the arbitrator of the of the aql, if you don't have this arbitrator, then you're in trouble because afala ta'qilun? Don't you use your brains? The aql You have to have the aql. The aql is developed. It's not something we're born with it in development. It takes time. It develops physiologically, but it also develops spiritually. It develops intellectually.

[00:02:28]So, in physiology, how does it develop?

[00:02:31]Intellect. How does it develop physiologically? Huh? Okay, myelination, all these things, but how is that done?

[00:02:36]What what's what's the operative What's necessary for that to happen? Hm? What's that? Nourishment, right? Yeah. You have You have to eat the right foods. We know now that kids that lick lead, right? Get get They get neurological problems. We know that kids that are have malnutrition have lower intellectual abilities cuz they weren't nurtured. You have to nurture your intellect.

[00:02:59]You also have to nurture it intellectually.

[00:03:03]The intellect needs intellectual nourishment. Garbage in, garbage out. If you read pulp fiction, it's mush for your brain. It's junk food for your brain. Intellectually. If you read If you waste your time reading empty things right? Then you're stunting your intellectual growth, but it also needs spiritual nourishment.

[00:03:25]You have to give it spiritual nourishment through prayer.

[00:03:28]Through dhikr. This is how because the intellect the aql is another word for ruh. They're all related. The sirr, the qalb, the ruh, the fu'ad, these are all mutaradifat according to the scholars. These are all synonyms for the same thing. The aql is the ruh when it moves towards intelligibles.

[00:03:48]So, you call the aql when it's looking at the intelligibles, things that are known either palpably or known intellectually abstractly. Like we we know if I see a cow, I know the cow. My intellect understands that's a cow. If I if if if I if I If you talk to me about liberty my intellect understands that as an abstraction cuz you can't particularize liberty. You can show examples of freedom, but you can't show freedom.

[00:04:18]Nobody can point and say that's freedom.

[00:04:21]Cuz it'll always it'll always be a particular of freedom. So, the intellect can understand universals.

[00:04:27]Now, the way it The way What What Imam al-Ghazali said This is the fourth thing that he added.

[00:04:35]What he said was this was not enough to control these two. You had to have a fourth faculty and that faculty he called adlun.

[00:04:47]It's it's the faculty of balance because he said the intellect could go to extremes.

[00:04:59]And and these quwwas can definitely go to extremes. And so, he said each one of these three needs to have adala.

[00:05:07]And that is the operative mechanism within the soul that enables people to function healthfully, intelligently uh rationally, spiritually, spiritual well-being, all these things come from balance.

[00:05:25]Kadhālika ja'alna ja'alnakum ummatan wasatan. We made you a balanced ummah.

[00:05:31]The wasatiyyah is here.

[00:05:34]That's where the balance is cuz what's in here If this is balanced the behavior will be balanced. If this is imbalanced, the behavior will be imbalanced.

[00:05:44]And so, he said you had to have this balance and this is acquired through learning and through discipline and through riyada and it takes a long time.

[00:05:52]Most of us are given a lifetime to do this. Ibn al-Munkadir, who was the teacher of Imam Malik, said I fought my soul for 50 years. Jahadtu nafsi khamsina sanatan hatta istaqamat li until it was finally upright for me.

[00:06:10]That's Malik's teacher in Medina who was one of the greatest scholars in the history of Islam. He's one of Imam al-Bukhari's uh men.

[00:06:19]Ibn al-Munkadir said I fought my soul. Mujahadah. 50 years before it finally I got it under control.

[00:06:28]People There This is all ajalah.

[00:06:31]You know, this is hard work, but you have to be consistent. Just like exercising, you have to exercise. You have to do it every day or you fall apart.

[00:06:39]Right? Really?

[00:06:41]You have to eat right. You can't You can't just eat right sometimes.

[00:06:45]You have to eat right consistently if you want to be healthy. And this is this You have to have balance. And so, this is how it's done. Now, with these the the quwwa these two quwwa they have virtues.

[00:07:03]The the the shahwa or this concupiscible soul it's the the highest virtue of it is love.

[00:07:16]Right?

[00:07:18]And then it has the virtue of joy.

[00:07:21]Farah and hubb.

[00:07:23]Right?

[00:07:25]And then it also has this fear or sorry, desire.

[00:07:32]So, these are the three qualities.

[00:07:35]Now when it's under the control of balance through the intellect and the will through the aql and the irada, when it's under the control then this quwwa shahwaniyyah it loves the good for its own sake.

[00:07:53]It loves good for its own sake.

[00:07:55]It has joy when it obtains the good.

[00:08:04]That's why lil lil sa'imi farhatani.

[00:08:09]Farha hinama yuftiru. It's the farha when That's it's the joy of obtaining the good.

[00:08:16]Right? So, it has this joy and then it has desire when the good is absent.

[00:08:24]And this leads to himma.

[00:08:27]So, when the good is absent, it desires to get what's good.

[00:08:32]Now, what happens is these the intellect decides what's real goods.

[00:08:40]See, the aql is what tells you what are the real goods. What's really good for you.

[00:08:48]The prophet sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam said huffat al-jannatu bil-makarih.

[00:08:53]Paradise was surrounded by dislikeful things. Things that aren't pleasant.

[00:08:58]See, the aql What does the aql tell you?

[00:09:00]It tells you the cheesecake's bad for you.

[00:09:05]Right?

[00:09:06]That's what it tells you. The aql tells you that. It says, "You don't want to eat that.

[00:09:10]Empty calories.

[00:09:13]You're going to get sick. Rot your teeth. Right?" But the shahwa tells you, "No, no, no. I love that. That's good. Oh, I'm going to have such joy when I eat it. Oh, it's I don't have it yet, but I desire it."

[00:09:28]See, that's what it's doing. That's what the nafs is doing. The aql says, "Okay, every once in a while I'll reward you for being a good nafs."

[00:09:37]Right? So, [clears throat] maybe on the Eid I'll have a piece of cheesecake.

[00:09:42]Right?

[00:09:44]But the intellect This is This is the the the rule of the intellect.

[00:09:50]And so, these are This is important because what if if if the akal is absent in the decision-making process, then what happens is the nafs chooses apparent goods.

[00:10:11]It chooses pleasure.

[00:10:15]And this is why the prophet Sallallahu alayhi wasallam said, "Hufat an-naru bish-shahawat."

[00:10:22]This is going to take you to hell.

[00:10:24]"Hufat an-naru bish-shahawat."

[00:10:29]Drugs, right?

[00:10:32]People love to feel happy. Drugs make people feel happy.

[00:10:37]Right?

[00:10:40]You shouldn't know that.

[00:10:43]But people like drugs.

[00:10:45]It makes them feel happy. So, they go after them. They obtain the goods. They feel joy. When it's absent, they feel desire. So, they become addicted.

[00:10:54]Right?

[00:10:55]That's because drugs are an apparent good to the nafs. It looks like it's a good thing. It's going to help me deal with my troubles. Just have a highball, loosen up. Got so much stress at work.

[00:11:07]Right? This is the nafs speaking.

[00:11:10]But the akal says, "Khamr, it's bad." "Ummul khaba'ith."

[00:11:18]Right?

[00:11:19]So, "Asa an tahibbu shay'an wa huwa sharun lakum."

[00:11:23]Maybe you love a thing. Your nafs loves it. It's an apparent good, but it's evil for you. "Wa asa an takrahu shay'an wa huwa khayrun lakum." And maybe you dislike a thing, but it's good for you.

[00:11:34]"Wallahu ya'lamu wa antum la ta'lamun."

[00:11:36]Allah knows, so listen to what I'm saying with your akal. "Afala ta'qilun?"

[00:11:43]I'm giving you good advice.

[00:11:46]The akal knows. If you listen with your fitra, then you'll know you're right. It's not good for me. Khamr is not good.

[00:11:57]But they all a little bit of it is good in moderation. Allah says, "There's benefit in it."

[00:12:03]But the sinfulness, the harm is worse.

[00:12:06]"Maslaha wa mafsada." That's tarjih.

[00:12:10]Which one? And that's where the akal says, "I'd rather give up my moderate drinking, right, and prohibit alcohol if it's going to mean that people out there will get addicted won't get addicted and won't suffer who can't be moderate with it."

[00:12:28]Right? So, that's that's the that's a whole other way of thinking about this.

[00:12:34]So, that's the quwwa ash-shahwaniyyah.