[3] Excerpts from The Dispraise of [Unrestrained Desires]- By Imaam Ibnul Jawzi [rahimahullaah]

In The Name of Allaah, The Most Merciful, The Bestower of Mercy

Imaam Ibnul Jawzi [rahimahullaah] said:

A sensible person should know that those who are addicted to lowly desires reach a state in which they no longer enjoy themselves, but at the same time they are unable to abandon those desires, because it becomes as if it is a necessity of life. And due to this, you’ll find that alcoholics and sex addicts do not even enjoy a tenth of those desires, but they put themselves in a perilous situation that compels them to keep on returning to the act. However, if- based on clear-sightedness- the [false] beautification of those lowly desires ceased, a person will realise that he [or she] has exposed  himself [or herself] to some ruin that is contrary to wellbeing- a situation of grief instead of happiness and [exposed] to pain, whilst seeking after pleasure; so, he [or she] resembles an animal that was led to a trap- neither reached the thing that was utilised to lure it into the trap nor is it able to escape.

Next post InShaaAllaah: Seven ways to protect oneself from being trapped in lowly desires

Dhammul Hawaa’ Page 36-37. abridged & slightly paraphrased