Lesson 1 of 6 · The moment before you snap
A prophet was angry, and the anger subsided
Three texts side by side at the start. The Qur'an records what Musa did while the anger was still on him, in physical detail and without softening any of it: he threw the tablets down and seized his brother by the hair. Then, in the same sura, it records the anger abating and the same man picking the tablets back up.
The useful thing is the order. The action that could be lived with came after the subsiding, and the subsiding is described as something that happened rather than as something he decided.
The third is the most quoted advice on this subject and it needs handling with care. Read as an instruction not to have an emotion it is not achievable, and it lands on the reader as a condemnation. What it can and cannot mean is not left to us to guess at. Ibn Qudamah al-Maqdisi states the aim of the whole discipline plainly in Mukhtasar Minhaj al-Qasidin.
فاعلم أنه ليس المقصود قمع هذه الصفات بالكلية، وإنما المطلوب من الرياضة رد الشهوة إلى الاعتدال الذي هو وسط بين الإفراط والتفريط، وأما قمعها بالكلية فلا
Our rendering: know that the aim is not to crush these traits entirely; what is sought from the training is to return the appetite to the moderation that is a mean between excess and deficiency, but as for crushing it entirely, no.
Where scholars read the instruction differently in a particular case, that is theirs to settle and not ours.
Qur’an and Sunnah
The Qur'an records what Musa did while the anger was still on him, in physical detail and without softening any of it.
وَلَمَّا رَجَعَ مُوسَىٰٓ إِلَىٰ قَوۡمِهِۦ غَضۡبَٰنَ أَسِفࣰ ا قَالَ بِئۡسَمَا خَلَفۡتُمُونِي مِنۢ بَعۡدِيٓۖ أَعَجِلۡتُمۡ أَمۡرَ رَبِّكُمۡۖ وَأَلۡقَى ٱلۡأَلۡوَاحَ وَأَخَذَ بِرَأۡسِ أَخِيهِ يَجُرُّهُۥٓ إِلَيۡهِۚ قَالَ ٱبۡنَ أُمَّ إِنَّ ٱلۡقَوۡمَ ٱسۡتَضۡعَفُونِي وَكَادُواْ يَقۡتُلُونَنِي فَلَا تُشۡمِتۡ بِيَ ٱلۡأَعۡدَآءَ وَلَا تَجۡعَلۡنِي مَعَ ٱلۡقَوۡمِ ٱلظَّٰلِمِينَ
On his return to his people, angry and aggrieved, Moses said, ‘How foul and evil is what you have done in my absence! Were you so keen to bring your Lord’s judgement forward?’ He threw the tablets down and seized his brother by the hair, pulling him towards him. Aaron said, ‘Son of my mother, these people overpowered me! They almost killed me! Do not give my enemies reason to rejoice! Do not include me with these evildoers!’
Qur’an 7:150
And then, in the same sura, the anger abating and the same man picking the tablets back up. The useful thing is the order. The action that could be lived with came after the subsiding, and the subsiding is described as something that happened rather than as something he decided.
وَلَمَّا سَكَتَ عَن مُّوسَى ٱلۡغَضَبُ أَخَذَ ٱلۡأَلۡوَاحَۖ وَفِي نُسۡخَتِهَا هُدࣰ ى وَرَحۡمَةࣱ لِّلَّذِينَ هُمۡ لِرَبِّهِمۡ يَرۡهَبُونَ
When Moses’ anger abated, he picked up the Tablets, on which were inscribed guidance and mercy for those who stood in awe of their Lord
Qur’an 7:154
The most quoted advice on the subject, and it needs handling with care, because read as an instruction not to have an emotion it is not achievable and lands as a condemnation. The reading here is Ibn Qudamah's rather than a guess, and where scholars read the instruction differently in a particular case, that is theirs to settle and not ours.
Narrated Abu Huraira:A man said to the Prophet (ﷺ) , "Advise me! "The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "Do not become angry and furious." The man asked (the same) again and again, and the Prophet (ﷺ) said in each case, "Do not become angry and furious
Sahih al-Bukhari 6116graded sound, sahihaynthe Arabic and its grading
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.