Aslam

Passion, anger etc. are the soldiers of the devil and wisdom is the soldier of angels. When there is union of passion and wisdom, clash begins as one does not look at another with pleasure. They are opposed to each other and the difference between them is that of day and night or light and darkness.
Sexual passion remains strong in youth before perfection of intellect. The soldiers of the devil come forward at that time. He who is a solider of God has got his intellect shining. God says :
The devil said : I will destroy the children of Adam except a few.
If the intellect is firm, strong and perfect, its first duty is to control the sexual passion and greed and take the self towards divine service. This is the meaning of Tauba. There is not other meaning of Tauba except this. In other words, to control the passions and low 'desires of the self, to return from the paths of the devil and to walk in the path of God. There is no such man whose sexual passion does not appear before his intellect. The evils of the devil appear before the natures of the angels and the former sits right in heart before the latter. So it is the duty of every man to return from the evil tendencies. A poet says :

i Think not that Hinda alone is guilty of treachery.
Every chaste woman has got sin owing to her beauty.

COMPULSORY TAUBA'S SYSTEMATIC DESCRIPTIONS

Greed is engrained in human nature from birth. It is the natural passion of man and it is not possible to go against it. So whoever remains an infidel at the time of maturity, he should turn away from his infidelity. If he is a Muslim at the time of age and follows the Islam of his parents, he should understand the meaning of Islam and turn towards real Islam as the Islam of his parents without understanding brings him no good. This is very hard and difficult. Tauba is directly compulsory on every man in every condition as he is not free from sins of his bodily limbs.
There are traditions to show repentances and the wailings of the Prophets owing to their sins. If any man is free from sin, still he is not free from thoughts of sins. If he is free from thoughts of sins, he is not free from the machinations of the devil as many impure

16 TAUBA Vol-IV

toughts keep him forgetful of God. The object of Tauba is to return from sin. The Prophet said : The devil circles round my thoughts, for which I seek forgiveness to God seventy times.
When such is the condition of the Prophet, how is the condition of others?

Question: There is no doubt that the evil thoughts that cross in mind are harmful and to be free from them is the sign of perfection. Perfection is not compulsory according to Shariat and to return to perfection, Tauba is necessary. So what is the meaning that Tauba is compulsory under all circumstances?