On Good Character, Kindness and Anger

“A bedouin came to the Messenger of Allah (ṣ) and said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, teach me one thing, for I am a man who journeys [regularly] and I stay in the desert.’ He said, ‘Do not get angry.’ The bedouin found that to be too trivial, so he returned to the Prophet (ṣ) and said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, teach me one thing, for I am a man who journeys [regularly] and I stay in the desert.’ So the Prophet (ṣ) said to him, ‘Do not get angry.’ The bedouin took that to be trivial [advice] so he returned once more and repeated his request. So the Messenger of Allah (ṣ) answered him [in the same way]. The man thought to himself, ‘I will not ask about anything else after this. I understand that he has advised me and warned me not to accuse [anyone] falsely when I get angry, and not to kill [or fight with anyone] when I get angry.’” Abū ʿAbdillāh (a) said, “Anger is the key to all evil.” And he said, “Iblīs used to be with the angels and the angels considered him to be one of them, yet in the knowledge of Allah he was not one of them. When the command to prostrate before Ādam was issued, he was filled with prejudice and anger, so Allah brought out what he held within himself of prejudice and anger.”

‘Allah, to Whom belong might and majesty, revealed to His Prophet, Dāwūd (a), “When My servant remembers Me in his anger [and thereby restrains it], I remember him on the Day of Resurrection in front of all My creation, and I do not cause him to perish along with that which I annihilate.”’”