When one says 'cruel' many people see this characteristic very remote from themselves. But in daily life 'cruelty' manifests itself in many behaviors that one does not attribute to himself.

Cruelty is a behavioral defect that is highly widespread in the societies of ignorance. Starting from their childhood, people are encouraged to be "selfish and to protect their own interests above all". They are made to believe that there are some "realities of life" and thus to survive, they should be cruel and merciless.

As a result of this, people involuntarily start to live intensely in the philosophy of cruelty in secret. When asked, they of course would never "accept themselves to be cruel"; neither would "they ever approve another to behave cruel towards them". However the reflections of this wrong point of view which deeply affects their personalities manifest themselves in the majority of their behaviors all through their lives.

When the word "cruel" is pronounced, most people envisage "a human model that is very cruel, with a tendency to persecute people, who does not think or care about anyone but himself, who enjoy deliberately doing harm and damaging others". For that reason when someone says "you are very cruel" to them, they react severely and instantly refuse this criticism.

However, if a person thinks more deeply on this ascription, he would be able to see the traces of the philosophy of cruelty in some aspects of his personality and his behaviors.

One of the most important reasons of this is that the lower self of man is created with a tendency towards cruelty.The lower self is selfish and self-interested, and would want to love himself the most and is very much determined to defend his own interests. And the lower self strives to encourage man to such evils ceaselessly and without surrendering until the end of his life.

Consequently man can only restrain these negative desires in his lower self, by using his conscience. However for this to happen, one has to determine the flaws in his lower self well and make a good analysis about when and where these feelings surface. And for him to be able to do that, he should really want to train his lower self and get rid of these bad habits.

That is because if a person is not eager for such training, then he will take precautions that would only deceive and relieve him. If he avoids identifying and accepting his illnesses, treating those would never be possible.

For that reason, a person should abstain from an approach that refuses the criticism of "cruelty" from the very start. On the contrary, he should start training his lower self by accepting that "he definitely has this feature".

Following this, what should be done is to make "a good definition of cruelty". Of course in society, "there are people who live in cruelty in uppermost level". These people "who commit murder without hesitation, who commit mass slaughters, who see no harm in stealing from hungry and poor helpless orphans, who do not abstain from persecuting and patronizing elders and children and who adopt many similar abnormal attitudes" and those really do have a cruel soul.

Of course it is never possible for a faithful person to be furious, with a dark soul and a rusty conscience to this extent. One of the most important characteristics of a Muslim is the profound fear of Allah he feels. A Muslim would be ashamed of knowingly adopting a manner that Allah would not like and he would seek shelter in Allah and would definitely do whatever he can to train himself.

For that reason, when talking about "cruelty" in a Muslim, such extreme behavioral defects would never be seen. And they never live this as a moral defect that rules all their lives.

However, Muslims too can make mistakes unintentionally; they can forget and make a mistake; they can be taken unawares and abide by their lower selves. Or they may have some flaws because they have never thought upon that before and have not trained themselves because they have not noticed that flaw in their lower selves yet. The "cruelty" that can be seen in a Muslim would thus be within these limits.

Furthermore, the word cruel of course defines a moral defect with a very wide meaning. If this word is used about Muslims, it of course is not used in the full meaning of the word. Only the part of cruelty that reflects on some certain manners and a certain point of view is meant. The reason why this word is preferred is to understand the matter and to widen the horizon of thought. It is to break accustomedness; to obtain new understanding by evaluating the same behavioral defects with a different word. Or else doubtlessly a Muslim -no matter what flaws he might have- is the world's best mannered person. And of course is far removed from the understanding of "cruelty" in the ignorant societies.

The manners that might be observed in a Muslim and that might be defined with "cruelty" do not cover the 24 hours of a Muslim. These are manners that emerge as shortcomings and would be instantly removed and cleaned if he is to fear Allah more and use his conscience more.

For instance sometimes manners like not taking care of someone who is in need; not responding kindly to a nice courtesy done with good intentions; not responding to a beautiful compliment with the same honoring manner; to be indifferent towards a person asking for help; pretending not to hear a beautiful word or pretending not to see a beautiful manner; to deliberately avoid complimenting a person; to stay indifferent about a situation which would normally invoke compassion; to adopt a manner determined not to forgive a person, are signs which show that person is inclined to cruelty.

Another type of cruelty which is widespread among people is "the cruelty of women". In the societies of ignorance, most women do not flinch from adopting cruel manners towards each other because they approach each other with feelings of competition, jealousy, contention and with the aim of forging ahead. Whatever they think that would forge them ahead; with a cruel determination on that matter, they would resort to manners that would crush and eliminate their rivals and that would cause them fall into disfavor and thus prevent them to be on their way. And each of those manners is a type of "cruelty".

Even if they are friends with each other, they would not flinch from resorting to such methods when they feel the need to outrival the other. When a friend of theirs wears a very beautiful dress or a beautiful hairstyle, she might deliberately overlook that. She might either avoid paying any compliment or might pay some covert compliments that would cause the other side to feel a suspicion, to be restless or that would make her have negative opinions. What's more sometimes they might deliberately give information on the exact opposite of the truth. For instance for something that suits perfectly well they might deliberately say "it didn't look good at all", or for something that does not suit well at all, they might say "it suits you perfectly" and mislead that person. Instead of correcting something that is not good, they might cause the other to think that it is very good. While talking about them in their absence, instead of using a language that would make the others love her and like her more; they might use a wording that would put themselves on the spot and deviously cause the formation of negative thoughts about the other person. When they are planning to go somewhere together, they would secretly be pleased with the other person, who they see as a rival or feel jealous about, being late. Sometimes, to cause that, they might even not hesitate to give wrong information to that person deliberately. These and similar other manners are examples of "cruel" manners.

As it would be clearly understood from these examples, cruelty might actually manifest itself in manners that people do not expect or do not think much on. Cruelty is a state of mind. Consequently it would not be possible for a person to cleanse these cruel aspects of his soul only by making analysis like "which day, where and what kind of a speech did this surface". One should cleanse this philosophy completely and fundamentally from his soul. Then there would be no need to make such determinations on manners one by one.

A person should think about how real and sincere fear of Allah should be. People around might not be aware of those stealthily and skillfully planned moves and tricks. And those might seemingly give results that would nourish the person's interests. But Allah knows the inner face of all these. Allah knows with which intention a person said which word and with what kind of a cruel state of mind one is in towards which person. If there is stealth hidden underneath manners that one would evaluate as compassion and mercy from the outside, Allah sees all these with all clarity.

Consequently fear of Allah is the way to be saved from cruelty, just like it is the way to be saved from everything. A person who fears Allah would abstain from a wrong behavior, because he would see it sufficient that Allah knows about it. He would never ever do something, he is aware that would be a crime in the Sight of Allah. He would feel very afraid from doing something wrong. He cannot risk being devoid of Allah's love for the sake of small interests. If his lower self is encouraging him towards an evil act, a Muslim, due to his fear from Allah, would instantly do the exact opposite of this. For instance if his lower self does not want to appraise a beautiful manner, a Muslim, because of his fear of Allah, would use his conscience and his will power and pay the most beautiful, most exaggerative compliments to that person so that he could defeat this evil in his lower self.

It is highly important for a Muslim to have this training and to cleanse his lower self from these cruel aspects. This is because good morality is hidden in details. The real morality of the Qur'an can only be experienced when a person perceives these details with his fear of Allah and acts conscientiously. For a person who assumes and lives by this morality, there is never need to resort to such intrigues as the people of ignorant societies for achieving results like being happy or to outcompete. If Allah sees the pure goodness and honesty in a person's heart, Allah would create for him the most beautiful and the best of everything in this world and in the Hereafter that he would be most content with.

Our Lord has revealed this truth in the Qur'an as follows:

 

Anyone who acts rightly, male or female, being a Mumin, We will give them a good life and We will recompense them according to the best of what they did.(Surat An-Nahl:97)

 

If Allah touches you with harm, none can remove it but Him. If He touches you with good, He has power over all things. (Surat An-An'am: 17)

 

If you ask them, ‘Who created the heavens and the earth? ’they will say, ‘Allah. ’Say: ‘So what do you think? If Allah desires harm for me, can those you call upon besides Allah remove His harm? Or if He desires mercy for me, can they withhold His mercy?’Say: ‘Allah is enough for me. All those who truly trust put their trust in Him.’ (Surat Az-Zumar: 38)