The Art of Untying Psychological Knots (as in the Quran)

The First Scene: In Makkah

They insulted them and harmed them in Makkah, until the Muslims came to feel pain at the sight of the Kaaba! How can we perform Hajj and ʿUmrah while we are in pain, seeing the places of torture and the corners of cruelty!? And when Allah knew what was in their souls, He said to them:

(And complete the Hajj and ʿumrah for Allah) For you do not perform Hajj for the sake of people, nor for those who lived in the days of ignorance, nor for the idols you see, nor because of the insults that hurt you.. rather, you perform Hajj for the sake of Allah the Exalted.

He untied all their psychological knots and emotional associations with the one and only password:

Tawhid: making your intention in all your affairs purely for Allah alone,

not for the sake of those pains, nor for those memories

The word (Allah) alone erases everything, and after it everything shines.

And when the matter you are striving in is good, yet surrounded by things that are disliked and hard, the hardships should not turn you away from it.

For good things are worth bearing along with their hardships, as long as the intention is for Allah.

Ibn Ashur said:

"And they are the ones who barred the Muslims from it, so that the Muslims would not grow weary of the Hajj in which they had met the harm of the polytheists. So it was said to them: that does not hold you back from desiring Hajj and ʿUmrah, because you perform Hajj only for Allah, not for the sake of the polytheists; and because when a good and desirable thing is surrounded by what is disliked, that should not turn one away from it; rather, that obstacle must be removed from it, and among the ways of removing it is the fighting referred to in the preceding verses.

And it may be that the restriction in His saying (for Allah) is to purify the intention from what used to mingle with people's intentions in the days of ignorance, of seeking nearness to the idols"

The Second Scene: In Madinah

And when the Muslims were defeated at Uhud, and they passed by the mountain, the Prophet ﷺ said: Uhud, we love it and it loves us!

He did not say it as a mere historical remark; rather, he said it as a cure for those associations that had formed in their souls, or to prevent them from forming in later generations.

What we learn from this: using spoken phrases to untie knots and associations (any useful, meaningful phrase)

So the one who fell in the ice cream shop while the customers laughed at him should visit the shop again (courage in facing illusions and psychological fears), then say spoken phrases to himself:

Falling the first time doesn't mean you'll fall the second time!

It's okay, try again

As if these new customers know you and know what happened! Oh please, Mr. World-Famous! And other cheerful phrases until your soul grows stronger.

Likewise, making the intention and purpose purely for Allah the Exalted; for it is one of the greatest means of untying psychological associations.

— Shoroog Almehmadi