Close the Open Doors!

On our journey towards handling the ‎problem of sexual desires that embitter the life of many Muslim ‎young men, let us discuss an important issue that will help you ‎release yourself from the captivity of sexual desires, namely, ‎"closing the open doors”.‎

Here, the words “open doors” stand for everything that is related to sexual‎ desire and sins, and for the things that can lure you to return to them once more. Hence, your sincere repentance and honest determination to abandon such sins requires making haste to close these doors, which include the satellite dish, internet, magazines, and other remnants of that past.
Taking this important decision requires a moment of truthfulness with yourself, because you must get rid of all that can take you back to your past, just as you have got rid of your past itself.

You must take the decision to leave the swamps of sin for the gardens of obedience and closeness to Allah The Exalted, like the one who killed a hundred people and then Allah admitted him to Paradise due to his sincere repentance.

Take the decision to get rid of everything that reminds you of the dismal past, and that supports and gives power to your devil over you.

These decisions require taking the following steps:

1- Tear up all the immoral magazines that you keep. Then remove the pictures that are hung on the walls of your room and replace them with posters of Ahadith and things that remind you of Allah. You could also put up pictures of natural scenery.
2- Destroy video tapes, CD's or films that you keep on your PC by deleting them, and replace them with religious or scientific lectures and materials.
3- Purify your PC from any pornographic sites and then force yourself not to return to these sites by installing anti-porn software on your PC to block any pornographic sites.
4- You must immediately sever your relationship/s, if you have any, and you must erase their phone numbers that you keep.

These steps will not be hard to take as long as you have a good intention and strong determination, as Ibn Al-Qayyim may Allah have mercy upon him said in Al-Fawaa’id,
“Whoever abandons habits for the sake of ‎other than Allah will surely face difficulty. However, ‎whoever abandons habits for the sake of Allah sincerely from his ‎heart; he will not find any difficulty in abandoning it except at first. (This initial difficulty) is to test if ‎one is sincere and truthful. If he endures this difficulty for a short time, it will turn ‎into pleasure. Ibn Sireen said, ‘I heard Shurayh swear by Allah; no slave of Allah abandons something for the sake of Allah and feels a sense of loss.’ It is said, ‘Whoever abandons anything for ‎the ‎sake of Allah, He will compensate him with what is better.’ ‎Of course, ‎compensation is of different kinds and the best is to ‎be ‎compensated by Allah with His love, and the heart’s tranquility, satisfaction, strength, activity, happiness, and contentment.”

Thus, be patient, because the sweetness of good health enables one to endure the bitterness of medicine.