Tom Facchine – Higher Self vs. Lower Self

			So Allah subhanaw taala, you know, he chose specifically prophets to guide us. And that's something
that a lot of people lose sight of the significance of. If Allah wanted to, he could have guided us
in a lot of different ways he could have given us dreams, he could have given every single
individual kind of like, inspiration, he could have sent down a book from the sky. But he
specifically chose prophets main, our main source of guidance as the prophets. And one of the
reasons there's a significant is because if the revelation had been given to us, as individuals,
each one of us through dreams through inspiration, it's really difficult to distinguish between what
		

			is kind of your best self, or what's your Higher Self calling you to do. And what's your lower self
or your base self or your ego calling you to do. And many scholars talk about this, and that they
mentioned a couple of ways for how to try to distinguish between those two kinds of influences. So
one of the things has to do with or one of the ways you can tell has to do with
		

			gratification, right instant gratification versus delayed gratification. If you're kind of thinking
about getting a payback right away, maybe this thing is going to give you what you want right away,
then it's very likely that this sort of motivation is from the lower self or the ego. Because the
higher self is going to tend to delayed gratification, something where you've got to put in the
work, it's going to take time, it's going to take patience, but the payoff is down the road.
		

			Another way that you can distinguish between these two things is that the higher self is able to
weigh the pros and cons, right. Because in real life, most of the time, it's not just clear black
and white, one way is the best way and the other ways to absolute trash, that's usually it's a mixed
bag. So the higher self, something where you're kind of soberly looking at a situation,
		

			you're going to be able to recognize it's like, well, this option has good things about it. And it
also has bad things about it. And this other option, yeah, there's some bad things, but there's a
lot of good. Whereas when the lower self or the ego calls you to do something, it's like you forget
that the bad exists, you know, you can only see the positives, you're blinded to any possibility
that there's going to be any sort of negative thing. And then you even tell yourself, it's like, oh,
if I get this thing, and then things that don't even make sense, it's like this is going to be
better. And that's going to be better, I'm going to feel this way and whatever. And then how you can
		

			tell this is the shaytaan is because once you actually do that thing, then you're going to
experience some negative consequences. And it's going to hit you like a train. It's like, where did
this come from? I had no, I have no idea this was going to happen in that way. That's because it's
from the shaytaan. Anna's from the neffs.
		

			Another way you can distinguish between the two is whether you're kind of assumptions are based off
of proof or not. So the base cell for the shaytaan or the lower self, it's not going to base your
assessment of the situation on proof or evidence, it's going to be like, well, if this happens, and
if that happens, and if you're going to be stacking your What if What if what ifs to the point where
the situation that you're thinking about is like so unlikely to happen. But you really just kind of
like using your wishful thinking to convince yourself that it's going to be okay. Whereas the higher
self, the self that is inclined to truth and obedience is going to be able to back up their sort of
		

			assessment of the situation with proof. And to be able to say, either empirical proof like, well,
I'm looking at this other individual, and they do something similar. And this is how it turned out
for them. So I'm going to try to do something similar, or this is from the Koran, or this is
scientifically proven or logical or et cetera, et cetera.
		

			And one of the final ways, one of the final ways, how you can distinguish between these two
influences the influence of the higher self, and the influence of the lower self is
		

			kind of what's the feedback you're getting from those people around you? Right? So it's the Shara or
shorter, you know, trying to ask other people their opinion and for their feedback is something
that's very, very important in our religion. I will write about the Alon who said that nobody sought
other people's opinions more than the prophets of Allah, Allah He was. And so if you've got trusted
people in your life, and you're asking them as like, hey, what do you think about this? Or what do
you think I should do here? And every single person or the majority of the people are giving you
feedback.
		

			like, Nah, don't do it. It's not a good idea. No, you're gonna regret it, it's now and you, you find
yourself like, oh, I don't want to listen to them, I want to keep on doing it anyway, then you got
to realize that this is the lower self, this is the ego. This is the shaytaan. That's, you know,
inciting you to go down this course. Where as whereas, in the opposite scenario, if you're skeptical
of it, you're like, Well, this is what I want to do, but I'm not really sure. And then your trusted
advisors are giving you the feedback. It's like, yeah, you know what, that is a really good idea.
No, you should definitely do that. You kind of get this kind of consensus around you that this is
		

			what you should do, then you can pretty much be sure that this is the higher self this is the self
that is trying to aspire to truth and to obedience that is guiding your way.