What is the Islamic view on anger management?

According to Western Psychology, if you become mad about something, you should get it off the chest and let it out. But, this is not the Islamic way. You will feel a lot better after you screamed at somebody or whatever. But the correct way, it is to control yourself. Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) said

“Don’t get angry.”[1]

You have to control your anger and bear the suffering of what people put you through. This is not a pleasant thing to do but it is the way to Paradise. For us to become better Muslims, to become the Muslims who earn Paradise, we have to deal with this reality. We have to have Sabr. To further emphasize, Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) said,

“This world is a prison for a believer and paradise for disbeliever.”[2]

This is the full concept. It is prison for believer because he or she cannot let their desires to go wild and to do whatever they feel like doing. They have to control their desires. It is prison which they set for themselves. Whereas the disbeliever, doing anything they feel like doing .Allah describes Paradise for us saying “Enter paradise from wherever you wish.” For believers, that will be in next life but not in this life. If we are having whatever we wish, Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) is telling us “If we are having whatever we wish then we are in the paradise of the disbeliever.” Which is ultimately the hell, it will lead to Hell and that is where disbeliever ends up. So it means if we feel like we are doing whatever we feel like doing now, we are headed to hell. For us to realize, to grow and be a better Muslim, we have to come to this reality. We are not free to do everything we feel like doing. The reason is that we seek Paradise. We trade the freedom to do whatever we wish in this life for that complete freedom in next life. In this life, even if you try to do everything you wish for, you can’t. The disbelievers who have money and everything, they still can’t do whatever they want to do. There are always things that they can’t to do. This is where they end in corruption and they are destroying their whole life etc., because, there is no way and you can’t do all.

However, it is possible to do whatever you want to do in the next life. Everything is not possible in this world and we trade it for next life. We have to trade this to become better Muslims. If we don’t trade, we cannot become better Muslims. We may do just the basic, but if we are giving away to our desires, even our basic will be destroyed. We will be only going through ritual. Our basic will be ritualistic basic. We pray 5 times but we will be blowing away anything that praying is supposed to get. We fast and we will be the worst of people, most of the time. The pillars of Islam will become blind rituals. The reason is that we have now traded the freedom to do whatever we wish in this life, for the next life.

 References:

[1] [Saheeh al-Jaami’, 7374. Ibn Hijr attributed it to al-Tabaraani, see al-Fath 4/465]

[2] [Sahih Muslim 2956]