Scruples

O one afflicted with the sickness of scruples! Do you know what your scruples resemble? A calamity! The more importance they are given, the more they grow. If you give them no importance, they die away. If you see them as big, they grow bigger. If you see them as small, they grow smaller. If you fear them, they swell and make you ill. If you do not fear them, they are light and remain hidden. If you do not know their true nature, they persist and become established. While if you do know them and recognize them, they disappear. And so, I shall explain only Five Aspects which, of the many sorts of these calamitous scruples, are those which most frequently occur. Perhaps it may be curative for you and for me, for these scruples are such that ignorance invites them and knowledge repulses them. If you do not recognize them they come, if you do recognize them they go.

Doubt

Is that bad to involuntarily imagine evil?

O my dear friends which despairs at doubts and scruples! The association of ideas and imaginings, suppositions that occur to one are a sort of involuntary expression or depiction. If it arises from good and luminosity, the qualities of such a depiction and reality pass to an extent to its form and image. Like the sun’s light and heat pass to its image in a mirror. If the depiction is of something evil and dense, the qualities and decree of the original cannot pass to its form and spread to its image. For example, the reflected form in a mirror of something unclean and corrupt is neither unclean nor corrupt. Nor can a snake’s image bite.

As a consequence, to imagine unbelief is not unbelief, and to imagine abuse is not abuse. Particularly if it is involuntary and is a hypothetical assumption that occurs to one, it is altogether harmless. Since such things are involuntary associations of ideas, imaginings that occur to one without one’s consent, prohibitions do not concern them. However ugly and unclean a form they take, they are not ugly and unclean

By Bediuzzaman Said Nursi

Having scruples is kind of like having a conscience: your morals or scruples cause you to act in ways you think are right.