December 19, 2010
COPING WITH FEAR AND GRIEF: An Islamic Approach [Part Two]
Section: WRITINGS | 250 reads
(33)
Divine Promise of Better Times
When you reach that stage of true submission to God and his supreme will, you will recall at every adversity the divine promise of reprieve and good times that was made to you in the Qur’an.
You would know and believe that bad times, no matter how bad they may be, cannot last forever.
Even in the midst of adversity, your morale will be high, for you will be looking forward to God fulfilling his promise to you of reprieve and better times.
Yes, the Qur’an came to you – personally – whoever you are and wherever you may be, even though it was revealed to your beloved messenger of God, Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, 1400 years ago in Arabia.
And in that Qur’an is the eternal promise that God made to everyone who reads the Qur’an and believes in it. This includes you, if you happen to be one of those who read the Qur’an and believe in it.
A promise that is couched in the most emphatic terms and that is repeated to lend it further emphasis.
It says:
Fa Inna Ma’al Usri Yusran, Inna
Ma’al Usri Yusra (Soorah Inshiraah).
Which in paraphrase means:
Surely, with difficulty comes ease.
Surely, with difficulty comes ease (94:5,6).
Just as you would also recall Almighty Allah saying elsewhere in the Qur’an:
Sa-Yaj’alullahu Ba’da Usrin Yusra
(Soorah At-Talaaq).
Which in paraphrase means:
Allah will soon make good times replace
bad times (65:7).
What kind of a Qur’an is this that makes such a clear and emphatic promise to people!
How can we, with this promise from God in our hands, let our lives be dominated by fear and grief, no matter what their source?
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Pulling it All Together
Now you know the true nature of grief as well as fear.
Now you also know their true source and origin.
You know and understand now who truly controls and manages them – as well as every iota of the world in which they occur.
You know whom to turn to in adversity and pain. You know who really has the power to grant you reprieve.
Just as you know who is with you all the time and who is truly ready, able and willing to help you.
And then, over and above all, you hold in your hands a promissory note from God – a divine promise of good times that are set to succeed bad times.
Once you have this knowledge, and once you fully believe, understand and internalize this knowledge, and once you come to terms with the true implications of this knowledge, you have conquered time – past as well as future.
You are now its master and no longer its slave.
You have attained liberation from grief about the past as well as from fear about the future.
Yours, thereafter, is a mind and soul in a state of rest – in tranquility. Yours is an existence in perfect equilibrium with the rest of the creation – with the divine will in the universe.
That means you are now a person at peace.
You are at peace with yourself.
You are at peace with the world in which you live.
And you are at peace with your creator.
You have gone where the long fingers of fear and grief cannot reach you.
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Individual Responsibility: The Imperative of Seeking Worldly Remedies
Yet, individual responsibility is one of Islam’s most fundamental teachings.
That means, in the midst of all your devotion to and connection with God, Islam also wants you to leave no stone unturned in the pursuit of worldly remedies for your worldly problems.
It is one of Islam’s most important imperatives or commands.
That means whenever you are faced with a problem, go out and try to find a solution for it – no matter what that problem may be and no matter how difficult a solution may appear.
Here is what Islam wants you to do in a situation like that:
(A) It wants you to face your fears and grief squarely.
(B) It wants you to look your problems in the eye.
(C) It wants you to identify their sources and origins.
(D) It wants you to analyze their causes and contributory factors.
(E) It wants you to set about addressing and remedying them as best as you can.
(F) It wants you to seek support from wherever and whatever sources you can.
(G) It wants you to go even to China, if you must, to find a solution for your problem.
That means Allah’s Deen wants you to explore every avenue and not rest till you find a remedy:
(A) Whether it is illness you are facing.
(B) Or a work-related problem.
(C) Whether it is the loss of a loved one you are grieving.
(D) Or the possible loss of a job or income source that you are afraid of.
From this point of view, there is one word that captures the essence of it all: empowerment.
That is what Islam does. It empowers and encourages every individual to tap the best potential within oneself and to utilize all the resources that are within one’s reach.
And then it connects that individual to the infinite power of Allah and to the vast resources of Allah’s creation.
How can someone so empowered and energized go wrong? Or feel inadequate or helpless?
Listen to what Allah’s Rasool, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, had to say on the question of illness and health – 1400 years ago.
Weren’t illness and health a major source of both grief and fear for much of humanity a thousand or 1500 years ago?
Aren’t they now – in the 21st Christian century, in the midst of all the progress that health sciences have made and in spite of all that human beings have done to conquer and control disease?
Listen to what Allah’s Rasool, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, had to say on this subject so long ago. Then tell me if that is not one of the clearest and strongest messages and pronouncements on this subject.
And if it is not also one of the most empowering and energizing ones – not only for Muslims, but also for the entire world.
There isn’t a disease on earth, said Allah’s messenger, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam,
(which I paraphrase here), for which Allah
did not also create a cure.
How much more clear-cut can it get?
And what does it tell us?
It tells us two things, does it not?
First of all, it tells every one of us that when illness comes, we must seek treatment and medication.
That is the first step toward building a community – and a world – whose members are highly health conscious at the individual level – at the micro level as it were.
Second, that Hadith is also telling our educators, scientists, health officials, leaders and financiers to work to find cures for whatever diseases may be prevalent in our midst – and in the world at large.
That Hadith is teaching the world the principle of proactivity in life. It is teaching Muslims – and non-Muslims as well – how to be proactive in life’s affairs.
How to think ahead and always be prepared!
And how to never lose hope and never give up!
It is showing them how not to sit around waiting for a remedy to show up at their doorstep but to go out and look for it actively.
If Islam had given the world nothing but this one Hadith, it would have put the world eternally in its debt.
That one Hadith, if Muslims only knew about it or understood it properly, is enough to make the Muslim community everywhere – the entire Muslim world – conquer disease.
And then add to it what the Qur’an and the Hadith have to say about good food – Halal and Tayyib food; about eating and drinking habits; about the ban on alcohol and narcotics; about cleanliness, hygiene and clean living; and about life style in general.
You have the ultimate winning formula to free you from your health-related fears, grief, worries and anxieties.
If Muslims followed these teachings, they would be the healthiest people in the world. They would be the leaders of the world on health issues.
This should cut down one of the major sources of fear, worry, anxiety and grief in this world, should it not?
So many of us run around giving speeches and holding conventions on how to change the world and solve its problems. Here is a 15-second solution to the health problems facing much of the world today – including the Muslim world.
It is by following this kind of a simple, direct, effective, sweeping and bare-bones approach that Allah’s Rasool, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, changed Allah’s world in less than 23 years.
And it is by abandoning this approach, by dissociating from it and by substituting it with all kinds of abstruse and complicated philosophies and methodologies that Muslims have allowed health-related issues and problems to become such a major source of fear and grief in their life.
Next Article: Four Words that Changed the World! All It Takes Is You!
Previous Article: COPING WITH FEAR AND GRIEF: An Islamic Approach [Part One]
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