Got Worries? Don't Worry: We Got Solutions!

Got Worries?
Don't Worry: We Got Solutions!

Dr. Pasha

(Bringing Islam to the World One Concept at a Time!
Taking the Qur'an to Every Home and Heart that Needs It --
And which One Does Not?)

Worries, Worries, Worries!
Is That What Life Is All About?

Who in this world does not have worries? Or does not deal with problems?

Most may do so on a running basis – every day of their life. For, life for many people in this world is often an unending succession of problems, worries, issues, headaches, challenges, and all sorts of other similar things.

And what do people do in response? People turn to all kinds of remedies they think will help them.

Some, in their desperate search for solutions, even fall victim to bad influences and ruin their lives further: bad company; alcohol; drugs; gambling; and other bad things.

Alcohol: The Killer Drug

There is no such thing as “Alcohol Abuse.” For, take it from me: To use alcohol is to abuse it!

That is because alcohol, most people don't realize, is a drug. A very bad one at that. And a very powerful and addictive and lethal one in many cases.

It turns many people into alcoholics and addicts. It ruins lives and families and careers.

And it plays havoc at the workplace. It affects productivity; causes costly errors; leads to absenteeism.

The cost of employee alcohol-use-abuse to taxpayers and to the public treasury and to private employers runs to hundreds of billions of dollars a year.

Alcoholic Politicians and Bureaucrats

In the world of politics and government, alcohol use may be associated with all kinds of wrong and disastrous decisions on the part of powerful individuals.

Actions by alcoholic politicians and bureaucrats may result in the lives of large population groups within a nation and around the world being ruined.

Make a list of all the injustices many of the Colonizers – whether it is England or France or some other power – perpetrated on our world. And ask yourself, how many of the patently wrong, unfair and unjust decisions they made were driven by alcohol consumption – what the world euphemistically refers to as “Alcohol Abuse”?

And ask: How many politicians at local and national level operate under the influence of alcohol? And who is monitoring their behavior and who is accountable for the wrong-headed decisions they make while drunk?

And ask: What is the impact of these wrong decisions on the people of their own nations and societies as well as on the people of the world on a global basis?

Islam Comes to the Rescue!

So, what should one do when faced with worries and problems? Here is what Islam recommends:

(A) First and foremost, Islam wants you to try and take charge of your life as much as you can.

Fight helplessness and actively look for solutions using all earthly means and resources that may be available to you.

Force yourself to get out of the morass you think you are in. Fight debilitation and inactivity. Drag yourself out of the couch and crawl toward solutions if you have to.

Don’t just sit around and wait for things to happen. Make a determined effort to take charge of your life – as much as you can.

Try to do so even when things seem difficult – even impossible. Give it a shot and see what happens.

I did not make up that expression “Even If You Have to Crawl.” I took it directly from the Hadith.

It is my paraphrase of the expression: Wa Lawu Habwan.

As far as I can, I don’t make up things. I only try and present the words of Allah and his Rasul, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, as much as I can – using nothing but my own inadequacies, incompetence and ignorance.

Allah Wants You to Turn to Him

Allah likes to see you do that. Allah loves it when you push and pull and drag yourself to him.

For, it is to him that you are moving. We are all moving. Everything is moving. The whole creation is moving.

Which aspect of it is not clear or what part of it do we not understand?

Allah has made things so clear and so plain and so uncomplicated even a blind man or woman can see them, provided we all use a modicum of brainpower, intelligence, common sense:

Qad Bayyannal Aayaat!

Yubayyinullahu Aayaatihi Linnaas!

Allah clearly states that we and our lives and our destinies are all inexorably, irrevocably hurtling toward him.

A-laa Ilallahi Taseerul Umoor!

And Allah says everything goes back to Allah:

Ilallahi Turja’ul Umoor!

And he says everything ends in or with Allah:

Ilallahi 'Aaqibatul Umoor!

Whatever all that means!

For, I don’t know what all that means. Even though sometimes I think I do.

Everything is moving toward Allah? Is that how it should be paraphrased?

I don’t know! I mean I don’t understand. Even though, it seems to me, it is all so utterly visible even to the most naked eye.

So, Run to Allah!

And then Allah himself gives you a leg up. He tells you: Run to Allah!

He says:

Fa-Firroo Ilallah!

So, seek refuge in Allah. And know that no one else, and no other place, can offer you refuge.

Laa Malja’a Minallahi Illa Ilayih!

Seek help and advice and counsel from good people whose judgment and whose sincerity you trust:

family; friends; social workers;
medical professionals; "religious" leaders; others.

Mental Health Issues

If you have mental health issues, don't hide them, face them. Share them and seek medical assistance, even though we in America, like much else on the health front, have done a disastrous job on the question of Mental Health.

However, think things through carefully when it comes to talking about your mental health issues with your employers. It might alarm them.

Two Things to Chant – and to Recite!

(B) Having done all that, and even as you are doing all that, here is something you can do for yourself.

This will cost you nothing; it is all good; and it has no adverse side effects whatsoever.

And it is unerring in its impact.

But don't rush results. It is important that you do not scream and start pulling your hair when things don’t turn around instantaneously.

Since now you are dealing directly with Allah – as if all this time you were not – don't be rude and start clamoring and complaining!

Don’t start saying:

Where are the results?
I have been reciting this stuff for so long!
Nothing is happening!

Don't forget that Allah operates on his own time scale. He does not use the calendar on your wall, or the watch on your wrist, or the cell phone to which you are glued, to choreograph his love and mercy -- his Rahmat -- to the world.

Things will happen as and when Allah thinks they should.

And if you still want the inside story here it is:

They have all happened already.

Hear Allah says it:

Rahmatee Wasi’at Kulla Shaiyi!

Allah’s Rahmat – what else can anyone ask for? – has already gone out to meet you and to envelop you -- and everything else.

That is how I will paraphrase that Aayat Karimah – that most noble passage from the pages of the Qur’an.

Allah Answers Your Call before You Make It!

Allah is the one who answers your call before you even make your call. He gives you what you need before it even occurs to you to ask for it.

So, recite and read and chant and sing the following as much as possible – any number of times. Maybe three times, maybe millions of times.

1. Laa Ilaaha Illallah.

Paraphrase: