Question 6
I am thirty years old. Pain and illnesses have done to my body what they have not done to old people's bodies. I have become tired of doctors and drugs. I have become desperate of everything, even supplications and vows though I respect religion and the ulama. I am very angry due to my state and always ask myself why Allah has afflicted me with these distresses that have made me suspect my religious beliefs and become nervous at any excitement. I hope with your help that I may be happy in life with my wife and children who suffer with me.
The answer: The Iranian magazine Ittila'at Ilmi, vol.23, seventh year has quoted from the magazine (Reader's Digest, Feb. 1993) a scientific study emphasizing that most bodily illnesses are results of psychological disorders. According to this fact, man causes himself bodily illnesses if he does not care for his psychological health.
The study adds, 'For example, cancer and tuberculosis attack complaining and desperate persons. Peptic ulcer attacks persons who pant for high positions. Arthritis and chronic inflammations are the shares of rigorous persons whose hearts are full of hatred against others and who do not pardon or forgive others. Headache attacks those who keep their anger inside them.
Psychological disorders, like anger, fear, and distress, exhaust precious powers of the mind and the body and then psychological fatigue, pains, and illnesses come instead.'
The study adds, 'Self-confidence and not letting fear and being upset overcome oneself make man carry out his daily activities in a way that delights his heart and comforts his mind. With comfort and hearty relief, man's body enjoys safety and healthiness. In fact, even a broken bone recovers earlier if one's mind is peaceful and his heart is calm and satisfied.'
The author of this scientific study says, 'Man, for the sake of his bodily health, must free himself from the complex of failure and defeat. If he imprisons himself in this complex or he fails to free himself from it, he will face problems, pains, and illnesses such as asthma, headache, and nasal sinuses inflammation.'
Dear brother, what I want to tell you is that what we all need to do is take care of our health. Let us achieve it and recommend others to it so that our minds and bodies enjoy peacefulness and safety because "a sound mind is in a sound body". Islamic traditions have indicated these solutions and emphasized that the healthiness of the body is the result of the healthiness of mentality. Islam was the first to show the scientific method of
keeping psychological and physical health.
This study, which has been preceded by the Islamic theory, emphasizes the Islamic instructions by recommending the following:
1. Assure yourself every day that you are sound and safe because this self-suggestion prevents you from feeling weak or submitting to illness!
2. Try to live normally and do not be greedy and do not pant for this life so that you become involved in some situations out of greediness! Doing so exhausts your intellectual, psychological, and physical powers.
3. Assign to yourself some times for rest, relaxation, and harmless amusement!
4. Believe in Allah sincerely so that you feel the warmth of this faith inside your heart, and this will make feel comfortable and delighted whenever you mention Allah and worship Him!
5. Tell yourself everyday that you are better than you were yesterday and actually be so lest your conscience says to you: away! O you, self-deceiver!
If you adhere to these five recommendations after perceiving the medical fact mentioned above, you will be delighted and psychologically cheerful and this is what brings you physical healthiness and fruitful activity.
You should know that distrusting the true religious beliefs is itself a cause of psychological diseases that cause bodily diseases. At the same time when that scientific study and the sayings of many western psychologists declare that faith in Allah has a great role in curing psychological troubles and bodily diseases, it does not fit a Muslim to let the Satan or his followers in the society whisper evil to him and play with his mind.
It is narrated that the Prophet (s) has said, 'I wonder at a believer why he becomes angry at illness! If he knows what
benefit he receives because of illness, he would wish to remain ill until he meets his Lored. 1
Of course, this is if the illness is chronic and doctors cannot cure it or the ailing believer is unable to pay for the treatment.
Dear brother, I hope you will return to your religious beliefs and strengthen your morale by them in order to not fail in this trial because then you would lose this life and the afterlife together. You should know well that losing this life and its pleasures is easier to you than losing the eternal Paradise where there will be no pain, no disease, no old age, and no death.
Question 7
My elder brother commits major sins. He dares to beat my father who is an old man. We do not know how he has become like that when we are a religious family and nobody else from amongst us is like this elder brother.
The answer: There are some reasons behind this phenomenon. The most important one of them is negligence in the upbringing of this brother from his childhood and not watching him whenever he went out of the house and when he associated with bad friends. Some families may be excused because of being busy with their living affairs or because of the poor cultural level of the parents or the absence of the master of the family as if when the father is in prison for example. The result is that a serious deviation happens to one of the family members.
Advice usually does not have any effect after the deviation roots deeply inside that person. The severity of that deviant person against the adviser is another result of deviation.
Nevertheless, despairing of reforming this deviant one is not permissible. It compels you to keep on advising him gently and kindly and trying to keep him away from his bad friends by
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1. Biharul al-Anwar, vol.81 p.210.
sending some good persons to make friends with him and to busy him with lawful amusement. The troubles of these attempts are less than the troubles of leaving him alone as he is bound to commit more sins.
Question 8
How can I smile when I do not feel happy or delighted inside myself? I want to be active and not sad and idle. Would you please tell me how I could arrive at this aim?
The answer: First, let your conscience be satisfied and at ease because this is the thing that makes you smile and feel real cheerfulness! This comes from believing in Allah and following what He has revealed to His Messenger (s) and what the Infallible Imams (s) have declared. They have declared that believing in Allah, contentment, and avoiding greediness brings man mental relief and being satisfied with one's fate increases and solidifies that relief.
If you obtain this relief through these religious beliefs, problems and troubles will not deprive you of your smile and you will not worry at all. Allah the Almighty says, (And be not infirm, and be not grieving, and you shall have the upper hand if you are believers). 1
Religion has declared that serving people, helping the needy and fulfilling the rights of one's family cause the relief of one's conscience.
Looking at the green nature, pondering on the stars, listening to the singing of birds, and listening to good maxims make man happy and delighted. When man achieves some success in one of his aims, he feels the ecstasy of triumph which affects his activities and a smile appears on his face.
Islam has encouraged all that because it is the religion of activeness, vigor, progress, and production and not of laziness, worry, boredom or grief.
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1 Qur'an, 3:139.
As for crying for fear of Allah in the heart of night, crying for the wronged saints on the sad historical occasions, doctors and psychologists have proved many advantages and said that if man knew the advantages of crying, he would throw drugs away.
Thus, the comprehensiveness of our great Islamic religion and its perfect verdicts have been proven just because it is from a Great, Wise, One, Unique and Eternal God.
Dear brother, with all that, you will reach your aim. May Allah be with you. Do not forget your smile and do not let it fade or leave your face!
Question 9
Where does tiredness of the body come from? Most of the time I feel sluggish and I do not know how to restore my vigor and energy. Would you please guide me to a solution?
The answer: Tiredness of body, inactiveness, and feeling weak are results of two factors:
The first is a bodily factor. It includes insufficient or intermittent sleeping, anemia, little or big proportion of iron in the blood, influenza, and others. The treatments of these conditions are done by a doctor and the recovery is from Allah the Almighty.
The second is a psychological factor. It includes many things such as fear of future, worry, shocks of divorce, traffic accidents, big financial losses, being insulted before others, thinking of previous failures, and thinking of high ambition while worrying about one's actual inability. All these psychological troubles cause physical exhaustion and fatigue and the cure is to submit to Allah and His fate in the cases where man has no power or choice.
As for the mistakes of man himself, the cure is obtained by repenting and asking Allah for pardon and forgiveness.
It would be better for one to give people's rights back to them so that his conscience becomes relieved; besides that, he must
organize his time according to the religious obligations and activities of life.
Here, I draw your attention to an important point: if you want to know the cause of your fatigue, whether it is physical or psychological, see if it disappears or lessens after sleeping or if it continues. If the first case holds, most often the cause of your fatigue is physical, and if it is the second, most often the cause is psychological. If man watches himself well, he will know from what he suffers, whether physical or psychological troubles.
Question 10
Please teach me the way to success and tell me how I can attain happiness! I am a young man. I would like to see myself in the best position in this life and in the afterlife. What is the way to that? Everyone has an opinion, but I, because of my young age, do not know which opinion is the best.
The answer: The way to a successful life begins with you. The beginning is the self, which if you change, Allah will help you reach success and happiness, but if you leave it to do as it pleases, you will never reach whatever it is you dream of.
Therefore, I would like to guide you to the following:
1. Discover yourself! In this life you can be great and your mention will be recorded in the list of the great if you can only discover your own talents and abilities.
2. When you assign an aim to yourself, know that you not only need accurate thinking, but you also need a strong spirit and high determination to help you reach the advanced steps in the way of success. The source of this strong spirit and high determination is the true belief that connects you with Allah the Almighty, intellectually and practically. To get this source, you have to recite the Qur'an deeply and ponderingly and have to worship Allah in the heart of the night and offer night prayers.
3. To keep your success safe from plagues, you have to be aware
of the plagues. They are the following:
a. Bad friends
b. Imagining oneself to be ill
c. Putting off the work of today until tomorrow
d. Convincing oneself to retreat from doing good deeds e. Not acquiring new information that concerns oneself e. Not acquiring new information that concerns oneself
Question 11
My dreams are nightmares. Would you please show me a cure to my bad predicament before my youth wastes away?
The answer: Some dreams - as psychologists have proven - are a reflection of one's psychological worry during wakefulness. To cure yourself, you have to follow the following points:
1. Purify your daily activities from unlawful things and if something unlawful takes place, purify it by asking Allah for forgiveness!
2. Be satisfied with what Allah has given you of wealth, beauty, health and the like!
3. Perform ablution (wudu') before sleeping and recite a portion of the Holy Qur'an, and when you lie in your bed, think of what you have recited or try to sleep while thinking good thoughts!
4. Be certain that those who have been happy in their lives have faced problems too and that their lives are not free from troubles now, but they are well aware that worry is a problem much greater than those problems. So why would they increase their troubles by worrying when they need to decrease them?
5. Remind yourself of your good actions and successful deeds and do not think of your failures and shortcomings! Every one has bright pages in his life and even the successful and great people are not free from defects. Dear young man, set out in the way towards Allah the Almighty and rely on Him!
Question 12
I am a teacher in a secondary school. I see too many students imitating western fashions in their clothing. What is the reason for this difficulty and what is the solution?
The answer: There are many reasons:
1. Unawareness of the attractive Islamic examples that are the best alternatives to imported foreign examples
2. The spread of western cultures and fashions in our countries via the media (films, posters, ideas, and advertisements), which we call "cultural colonialism" or "intellectual subordination"
3. The weak Islamic media and the inability to give a beautiful picture about the Muslim youth as Allah, the Wise Creator, has willed
4. The weak school programs, which are devoid of the true intellectual gist of religion (Religious lessons are taught in schools in a shallow and boring way because most of the teachers of these lessons are officials and not people of a religious vocation. Therefore, there is no motive for the teachers to teach the pupils religion sincerely.)
5. The family sphere at home, which may contain many things that are contrary to the instructions of Islam (This has a great effect on students in leading them to imitate foreign fashions and bad examples and to be busy with trivial hobbies.)
The solution to this problem is for everyone - individuals, families, and societies - to act in a manner opposite to these reasons. They all have to make their efforts together to guide these youth and to show them the harms of imitating the foreigners. We can warn our youth of imitating the foreigners by quoting the statistics that the foreign newspapers have published about the crimes, problems, griefs, and the high numbers of suicides in the western countries.
Question 13
I am a student who is about to join the university. I am confused as
to what I should specialize in. As you are more aware of the needs of society than I am, please guide me to the right vocation and I will be grateful.
The answer: There is no doubt that if man distributes his powers among several points and aims, his concentration weakens, and then he does not get the best result in each of his aims; rather he gets the optimal result if he concentrates all his powers on one aim within certain points.
I believe in specialization and my advice to you is that you have to make a decision and choose the field nearest to your inclination and ability and the nearest to the needs of your society. Then you should concentrate all your powers in achieving the best result. Do not forget to rely on Allah and pray to Him to assist you because real success is in His hand.
But since you ask me to advise you as to the most important fields of specialization, I consider the humanities, especially psychology and sociology, to be of great importance, especially when supported by accurate studies in the Islamic books of these concerns. Specialization in commercial fields and economics is also of great importance, as well as studying in the Hawza, 1 after completing your university study, which is of even greater importance. See what your real desire is and then choose it. Rely on Allah and make your life, study, and future for the sake of Him so that if you die at the beginning of the way, the middle, or at the end, you will gain His paradise. Is there any profit greater than this?
Question 14
Frankly, I say that I suffer from the complex of meanness. What is a practical treatment to save me from it and from its bad effects?
The answer: First, you should recognize the cause so that the treatment can be easy. Here are some of the main causes of this complex:
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1 Hawza is a theological college where students can specialize in Islamic law, philosophy, theology, and logic.
1. Either you are imagining it or others are making you imagine it
2. Repeated failures in life and not achieving an aim that was once in your mind For the cure, we suggest the following:
1. Try to achieve success in your life to strengthen your morale and then you can aim for another success and a bigger step!
2. Read some books regarding this topic in order to achieve some success!
3. Seize any opportunity to prove your personality in a lawful way; I do not mean that you seize others' opportunities or show off by doing good.
4. Persuade yourself that you are a successful person by the assistance of Allah!
5. Do not forget to make your intentions sincere and just for the sake of Allah when doing good deeds, because this is the moral secret of everlasting success and progress.
Question 15
Please advise me how to bear the difficulties of life! I feel like I am about to perish. The answer: Imagining oneself as about to perish is in itself the beginning of perishment. First, keep this thought away from your mind and then ask yourself if you will not bear the difficulties, then what would you do! Do you have a better alternative?
Ponder on this question and be certain that life is difficult for all people, but the difficulties differ from one person to another. Nov read the following advices:
1. You should know that the worldly life has been full of difficulties since our father Adam (s) and will be until the last one of his children. The Wise Creator has determined life to be difficult for man so that he may think of the afterlife that he has been created for. Without being tried, man will not be
given the eternal blessings of the afterlife.
2. Read the biographies of the patient and great people and see how they passed the difficulties of life to live in the bliss of Paradise and their names were not forgotten throughout the ages!
3. Make friends with those possessing a great deal of patience and tolerance.
4. Practice sportive exercises in the morning or at any other time of the day!
5. Rely on Allah and believe that He is the strongest supporter for those who rely on Him!
6. Ponder over the Qur'anic verses and the traditions of the Prophet (s) and Ahlul Bayt (s) that discuss "patience" for they have undoubtedly taught us what makes us happy! For example, Imam al-Baqir (s) has said, 'When Ali bin alHusayn (Imam Zaynul Aabideen, the father of Imam al-Baqir) was about to die, he embraced me and said, '0 my son, I recommend you to what my father had recommended to me when he was about to die and he said that his father had recommended him to; O my son, be patient with the truth even if it is bitter!' 1
We must submit to the truth and its requirements. Abu Abdullah (Imam as-Sadiq) (s) has said, 'Whoever keeps to the firmest handhold will be safe.'
The narrator asked, 'What is it (the firmest handhold)?' He said, 'Submission.' 2
Someone asked Imam as-Sadiq (s), 'With what is a believer known as a believer?'
Imam as-Sadiq (s) said, 'With submission to Allah and being
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1 Wassa'il ash-Shia: Jihad an-Nafs, chap.19 trd. 3. 2 Biharul Anwar, vol.2 p.204.
satisfied with what he gets of pleasure and displeasure.' 1
Question 16
I like to be quiet and always smiling because I hate sullen people who burst into anger and frown their eyebrows until their eyes come out and their faces redden. But unfortunately, I am not truly as I would like to be. Frankly, I am one of those whom I do not like, as some poet has said, 'I like good people but I am not from them.' Please, guide me to the way of patience and controlling my furious anger so that I may be like those I admire and I may like myself.
The answer: It is necessary for you to be aware of the problem that provokes your nerves in order to avoid it and keep yourself away from its effects. When you face this problem, try at first to recognize its causes and then try your best to avoid it. For example, someone may become angry at something and the cause may be the heat or that he has not taken a bath for a few days. If he takes off some of his clothes or if he takes a bath or pours cool water over his body, he may not become angry or excited with every trivial excitement.
It is said that using sweet perfumes eases one's nerves, especially the perfumes of rose, jasmine and tea rose. An angry man should associate with the beauty of nature, ponder on the sky, the sea, mountains, and trees, and lie for sometime between the kind laps of nature. He should work only to the extent his body can tolerate and should not overburden himself with what exhausts him. He must be moderate in eating and not overload his stomach.
Dear brother, I advise you to practice sportive exercises in the morning, at least the Swedish exercises. Do not forget the mention of Allah in any case, and especially when being angry. You should remember the anger of Allah towards you. You should know that Islam considers anger as a soldier of the Satan. Therefore, an angry one is the one who carries this soldier on his back and protects him. Do you want to be like
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1 Al-Kafi, vol.2 p.63.
that? Certainly not! Then smile even if your smile is not real!
