Friday, January 24, 2014

Modern Stress And Its Cure From Qur'an

Modern Stress And Its Cure From Qur'an



Stress is the most common aliment of modern age. It has been implicated in the causation of peptic ulcer disease, coronary heart disease, depression, auto immune disease, hypertension, diabetes and even cancer. In milder form it manifests in form of unrest, violence, at work, school and home. Common medical problems like tension headache, insomnia, and obesity are also attributed to unusual stress. None of us are free from stress but some deal with it better than others.

Stress results from the following factors:

a. Fear of the unknown and trying to see through and control the destiny.
b. Losses in our life of people and things dear to us and our inability to recover those losses.
c. Inner conflict between our heart and mind between what is known to be the truth and our failure to accept it as truth. Acceptance of truth may require changing our habits and way of life which we may adhere to for some reason like pleasure, joys, taste, pride in race or heritage etc.
Let us examine how Quran deals with such situations.

Our losses are a trial for us:
"Be sure we will test you with something of fear and hunger, some loss in goods or lives, but give glad tidings to those who are steadfast, who say when afflicted with calamity: To God we belong and to him is our return. They are those on who (DESCEND) blessings from God and mercy and they are the once that receive guidance. 2:155

Thus in Islam, we do not have concept of the ownership of goods and life. Everything belongs to God and returns to him. So if we don't own that thing why mourn our loss? 

a. Our destiny is predetermined. We do not have control on that part. What we have control over is a limited free will, that is our actions, our choice to do good or bad, to believe in God or not to believe in Him, but we have no control over tomorrow's event not related to our actions i.e. whether my wife will have a son or daughter, whether his/her eyes will be brown or black, or whether I will have an accident or not tomorrow. WorTying over such things is of no use.

b. Rejection of faith in Quran is called a disease. This denial of truth is due to arrogance.

"In their heart there is a disease and God has increased their disease and grievous is their penalty because they lie to themselves." 2:10

Therefore after lying to ourselves, we set up an inner conflict - between heart and mind. In order to contain that conflict the mind sends signals to glands for secretion of harmones like adrenaline which leads to rapid heart rate, perspiration, tremor, the basis of lie detector test.

This lying conflict could be due to "SMALL" crimes like theft or adultery, or big crimes like rejection of God.

3 stages of spiritual development of soul age

a. Nafsul Ammara: -The Passionate soul "I do not absolve myself Lo the (human) soul is prone to evil, save that whenever my Lord has mercy. Lo, Lord is forgiving; merciful." 12:53 (Surah Yusuf)

This soul inclines toward sensual Pleasure, passion and self gratification , anger, envy, greed, and conceit. Its concerns are pleasure of body, gratification of physical appetite, and ego.

Hadith "your most-ardent-enemy is your evil self which resides within your body" (Bukhaii).