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Islam
& Mental Health
One of the most serious problems in modern
society is the epidemic of nervous and mental disorders.
Paradoxically, the faster science and technology progress
and the more economic prosperity experienced by the
so-called 'advanced' countries of Europe and America, the
more psychiatric patients, the more mental hospitals
becoming crowded beyond capacity with inmates and the more
people committing suicide. It has become increasingly evident
to serious thinkers throughout the world that the universal
adoption of materialist philosophy is to a very large extent
responsible.
According to the prevailing contemporary
philosophy, the creation of the universe and its living
creatures was but a mere accident. Through the process of
mechanical evolution, the human race gradually evolved
over the ages from the lower animals. Since the law of
nature is mechanical and impersonal, it has no concern
either with
the moral law or with the personal life of individuals. As life
depends upon organic matter, the soul cannot exist and since
consciousness cannot survive without the brain, this life is
the only life and nothing can preserve the individual
personality beyond the grave. Thus man, created from
nothingness inevitably must return to nothingness, as extinct
after his death as before his conception. Hence, any concept of
the Hereafter is mere wishful thinking. Thus the purpose of the
human being is to create conditions of life most favourable to
his happiness and material welfare without the aid of any
supernatural power.
If religion is only a 'childish illusion',
the materialists are at a loss to explain why these
'instinctive desires' are so universal among the human
race at all times and in all places, which must be
satisfied if sanity is to be preserved?
The major causes of mental 'breakdowns'
are:
• Self hatred
• Inability to tolerate misfortune
• Failure to achieve worldly success
• Fear and anxiety concerning the future
• The delusion that one's life has no
ultimate significance
Islam encourages self-protection. Since the
individual Muslim personifies Islam itself, Islam could
not exist without him. Only when the individual Muslim's
welfare and that of his society are in conflict so that
one cannot be attained without the loss of the other is
the Muslim compelled to value his society more than
himself, as he is a part of that society and a part of a
thing cannot be more important than the thing itself. It
is only in pursuit of Jihad that the Muslim is permitted
to not protect himself. He must not wilfully injure
himself nor commit any self-destructive act. This is why
the Muslim is not allowed to eat dirty foods like swine
flesh because these will impair his physical, mental and
moral health. He is forbidden to consume poisonous
beverages, drugs and intoxicants, which destroy the body
and the mind. He is not allowed to indulge in excesses of
any kind because these all result in self-destruction. He
must also loveothers and help them so that he may be
loved and helped. Above all, he is forbidden to commit
suicide under any circumstances:
Aboo Hurayrah (RA) reported that the
Prophet (SAW) said: 'Whoever strangles himself, shall
keep on strangling himself in the Fire (forever) and
whoever stabs himself, shall keep on stabbing himself in
the Fire (forever)! (Bukhari)
As life and death can only occur by Divine
Decree, Islam regards suicide as one of the worst of sins
because to take one's own life is to demonstrate a
complete absence of faith in Allah (SWT) if and in the
Hereafter. Consequently, suicide among genuine believers
in Islam is virtually unknown.
According to Islam, this life is not
intended to be a pleasure-trip but the most severe
examination, the results of which will materialize in the
Hereafter. Thus the misfortunes and calamities
experienced in this life are not decisive but only tests
for the genuineness and strength of one's faith.
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