Third, Relief from Distress
Human life, whether we like it or not, has its pangs, sorrows, failures, losses, bitterness, and disappointments, as it has its joys, sweetness, achievements and successes. Many of life’s sorrows can be either prevented or removed though often with great effort. Obviously, man is obliged to struggle with nature and change the bitterness to sweetness. Some of the events in the world, though, they cannot be prevented or removed, like the advance of old age. Man, at any rate, ages. The candle of his life burns down. The on sequences of old age, such as weakness and physical inadequacy and the like hinder activities. Moreover, the thought of death, leaving life behind, leaving the world of family and friends causes people to suffer in different ways.
Religious faith creates the power to resist in man and turns bitterness to sweetness. A man of faith knows that everything in the world is under a certain law and if he reacts towards bitterness properly, Almighty God will compensate him in one way or another, even if the incident seems in-incompensatable. Because old age does not mean the end of life, and moreover, an individual with faith always occupies himself or herself with intimacy and praying to God, life in old age becomes more delightful than the period of youth for believers. The prospect of death is different in the eyes of a person with faith than in the eyes of an individual without faith. To a believer, death is not mortality but a transfer from a transitory world to a permanent one, from a finite world to an infinite one.
Death is a transfer from the world of action and cultivation to a world of consequence and harvest. This is why such an individual removes his or her fear of death by efforts in doing good or 'Amal-i-Saleh', as it is said in religious terminology.
It is obvious and clear to psychologist’s that most of the mental illnesses which are caused by psychological disorders and bitterness towards life are found among non-religious people. Religious people, depending on the extent of their steadfastness in their religious faith, are protected against such illness. Therefore, one of the consequences of contemporary life, whose source is loss of religious faith, is the increase in psychological and nervous illnesses.
This source of information was taken from:
1. Mutahhari, Morteza. Man and Faith. Published by Iran University Press. Iran, 1981.
