Heart is the ruler of the Kingdom called human body. The tongue moves in compliance with the commands of the heart. Similarly all the voluntary actions are related to the heart. Obviously, when the heart is sick and uncontrollable, the words and deeds of the person are in complete disorder. He will perform improper actions and utter rubbish. And his actions shall be against human nature. They shall be diverged from humanity and path of religion. Thus whatever sins is committed by a person it is due to the effect of the disease of his heart. Therefore, reason dictates and religion commands us to make every effort to cure the disease of our heart. We must care more for the well being of our heart.
When heart is in a bad shape the body is too affected. The army commits injustice when the king is a weakling.
(Persian Couplet)
Ameerul Mo-mineen hazrat Ali (a.s.) says,
“People of Ma’refat (recognition) see that the worldly people are more concerned about physical death. While more serious is the death of their hearts within their living bodies.”
(Nahjul Balagha. Sermon no.259)
Physical death deprives the person of a few days of worldly pleasures. Those pleasures had also been accompanied by thousands of discomforts. However, the death of the heart and conscience deprives one of righteousness forever. The pure eternal pleasures turn their back towards him. And man cannot spend a purified life of a human being, whether in this world or in the Hereafter.
Therefore we must not take lightly, the Spiritual maladies and must be careless with regard to their cure. Us as carelessness is unsuitable with physical diseases in the same way reason dictates that we pay utmost attention to the maladies of such ailments, because they are more dangerous. Physical diseases can lead to death while spiritual diseases make one afflicted with eternal degradation.
Depravity of the Society
Different types of evils are increasing day by day in the society. Thinking upon the root cause of this we realize that all the corruption, depravity and crimes are due to a type of psychological disease. And the same psychological disease or weakness instigates man to commit inhuman acts. Every type of unrests, minders, robberies, unbridled passion, sensuality, drinking, drugs, destruction of family life, divorces, hard-heartedness, anger, suicide etc are due to one or the other kind of psychological disorders. In other words it is due to the lack of human feelings. It is the responsibility of the governments to take concrete steps for the psychological health of its subjects. Today psychological cure is more important then physical health. Sophisticated hospitals, clinics and medical colleges are established for physical aliments. Huge pharmaceutical companies are built to produce medicines. Numerous research labs are engaged in discovering new medicines. All of then aim to seek the cure of human sufferings. They are very much the need of the hour. But why are we oblivious of the psychological and spiritual ills?
Man is always caught in the trap of psychological diseases and in this same condition reaches the jaws of death. Why do people not take any step to save humanity from perdition? Rather, they act in the opposite way. Knowingly or unknowingly various propagandas are being carried out to destroy psychological health. Efforts are made to kill humanity and morals and to trap the human society in the quagmire of sensuality, unbridled passion and wantonness.
Jealousy – An Example
Newspapers had mentioned a report that doctors of Switzerland have instituted a committee to find the cure of jealousy. This shows that the doctors consider jealousy as an ordinary disease that is harmful for human beings. Just as they are in search of new cures for T.B. and cancer is the same way they strive to arrive at a cure for jealousy.
We do not know, how and through which method these doctors have begun their research. Whether they shall be successful in their endeavour or not? Anyway a dignified thought process has been initiated and this alone is a cause for hope. People all aware of this disease called jealousy since times immemorial, but they have not been able to find the cure for it. They are unaware of the medicine that can cure this disease and which has destroyed families and made family life a hell. So much so that except for Islam even the other religious have nothing to offer against this terrible malady. Ethical and moral schools are also ineffective. Humanity is continuously burning in this fire of conscience. Jealousy has taken hold of its victims like an evil spirit. We believe that jealousy is worse then cancer. Within a year cancer kills hundreds of people, but jealousy can destroy millions of people in a second. Most of the historical battles originated in jealousy. Alexender has the quality of an crocodile. He used to look upon his contemporary kingdoms with jealous eye. He had also invaded Iran. One of the factors that instigated him was jealousy.
It is said that he set the throne of Jamshed of fire. And this fire reached upto the door and walls of the palace. Alexender witnessed this scene while enjoying wine and in a mixture of anger and joy he was laughing aloud. That is, the flames of jealousy emitted from his mouth. Studies reveal that the fire of jealousy burnt forever in his heart.
The massacre and atrocities committed by Hitler in the Second World War were also rooted in jealousy. According to writer Hitler was a very jealous person. He could not war bear to see someone wearing better clothes than him. He used to be jealous of the person and in some way or the other he destroyed the dress. Hitler is supposed to have said in an interview:
“I cannot bear to become aged and see young people occupying my position.”
An expert of history is of the opinion that the large-scale destruction perpetrated by Hitler was due to jealousy. He used to reduce the flames of his jealousy by such gestures.
(Quoted from the daily Pars, 63/33)
It is good to know that a group of Swiss doctors are paying attention to a psychological disease. However, they should know that the cure of this disease and illnesses like it is beyond human capacity. Only the Almighty Allah is aware of every apparent and hidden thing. If Allah gives tawfeeq it may be possible to derive the cure from the spiritual doctor and heavenly book, that is the Holy Quran. Every type of psychological discase and its cure is mentioned in the Quran.
It is also mentioned in the above report that:
“Religious teachings and laws cannot take effective steps with regard to the cure of jealousy.”
If they mean to say that people have not made an effort to seek the cure from religious teachings it is correct. Otherwise there is no defect or deficiency in the Quranic teachings. Which Muslim has sincerely descried to learn Quranic sciences and act fully upon its laws and in this way obtain the cure of his psychological ills?
Allah will definitely bestow a cure if one acts upon the Quranic teachings in totality after understanding them. The psychological diseases common in Muslims and their decadence is due to the fact that they have turned away from the laws of Quran.
Whatever is there is due to our unregulated and unwieldy body. Otherwise your being was not shorter than anyone’s height.
(Persian couplet)
A Healthy soul and a Healthy Body
We have to follow a set of rules for maintaining physical health. One of the points is that there are some extra parts that must be separated from the Human body. For example the unborn child in its mother’s womb has these extra things that are removed after he is born. Like the covering skin enveloping the whole body, the umbilical card through which it derives nourishment from its mother and the foreskin of his penis that is removed in circumcision. These are the things that can be dangerous to the health if not removed after the child is born.
In the same way there are some additional qualities that accompany the human soul by divine wisdom. They are beneficial to men only under special circumstances. These special occasions has been specified by reason and Shariah. For an example, ignorance, greed, miserliness, injustice, haste and the spirit of confrontation etc. All these are present in man since his inception as confirmed by the Holy Quran:
إِنَّهُ كَانَ ظَلُومًا جَهُولًا
“Surely he is unjust, ignorant.”
(Surah Ahzab 33:72)
إِنَّ الْإِنسَانَ خُلِقَ هَلُوعًا
“Surely man is created of a hasty temperament.”
(Surah Ma’ary 70:19)
وَمَن يُوقَ شُحَّ نَفْسِهِ فَأُوْلَئِكَ هُمُ الْمُفْلِحُونَ
“And whoever is preserved from the niggardliness of his soul, these it is that are the successful ones.”
(Surah Hashr 59:9)
خُلِقَ الْإِنسَانُ مِنْ عَجَلٍ
“Man is created of haste.”
(Surah Anbiya 21:37)
وَكَانَ الْإِنسَانُ أَكْثَرَ شَيْءٍ جَدَلًا
“And man is most of all given to contention.”
(Surah Kahf 18:54)
In the same way man is described as possessing other evil traits also. He is most thankless (Surah Zukhruf 43:15), Very niggardly (Surah Bani Israel (7:100), very prone to despair (Surah Hud 11:9), very easily frightened (Surah Ma’arj 70:20) very hasty (Surah Bani Israel 17:11). The Holy Quran has also described the infidels to be blind, dumb, deaf and worse than quadrupeds. For example,
إِنَّ شَرَّ الدَّوَابِّ عِندَ اللّهِ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ فَهُمْ لاَ يُؤْمِنُونَ
“Surely the vilest of animals in Allah’s sight are those who disbelieve…”
(Surah Anfal 8:55)
And also,
صُمٌّ بُكْمٌ عُمْيٌ فَهُمْ لاَ يَعْقِلُونَ
“Deaf, dumb (and) blind, so they do not understand.”
(Surah Baqarah 2:171)
The Quran has mentioned many such kinds of spiritual diseases and their cure shall be described in detail in this book Qalbe Saleem. For the time being let us known that these qualities can be put to use only as far as reason and shariat permit. We must strive to bring under control if these qualities exceed these limits.
Like for instance the quality of miserliness is very much present in man. However, it should be restricted only for the circumstances that man abstains from spending a single paisa in illegal acts. He must also not waste money or squander it or spend it in useless things. He must be miserly in spending his life and wealth in any other than those approved by Allah. He should not however prove to be a miser when he has to spend all this in the way of Allah.
“You are given the axe to cut wood not that you hit the people on their heads.”
(Persian Couplet)
Cleanliness of the Body from the food consumed
From the food consumed by human beings a part of it is able to become a part of their body and the rest is ejected in urine and stool. Some food ingredients are responsible for the growth of nails and hair and some get evaporated in the form of sweat. The fats that accumulate in the human body are derived from specific food components and it is deposited on the internal walls sometimes causing difficulty in breathing.
The human body cleans itself continuously so that its well being is assured. We should trim our nails at least once a week. We must also shame the armpits and groin. Use of soap is necessary to remove oil substances one our body otherwise our health shall be in peril.
In the same way our clothes, houses, atmosphere and our food must be free of dirt and contamination.
Spiritual Hygeine is also Necessary
Just as cleanliness is necessary for physical health it is a must to purge the soul of psychological diseases in order to assure its well being. Spiritual diseases cause way wardness and depravity. They deprive man of righteousness. We must try to immunize ourselves against such ailments. To achieve this we must act upon the method recommended by the Holy Quran.
Man becomes so busy in the worldly preoccupations that tend to forgo the remembrance of Allah and the Hereafter. In guest of physical well being and material needs he becomes so much engrossed that he falls into heedlessness and depravity. Such people are few whom Allah praises in the following words,
رِجَالٌ لَّا تُلْهِيهِمْ تِجَارَةٌ وَلَا بَيْعٌ عَن ذِكْرِ اللَّهِ
“Men whom neither merchandise nor selling diverts from the remembrance of Allah.”
(Surah Nur 24:37)
A number of methods are taught by Quran to avoid heedlessness and the best among them is the five times daily prayer. The Almighty Allah says,
وَأَقِمِ الصَّلَاةَ لِذِكْرِي
“And keep up prayer for My remembrance.”
(Surah Taha 20:14)
Prescription
We must try to ensure that whatever we see, hear or receive through the use of our organs we must assure that they should not be harmful to our soul. But how can we know whether it is harmful or not? Well, the Islamic Shariah has informed us that we must act on a perfect reason and the divine law. We must abstain from every activity that causes spiritual ills. We must perform every action that is beneficial in getting rid of the diseases present in our soul or cause the soul to scale greater heights of perfection.
Materialist man has no spiritual cure
Physical diseases are such that can be perceived and recognized by the five senses of man. The Almighty Allah has provided their curses in this material world itself that man can obtain if he tries well enough or experiments on them. The cases of spiritual diseases are different. The soul itselfs cannot be perceived by man with his five senses. The soul is not a material thing. Thus its diseases too do not have a material base. A layman cannot diagnose these spiritual diseases. It is beyond human capacity to have complete control over the working of the soul. Apart from this no man is aware of the secrets of the soul and the cure for spiritual ills.
The Almighty Allah says regarding this that He has chosen a few persons and gave them the information of these unseen matters. He has appointed them spiritual doctors and the guides of humanity. And Allah appointed the Prophet Muhammad the last Prophet as the chief of all these holy personalities.
The prophets are like the shepherds for the people. They are the guides in every aspect of life. Our Prophet has become the leader of these prophets. He is the first and the last in this affair. The Almighty Allah has bestowed a favour on humanity by sending him.
لَقَدْ مَنَّ اللّهُ عَلَى الْمُؤمِنِينَ إِذْ بَعَثَ فِيهِمْ رَسُولاً مِّنْ أَنفُسِهِمْ يَتْلُو عَلَيْهِمْ آيَاتِهِ وَيُزَكِّيهِمْ وَيُعَلِّمُهُمُ الْكِتَابَ وَالْحِكْمَةَ
“Certainly Allah conferred a benefit upon the believers when He raised among them an Apostle from among themselves, reciting to them His communications and purifying them, and teaching them the Book and the wisdom.”
(Surah Aale Imran 3:164)
Here the word ‘purifying’ indicates the purging of all types of spiritual diseases from the heart. The details of which are being presented in this book. It is well understood from this verse that the aim of sending prophets is to illuminate the human hearts by the light of wisdom, to purify the soul from very uncleanness and to embellish them with all the great virtues. The Messenger of Allah (s.a.w.s.) himself states.
“I have been sent for the perfection of morals.”
source : QALBE SALEEM/Shaheede Mehraab Ayatullah-ul-Uzma Al-Haaj Sayed Abdul Husain Dastghaib Shirazi (r.a.)
