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>"Health and Wellness in Islam
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>Health and Wellness in Islam By: Sayyid Muhammad Rizvi
>Islam is a Deen. It is a way of life which encompasses all aspects of human
>life: spiritual as well as physical, personal as well as communal, physical
>health as well as material wealth, and religious matters as well as political
>issues. In Islam, our body and health are considered as important gifts of
>Almighty Allah. Imam Ali (peace be upon him) said: "Health is the best of
>blessings." In another narration, he says, "One of the blessings [of God] is
>the abundance of wealth; however, better than abundance of wealth is the
>health of the body." Imam Ja'far as-Sadiq (peace be upon him) said, "A
>believer who is physically strong is better than a weak believer." It is in
>this sense that our body is considered to be the trust given to us by Allah.
>And we have to safeguard and protect this trust.
>Exercise and Being Active
>Being active and to exercise is not only acceptable in Islam but also
>recommended. Part of the instructions given by the Prophet and the Imams
>(peace be upon them) about upbringing of children is the issue of physical
>exercise. Swimming, for example, has been greatly encouraged in our religious
>literature.
>We have to realize that in Asia and Africa, walking was part of our daily
>routine, and doing our day-to-day job without use of modern machines was part
>of our lifestyle. And so lots of physical activity used to take place without
>planning or thinking on our part.
>However, in North America, our lifestyle has changed. We are dependent on
>machines that do our work. Walking is not an integral part of our life: we get
>into the car inside our garages and get off at the office parking lots. And
>so, even a simple thing like walking requires planning, scheduling, and
>determination on our part.
>Involvement in sports activities is one way of exercising and keeping fit.
>Joining the community sports groups also has the benefit of fostering
>brotherhood and fraternity among Shias.
>Note: If a person uses fitness facilities for physical exercise, then
>adherence to the rules of Hijab is important; this issue would be solved if we
>have Shari'ah-sensitive fitness facilities in our Islamic centers.
>Sleeping, Resting, and Avoiding Stress
>Almighty Allah has appointed the night as the time for resting and the day as
>the time for working. "He is the One who made for you the night so that you
>may rest in it, and the day with light; most surely in these are signs for the
>people who hear." (10:67) So naturally, sleeping is very important.
>Avoiding stress: slow down; look at the present and enjoy it before you lose
>it. Give time for your family. Having a good family life will help you in
>dealing with stress. And, finally, be in touch with Allah, the Prophet, and
>Imams; read the Qur'an and the Du'as. This will greatly help in dealing with
>stress. "Verily, in the remembrance of Allah, the hearts are at ease." (13:28)
>There are special supplications in Sahifa Sajjadia which can be quite helpful.
>And unlike stress counselors or psychiatrists, you don't need to schedule an
>appointment or pay any fees – Allah is always available to listen to you free
>of charge!
>Food and Drink
>Moderation
>The basic Islamic guideline on food and drink is the rule of moderation. If
>you are moderate, then it does not matter what you eat or drink. (Of course,
>we are talking about Halal items!) It is said that once a doctor came to
>Medina, and for a long time, no one was visiting him as a patient. He inquired
>as to whether the people of Medina ever become sick or not. He was told that
>the people of Medina follow the Qur'anic injunction which says: "Eat and
>drink, but do not be extravagant. " (7:31)
>During the era of Caliph Harun ar-Rashid, a Christian doctor became attached
>to the caliph's court. One day he asked a Muslim scholar, 'Ali bin al-Hussain
>bin Rashid, "Your holy book does not contain anything about well-being of
>health, even though it is known that the knowledge is of two kinds: the
>knowledge concerning the soul, and the knowledge concerning the body."
>'Ali bin al-Husayn bin Rashid replied: "Almighty Allah has summarized the
>health issue in just half of a verse of the Qur'an by saying, 'Eat and drink
>but do not be extravagant. ' And the Prophet of Islam has said that, 'The
>belly is the house of diseases, while dieting is the best of all medicines.'"
>The Christian was amazed by the wisdom of the Qur'an and the saying of the
>Prophet.
>Losing Weight
>One of the important teachings is to refrain from obesity and becoming
>overweight. This can be accomplished by moderation in eating. And if one wants
>to lose weight, then that can be accomplished, from the religious point of
>view, by fasting.
>We are familiar with the term Zakat, which means giving away a portion of your
>money in charity. In Islamic literature, they are different kinds of Zakats:
>Zakat al-Mal (charity with wealth), Zakat al-Ilm (charity with knowledge), and
>Zakat al-Badan (charity with body). The narrations say that the Zakat of body
>is fasting.
>There are many sayings that encourage fasting (other than the month of
>Ramadan). "Fast and you will be healthy."
>When advising his son Imam Hasan, Imam Ali says: "Do not eat until you are
>hungry, and leave the table before you are fully satisfied."
>Similarly, Imam Zainul Abideen writes in Risalat al-Huquq ("Charter of
>Rights"): "It is the right of your stomach that you should not turn it into a
>receptacle of what is unlawful, whether it is a little or a lot; and that you
>should not overeat, because that will turn eating into gluttony and
>shamelessness instead of giving you strength; and you should keep it under
>control when hungry or thirsty, because overeating (which sometimes ends even
>in dysentery) causes laziness, hinders from work, and cuts a man away from
>every goodness and nobility; and overdrinking (which ends sometimes into
>intoxication) makes a man look idiotic, ignorant, and disgraced."
>Decreasing the Usage of Oily and Greasy Food in Old Age
>Hammad bin Uthman says that one day he was in presence of Imam Ja'far as-Sadiq
>when an old person from Kufa came. He started talking to the Imam, but he was
>stuttering. The Imam asked: "Why do I see that your speech has changed?" The
>visitor said that part of his mouth had been paralyzed (because of a stroke).
>The advice that Imam gave to him concludes with the following words: "Refrain
>from fat because it is not suitable for the old people."
>Hammad also quotes Imam Ja'far as-Sadiq saying: "When a person reaches the age
>of fifty, then he should not go to sleep while there is fat in his stomach."
>That is, the amount of fat in his food should be so less that by the time one
>goes to sleep, it would have been digested. (According to one narration, the
>age mentioned by the Imam was forty.)
>According to statistics of the Greater Toronto Area, the people of Southeast
>Asian origin suffer from heart disease proportionately more than people from
>other ethnic groups. Our lifestyle has changed to Western (automated + less
>physical activity), but our diet is still Eastern (fatty + greasy).
>With the blessing of medical facilities in North America, there is no reason
>for a person to ignore regular checkups. Prevention is the best of cures.
>Sickness and Duas
>Does du'a help in illness? Do prayers help in healing a sick person? Of
>course, as Muslims we strongly believe in the power of du'a. In 1999, The
>Journal of Archives of Internal Medicine published the result of a scientific
>study done in Kansas City on this issue. The doctors at the Mid American Heart
>Institute divided their heart patients into two groups for a period of 12
>months: half the patients were assigned numbers, and those numbers were asked
>to pray for their patients; the other half of the patients were left without
>this prayer (du'a) experiment." The study concluded that the prayer group
>patients fared significantly better by 35 medical measurements. "
>So a Muslim has to do dawa as well as du'a: seek medicine, as well as pray
>that it works for you.
>Smoking and Sisha
>"While Islam has given a clear verdict about prohibition of intoxicating
>drinks, we don't see much about smoking. What is the Shari'ah perspective on
>smoking?"
>Since smoking was an unknown entity during early Islamic era, there is no
>mention of it in the Qur'an or in the narrations of the Infallibles. As long
>as smoking was not known to have any bad effect on health, the Shia jurists
>(Mujtahideen) had classified it under Ja'iz (permissible) acts. However, after
>the advances in medical science, this issue has been re-evaluated. Presently,
>there are a variety of opinions:
>The late Ayatollah Khomeini had decreed that those who are addicted may
>continue to smoke, but the non-smokers are not allowed to start smoking. He
>hoped to see the next generation of his followers as non-smokers.
>Most of the other jurists of this era, including the late Ayatollah al-Khoei,
>Ayatollah Sistani, Ayatollah Khamenei, and others are of the opinion that if
>smoking is harmful to one's health, then it is forbidden for that person to
>smoke or let the smoke reach others as the second-hand smoke. These jurists
>have put the onus on the individual to find out whether smoking is harmful or
>not.
>Ayatollah Nasir Makarem Shirazi also had the same opinion, but then he moved
>away from that position and has declared that, based on convincing expert
>testimonies, smoking is prohibited in an absolute sense.
>The prohibition of smoking – conditional or absolute – is based on the general
>guidance of theShari'ah sources: the Qur'an and Hadith. For example, the
>Qur'an says: "And do not put yourselves by your hands into destruction. "
>(2:195) By looking at the statistics about diseases caused or accelerated by
>inhaling smoke, one does not hesitate in applying the above verse to the case
>of smoking cigarettes.
>What about Shisha, which has recently become very popular among Muslim youths
>in the West? (Shisha is also known as Huqqa in Urdu and Qalyan in Farsi.) If
>tobacco is used in Shisha, and the use of tobacco in it has the same effect as
>in cigarettes, then the same rule would apply.
>The great teacher Martyr Shaikh Murtadha Mutahhari talked about different
>kinds of Hijra – migration. He quotes a narration: "An immigrant is one who
>abandons the evil." So, one type of Hijra is whereby a person abandons
>("migrates from") an addiction. Then the Martyr described an interesting
>example of addiction to smoking:
>"The late Ayatollah Hujjat (may Allah elevate his status) was a chain-smoker
>like whom I have never seen before. Sometimes, he would light a new one even
>before his first cigarette would end. When he became ill, they took him to
>Tehran for treatment. The doctors advised him that since he also had
>respiratory problem, he should quit smoking. He initially joked and said, 'I
>want these lungs for smoking; if I can't smoke, then what's the use of these
>lungs?' The doctors said that smoking is dangerous for you and really Mudhir
>(harmful). He asked, 'It is harmful?' They replied, 'Yes.' Then he said, 'I
>will not smoke.' Just that one sentence – 'I will not smoke' – was the end of
>the story. This was the example of willpower and decision-making. He was
>indeed an example of one who 'migrates' from habits [which he finds out to be
>harmful]." (Guftar-hay-e Ma'nawy, p. 292)
>Sayyid Muhammad Rizvi is the resident scholar of the Jaffari Islamic Center in
>Toronto, Canada. He is the author of Islam: Faith, Practice, and History,
>Shi'ism: Imamat and Wilayat, and numerous other books and articles on Islamic
>affairs.
>This article originally appeared in the author's Al-Furqannewsletter. Health
>and Wellness in Islam - (0 comments)
> "The Significance of Ziaarat e Ashoora - (0 comments)
> "The last will and testament of Imam Ali (AS) - (0 comments)
> Marriage,a great worship. - (0 comments)
> Son of the One - (0 comments)
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>Traditions highlight that rememberence is the key that increases love and
>affection.We should remember and discuss about imam excessively that even if
>our tongue tire, our hearts should not be satiated and our thrust should not
>be quenched.
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>>we must maintain close contacts with our beloved ones our relatives, our
>>friends and brethern in faith. We should help our all brethern in faith, in
>>their problems. Do not forget unbelievers will not help you because you are
>>muslim and so called muslims will not help you because you are shane ali,
>>lover of ahlulbaith , friend of allah and islam. then who will help you? We
>>should know what is going on with our brethern in faith in other part of
>>world. come forward to help your brother in faith and guide them.
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