Book of Healing - Qur'anic Healing - Real Health
Real Health
Tags: Health, Sound heart, Qalb-i salim, Sullam, Heavenly Ladder, Spiritual progress
1. As has already been explained, according to the wise Qur'an, the worst and the most fatal spiritual disease is unbelief and hypocrisy, which is in the hearts of the unbelievers and hypocrites. And in contrast to this, the best and most salutary health which has pure life, is in the form of submission, faith, light of knowledge and recognition, which in the holy Qur'an is mentioned as the sound heart (26:89; 37:84). Such a pure and illumined heart, which is perfectly healthy according to the standard fixed by God, the Exalted, is the blessed heart of the Prophets and awliya', which the people of faith can also attain through complete obedience. That is, such a sound heart, with its paragon of beauty and grace, can be attained only in the last station of the spiritual journey, or after climbing the ladder of ascent. A diagram of physical and spiritual creation and completion and ascent and elevation of man is given below. Look at it carefully.
2. The creation and development of the human personality starts from the spheres, which continue to influence the elements. From the elements is created the body. In the body, the vegetative soul comes into being, upon which rests the animal soul. On the animal soul rests the carnal soul (12:53). If this soul is improved, it transforms into the censoring soul (75:2) and the censoring soul, through knowledge and good deeds, becomes the satisfied soul (89:27); and thereafter, comes the sound heart, which is the ultimate and real health of man and also the goal of his creation and completion.
3. The wise Qur'an has used many examples in order to make the human reality understandable. One of these examples is that of a ladder, which is extremely important. It is such a clear and understandable sign that by this, the human ascent and elevation can be definitely understood, not only by the intelligent, but by everyone. Thus, if you look at it carefully and judge realistically about yourself, then in the heart of hearts, you can be convinced at which step of this ascending ladder you have been blocked and why? This obstacle, in reality, is a hidden disease which, by the grace of God you can cure yourself of.
4. It is the usual habit of man that he always thinks of the body and forgets the soul, due to which he suffers a very great loss. The noble Qur'an has emphatically drawn attention towards this loss in the wisdom-filled verse: "By the time, verily man is in loss, except those who believe and do good deeds and exhort one another to truth and exhort one another to patience." (103:3). Here, in perfect faith, good deeds, truth and patience are contained all the important meanings of religion, and he who is without these attributes is in great loss. The first and foremost loss is that he will not be able to attain the sound heart, the attainment of which includes everything.
5. In a sacred Hadith, it is said: "I was a hidden treasure, I wanted to be recognised, then I created the creatures (i.e. the people of recognition (ma`rifat), in particular) (Ahadith-i Mathnawi, p. 29)." For, the purpose of this creation cannot be complete without the `arifs. For an `arif is the one who attains the recognition of God through effacement and annihilation, by two means:
- He annihilates himself in a perfect murshid, who has become annihilated in the Prophet and God.
- Then he, by becoming annihilated in the Prophet, becomes annihilated in God, and finds God as a hidden treasure. If someone, due to his self-created diseases, cannot attain this extremely great and everlasting treasure, it is his greatest loss, which has been mentioned in reference to verse (103:1-3). Think about the diagram of the ladder of spiritual progress which is shown above.
6. Which knowledge and wisdom does not exist in the Qur'an? It is a Book, perfect and complete, which explains everything (16:89). Thus in verses (28:88; 5:27), there is the wisdom-filled allusion to annihilation in God (fana' fi'llah). And it is true that the means of merging in the Absolute Light is the sufic annihilation, which, besides these verses, is also mentioned in other verses of the holy Qur'an.
7. Another Qur'anic name of ladder is sullam (6:35; 52:38). It is called sullam because, man reaches the higher (world) with safety through it (Lughatu'l-Qur'an, III, 226). This is its literal analysis. Now, on the basis of this example, we can say that there is also a heavenly (spiritual) ladder, which is the means of ascending towards the real health and peace, which is the level of annihilation in God. Annihilation in God has many synonyms, or explanations, such as, to merge in the truth, to enter the abode of peace (10:25), which is Paradise, to attain the hidden treasure through the recognition of God, be martyred in the love of God and become immortal (57:19), to go to the presence of God all alone (6:94), to return unto God (2:156), ascent of the angels and Spirit (70:4) and according to a sacred Hadith, God becoming the ear, eye, etc, of His close servant. All these realities are related to annihilation in God.
8. The subtle existence of Adam and man is a unique thing. Even if you use all the similitudes of the world to explain whatever is unique, they will still fall short. As water does not have a fixed form of its own, therefore it will have as many different forms as the different pots in which it is poured. Thus, one of the innumerable examples of man is a ladder. That is, the Perfect Man in actuality and every ordinary human being potentially, are like a ladder, which is set up to climb to the heaven of spirituality. Certainly in this sense it is said that God, the Blessed, the Exalted, is the Lord of the ladders (70:3). This becomes known to a salik, only when he attains the practical recognition of the three annihilations (i.e. annihilation in the murshid, annihilation in the Prophet and annihilation in God).
9. It is appropriate, to ask an important question here for the sake of understanding, which is: "What is the salient difference between external or physical health and sickness?" The answer is:
- A healthy person feels peace and comfort, while a sick person suffers pain and discomfort.
- A healthy person always receives great pleasure and happiness from each and every bounty of life, while the sick feels displeasure and deprivation in every kind of bounty.
- A healthy person accomplishes all his work diligently, but the sick cannot accomplish any work.
Now the same is the case of the internal or spiritual health and sickness. However, there is one more problem about the spiritual aspect of human life, which is that the one whose thinking is confined to animal life and who is unaware of the spiritual and intellectual bounties of Islam, cannot feel his internal diseases.
10. What is the difference between a worldly and a truly religious man? The difference between them is not external, it is internal. That is, the religious person has the soul of faith (ruhu'l-iman), while the worldly man does not have it. Thus, the fortunate one who has been revived in the soul of faith, feels or realises his inner diseases and always searches for real health. Although the real health is in Paradise, it is from this world that one has to go with a healthy intellect and soul (qalb-i salim) (26:89) to the presence of God, otherwise there will be great disappointment and regret.
11. It is a fact that, unless a sick person feels pain, the doctor does not give him any medicine. But how is it possible to see or know or feel one's own inner diseases? It is possible to do so in the light of faith and knowledge. That is to say, when the Muslims and mu'mins, in the light of knowledge of certainty, begin to know about the possible progress of the spirit and spirituality and about abundant inner spiritual wealth, then they can also realise why there has been a delay in attaining the hidden treasure. In short, it should be understood that confession of disobedience and repentance by a faithful servant is the feeling of sickness and having recourse to a remedy. But (in order to gain spiritual health) it is necessary to act upon repentance in a true sense.
12. The purpose of what has been explained in this book is to make the readers realise vehemently, that in comparison to external diseases, internal diseases are far more dangerous and fatal, for they are neither seen nor felt. They attack like a dangerous arch-enemy, who is engaged in eradicating someone day and night through extremely secret movements. On the other hand, external diseases cannot harm faith, soul and intellect. Rather, it is possible that God, the Knowing, the Wise, may make such an unjust enmity extremely beneficial for the mu'min, whereas in the case of inner diseases, there is nothing but countless losses and perditions. Therefore, it is the duty of every individual Muslim to struggle strenuously, day and night, to reach the spiritual place of real health.
17 Sha'ban, 1406/27th April, 1986.
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