Praise be to God, Lord of the worlds, and blessings and peace upon the one sent as mercy to the worlds, his family, and all his Companions.
To proceed:
The author of this article began on a sound Salafi path, then later changed and worked as a ‘human development’ trainer. This criticism offers him advice and a reminder because he is a Muslim who accepts God as Lord, Islam as religion, and Muhammad as Prophet and Messenger. Had he been an atheist, God forbid, severed from God, advice and reminders would have no such occasion. We nevertheless strive for correctness and approximation to it.
It is painful that the atheistic materialist tendency should influence Muslims to this extent, especially those working in this imported discipline, ‘human development’, whether knowingly or unknowingly, intentionally or unintentionally. Each is judged according to his situation, and God knows intentions best. We judge appearances and God attends to hidden matters; we do not judge anyone on suspicion.
Some friends sent me this article. I found it devoid of connecting people to God and excessive in its emphasis on material causes. Its author did not mention his Lord to thank Him for recovery, supplicate at the beginning of his illness, remember Him, or seek refuge in Him during it, though all command belongs to Him before and after: {He who created me guides me (78); He feeds me and gives me drink (79); when I am ill, He heals me (80); He causes me to die, then brings me to life (81)} [al-Shuara].
At the beginning he says:
“During the first three days, when symptoms were mild, I recalled all the psychological concepts I had studied over the years: physical exercises, meditation and natural breathing exercises, and maintaining a good psychological state.”
He recalled every concept studied over the years except religious concepts! Where is returning to God and seeking refuge in Him? {We test you with evil and good as a trial, and to Us you will return (35)} [al-Anbiya]. God says: {We tested them with good things and bad, so that perhaps they would return (168)} [al-Araf].
‘Good things’ here means blessings such as fertility, prosperity, health, honour, victory over enemies, and the like. ‘Bad things’ means calamities such as illnesses, enemies gaining power, earthquakes, violent winds, destructive floods, and similar things.
He then says:
“I approached the matter positively, controlled my feelings, and reassured family and friends that it was simple, that in a few days I would defeat the virus, and that I trusted my body and psychological condition…”
He approached illness positively and controlled his feelings. How would he then defeat it? Because he trusted his body and psychological condition. Where is reliance on God and entrusting matters to Him? {To God belongs the unseen of the heavens and earth, and to Him every matter returns. Worship Him and rely upon Him; your Lord is not unaware of what you do (123)} [Hud]. Where is seeking healing from Him, standing before Him, taking refuge in Him, and acknowledging need of Him? Where is seeking help through patience and prayer? God says: {Seek help through patience and prayer; it is indeed difficult except for the humble (45)} [al-Baqarah].
Hudhayfah said: When a matter distressed the Prophet, he prayed. Abu Dawud narrated it (1319), and al-Albani authenticated it in Sahih Abi Dawud. ‘A matter distressed him’ means a severe matter befell him.
Ibn al-Qayyim said: “Prayer is among the greatest aids in attaining the benefits of this world and the Hereafter and repelling their harms. It restrains sin, repels diseases of the heart, and drives illness from the body…” Zad al-Maad, 4/299, Dar Alam al-Fawaid edition.
He did not train in these things; he trained in trusting and relying upon himself!
After the first shock, whose cause he did not know, ‘for an unknown reason’, as he puts it, he says:
“I regained my psychological energy, drew upon determination, and took practical measures: vitamins, treatment, exercise, and sunshine.”
He thus blamed material causes and began restoring his psychological condition and resolve and taking material measures. Where are the religious means? {And Job, when he called to his Lord: Harm has touched me, and You are the Most Merciful of the merciful (83). We answered him, removed his suffering, and gave him his family and as many again, as mercy from Us and a reminder to worshippers (84)} [al-Anbiya].
Ibn al-Qayyim said: “In this supplication he combined the reality of God’s oneness, manifesting poverty and need before his Lord, tasting love in humbly entreating Him, acknowledging His attribute of mercy and that He is the Most Merciful, seeking His favour through His attributes, and expressing his own intense need and poverty. Whenever an afflicted person finds this, his affliction is removed.” Al-Fawaid, p. 292, Alam al-Fawaid edition.
“God’s account of Job’s supplication explains that among the greatest causes of relief are supplicating to Him, entreating Him, humbling oneself before Him, manifesting need in His presence, remembering Him by His beautiful names and lofty attributes, and approaching Him through these.” Fiqh al-Adiyah wa-l-Adhkar, 2/393, Kunuz Ishbiliya edition.
We do not reject taking material measures within religious limits. We reject reliance on them without taking religious measures. The problem with ‘human development’ practitioners is that they educate people materially, weakening their connection to God.
He then attributes the second shock, fainting, to his psychological condition being affected by a doctor’s words, without which what happened would not have happened. He says:
“I do not know whether the doctor’s words negatively affected me psychologically, making me anticipate what would happen that day and increasing tension. As is known, anxiety and tension affect the strength of the body’s immunity!”
Where is belief in divine decree and destiny? Abdullah reported: The Prophet drew a square, a line through its middle extending beyond it, and small lines towards the middle line from its side. He said: “This is the human being, and this is his appointed term surrounding him. What extends beyond it is his hope, and these small lines are the afflictions. If one misses him, another bites him; if that misses him, another bites him.” Al-Bukhari narrated it (6417).
‘Afflictions’ means the trials and calamities that befall him. ‘Bites him’ means strikes him; biting here means taking something with the front teeth.
After examinations he considered taking plasma, but doctors told him his condition did not require it and that the procedure required a specialist’s instruction. He then says:
“This made me seriously consider that I did not need plasma and that others needed it more than I did. I called the brother, thanked him for his initiative, and told him that others needed the plasma he had more than I did.”
He was not given plasma in the first place for us to say he preferred others to himself! According to his own claim, he relied on himself to repel illness, gave charity to others, and preferred them to himself!
On the fifteenth day, this person dependent upon God announced that he had defeated the illness:
“On the fifteenth day things changed, my temperature fell and the storm subsided. Then I announced my victory over the virus.”
God says: {People, you are the ones in need of God, while God is the Self-Sufficient, the Praiseworthy (15). If He wills, He can remove you and bring a new creation (16). That is not difficult for God (17)} [Fatir].
When people say ‘I conquered the illness’ or ‘I defeated the illness’, they generally intend no objectionable meaning. Such expressions are permissible as broad figures of speech, and there appears no harm in this latitude, God willing.
However, some atheists use such expressions to mean that humans challenged and overcame destiny. This is unbelief and falsehood. No one can repel destiny except through destiny itself, by employing means God has decreed to repel affliction, such as treatment, dietary restraint, and supplication. Thawban reported that the Messenger said: “Nothing repels destiny except supplication.” Narrated by Ibn Majah (90) and Ahmad (22386), and graded good by al-Albani in Sahih Ibn Majah.
Supplication itself is among what God decrees. Destiny is repelled through destiny, and a servant only flees from God’s decree to God’s decree. No one can overcome destiny. Rather, as God says: {God prevails over His affair, but most people do not know (21)} [Yusuf].
It is therefore preferable to avoid such expressions and attribute the favour to God. All favour is in His hand, and He grants it to whom He wills.
Finally he says:
“I write about this experience not to frighten anyone, God forbid, but I hope everyone will be cautious and take precautions: a mask, not touching the nose, drinking water regularly, and keeping physical distance from people.”
Always taking measures, but which measures? Material ones! This is how ‘human development’ trainers teach people to depend on themselves and their bodies in every matter, even those from which humans cannot free themselves without God’s help.
Someone may ask: Why interpret the man’s words this way? He only wanted to explain his condition and how he dealt with illness so people could benefit from his experience. Why this harshness?
I answer: He entitled the article ‘My Experience with Coronavirus’, describing his condition in those days and how he dealt with illness in every sphere. Our upright religion considers this dimension and does not neglect it. Scholars therefore wrote extensively on Prophetic medicine. Anyone wishing to examine it closely should consult Ibn al-Qayyim’s Zad al-Maad. In its fourth volume, on Prophetic medicine, he describes the law of divine wisdom concerning disease and treatment:
“There are remedies that heal diseases to which the minds of the greatest physicians have not been guided and which their knowledge, experience, and reasoning have not reached: remedies of the heart and spirit, the heart’s strength and dependence upon God, reliance upon Him and refuge in Him, throwing oneself down and becoming broken before Him, humility towards Him, charity, prayer, supplication, repentance, seeking forgiveness, kindness to creation, helping the distressed, and relieving the afflicted. Nations of various religions and creeds have tried these remedies and found effects upon healing beyond the knowledge, experience, or reasoning of the most learned physician.
We and others have experienced many such things and seen them achieve what physical medicines cannot. Indeed, physical medicines become, beside them, like the remedies of street practitioners beside those of physicians. This accords with divine wisdom’s law and does not depart from it. Causes, however, are diverse. When the heart connects with the Lord of the worlds, the Creator of disease and remedy, who manages nature and directs it as He wills, it possesses remedies other than those used by a heart distant from and turned away from Him. It is known that when spirits become strong and the soul and bodily constitution strengthen, they cooperate to repel and conquer illness. How can it be denied that a person whose constitution and soul are strong, rejoicing in nearness to their Creator, intimacy with Him, love for Him, delight in remembering Him, directing and gathering all their powers towards Him, seeking His help and relying upon Him, may find this among the greatest remedies, and that this strength may completely repel pain? Only the most ignorant, heavily veiled, coarse-souled, and distant from God and true humanity deny this.” Zad al-Maad fi Hady Khayr al-Ibad, 4/13-14.
God’s Book and His Prophet’s Sunnah contain what delights every Muslim: explanations of the reward for patiently enduring illness, returning to God, and asking Him for healing and well-being. We ask Almighty God to heal sick Muslims.
We advise the article’s author to return to the Book and Sunnah, which contain healing for hearts and bodies. We ask God to help him abandon this discipline. He is the best One asked and the most generous Giver.
Praise be to God, first and last.