Text of the post:
Did you know that interrupting your worship and prayer may deprive you of psychological comfort in life? This is confirmed by analytical studies in psychology. A believer by nature needs to satisfy spiritual needs, so regular worship and prayer help remove anxiety and bring comfort.
Comment:
1. God prescribed acts of worship so that we might draw near to Him and fulfil the purpose for which He created us: revering and glorifying Him. Acts of worship are themselves the purpose of human creation. God says: “I did not create jinn and humankind except to worship Me” [al-Dhariyat: 56].
2. Psychological comfort, physical health and all worldly benefits are fruits and benefits of worship. In His mercy, God made them incentives to steadfastness and consistency, not ends for whose sake worship is sought.
3. “Psychological comfort” is an ambiguous expression among many who use it as the purpose of worship and obedience. If it means tranquillity in God through relying on Him, being content with Him and His judgement and decree, acting to please Him and having certainty in His promise, then this comfort is undoubtedly an end to seek, for which worship was prescribed. It falls under His words: “Surely, in the remembrance of God hearts find tranquillity” [al-Ra‘d: 28]. It is the serenity sent down upon believers: “It is He who sent tranquillity into the believers’ hearts so that they might increase in faith alongside their faith. To God belong the forces of the heavens and the earth, and God is All-Knowing, All-Wise” [al-Fath: 4].
If, however, the expression means merely calmness, freedom from anxiety, depression or mood disturbance and similar things, these are only fruits and benefits of realising worship’s true purpose. Many people with false and even unbelieving creeds experience psychological comfort while content with their falsehood. This is self-deception and Satan’s enticement. Not everyone who experiences worldly psychological comfort in worship and religious practice has fulfilled what is required. What matters are two fundamental conditions without which God accepts no worship: sincerity and following the prophetic guidance.
4. Meeting spiritual needs is required because the human being is a weak, needy creature who continually feels the need for someone to strengthen his weakness and remedy his poverty. If innate nature is free from distortion, it directs a person only to God, the only One capable of this, self-sufficient and strong in Himself, while everything else is inherently needy and incapable. This post makes meeting spiritual needs specific to the believer, who therefore supposedly needs worship because he is naturally believing! It implies that worship offers no benefit to an unbeliever who feels no anxiety or psychological disturbance. This confirms what we explained: many who identify psychological comfort as a benefit of worship mean only worldly benefit. They assign it to the naturally religious person, while the non-religious person’s comfort follows his inclinations. This reverses realities, turning means into ends and ends into means. The truth is that everyone is required to worship and that human well-being in this world and the hereafter comes only through worshipping one’s Lord. Psychological comfort in the correct religious sense is realised only by the believer. The non-believer’s illusory psychological comfort is “like a mirage on a level plain which the thirsty person mistakes for water, until he reaches it and finds nothing, but finds God there, who pays him his account in full; and God is swift in reckoning” [al-Nur: 39].
5. People vary greatly in intellectual, psychological and physical capacities, endurance of hardships, pain and suffering, and patience in the face of shocks and tragedies. This variation comes from God’s decree and His profound wisdom in assigning people different degrees so that trials and testing take place in this world. God says: “Do they distribute your Lord’s mercy? We have distributed among them their livelihood in worldly life and raised some above others in degrees so that some may employ others in service. Your Lord’s mercy is better than what they accumulate” [al-Zukhruf: 32].
Accordingly, a Muslim’s regular worship, obedience and righteous deeds do not prevent illness and disease as trials from God, tests, expiation of sins and elevation of ranks. These include psychological illnesses, anxiety, mental disturbance, epilepsy, possession by jinn, sorcery and other things causing distress, anxiety, depression, sadness and weakened will and ability. These human conditions are shared by monotheists and polytheists, worshippers and sinners, righteous and wicked. The believer, however, relies on God and seeks His help, turning affliction into an opportunity to seek reward and draw near to Him. There is always good in the believer and he remains in a good condition. The Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “The strong believer is better and more beloved to God than the weak believer, though there is good in both. Be eager for what benefits you, seek God’s help and do not give up. If something befalls you, do not say, ‘If only I had done such-and-such.’ Rather say, ‘God decreed, and He does what He wills’, for ‘if only’ opens the way for Satan’s work.” Reported by Muslim from Abu Hurayrah, may God be pleased with him.
The Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him, also said: “How remarkable is the believer’s situation! All his affairs are good, and this belongs only to the believer. If prosperity comes, he gives thanks, and that is good for him; if adversity comes, he is patient, and that is good for him.” Reported by Muslim from Suhayb, may God be pleased with him.
6. We therefore say that the claims spread by advocates of personal development, training courses and supposed energy and spirituality, that every defect, fault, deficiency and incapacity people possess is their own doing and choice and can be overcome through these modern methods, are false. They make self-confidence, summoning positive energy and expelling negative energy the basis of this, until we heard a leading figure report that when someone complained of illness, he answered: “Why did you decide to become ill?” All this arises from an atheistic, material tendency and deviation from God’s straight path and sound guidance. It also deceives simple people by suggesting that intellectual, psychological and physical differences with which God created and tested them can be abolished, their effects bypassed and controlled. These people have contradicted religious law, denied facts and stubbornly refused to acknowledge the reality a person lives and struggles with as soon as he leaves their deceptive training sessions. To God belongs the command before and after, and praise in this world and the hereafter.
For more, see:
– People’s Positions on the Benefit and Wisdom of Worship.
– Supplication and Psychological Anxiety.