Spirituality and Mental Well-Being in Islam
Mental and spiritual well-being is paramount in Islam. When we are unhealthy, we cannot fulfil our dual responsibilities of serving Allah and acting as His trustees on Earth. Therefore, holistic self-care which includes understanding human nature from an Islamic perspective is extremely important.
Allah s.w.t. says in the Quran,
وَإِذَا مَرِضْتُ فَهُوَ يَشْفِينِ
“And when I am ill, it is He who cures me”
(Surah Ash-Shu’ara’, 26:80)
Our beloved Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. said,
تَدَاوَوْا عِبَادَ اللَّهِ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ سُبْحَانَهُ لَمْ يَضَعْ دَاءً إِلاَّ وَضَعَ مَعَهُ شِفَاءً إِلاَّ الْهَرَمَ
“Seek treatments O servants of Allah! For Allah does not create any disease, but He also creates it with the cure except for old age.”
(Sunan Ibn Majah)
Health in Islam is of the utmost importance. A healthy body enables a Muslim to perform both his or her Divinely-ordained responsibilities, as an ‘abd (servant) and khalifah (trustee) of Allah, to the best of their abilities. It starts with the selection of halal (permissible) and tayyib(nutritional and balanced) food taken in reasonable quantities over periods of time.1
This leads to a healthy body, with healthy emotions, psyche and a spiritual human being who contributes positively to his or her community and society. The branch of knowledge that deals with health and diseases within the Islamic Intellectual tradition is Islamic medical science. This category of knowledge has been defined as a “branch of knowledge which deals with the states of health and disease in the human body, with the purpose of employing suitable means for preserving health”2.
Sultan Bayezid II Complex: Hospital & School of Medicine, Edirne, Turkiye, (b. 1488). This complex consists of various facilities, including a Mosque, offices and a food storage area, but the most distinct and significant functions are the hospital and a College of Medicine practising Islamic medical sciences. Now it has been preserved and converted into a museum.
The default state of the human being is being healthy with occasional instances of illnesses that the human constituents go into disequilibrium. The role of physicians or doctors or any kind of medical practitioner within the Islamic medicinal system is to restore the “equilibrium across all components of the human psyche [behavioural inclinations (nafs), cognition (‘aql), spirit (ruh) and emotional expressions of the primary components (ihsas)3 that lead to an integrative whole or unity of being that is accompanied by a healthy heart (qalb salim)”4. They are to employ suitable means for the preservation of that normal state of health or for its restoration in cases where the person has been afflicted with a disease or an illness.
Spiritual and mental health in Islam must be understood within this holistic system of maintaining harmony, balance and equilibrium of the human psyche or its restoration when the body or any parts of the human constitutions have been afflicted with illness or disease. This particular branch of knowledge within the medicinal system in Islam is given the name of ‘ilm al-nafs loosely translated and understood now as Islamic psychology.
Brief Historical Origins and Contributions in ‘Ilm Al-Nafs(Islamic Psychology)
The field of ‘ilm al-nafs focuses on the self. It studies the fundamental constitutions of the human beings, their respective functions, their interactions with one another, the diseases that can be inflicted upon them, the methods of prevention from sickness and the maintenance of holistic well-being of these respective constitutions.
Read: What is Mental health and Well-Being in Islam?
This area of study is developed by drawing from the two revelatory sources, which are the Quran and the Hadith (traditions of t
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