There’s a common perception among Muslims – when a non-Muslim, rich individual commits suicide, which isn’t a new news, Muslims start talking about how 1, suicide is Haram and 2, “if they were Muslim, they would’ve never felt the need to take their life away.”
While they ideology may differ, many Muslims believe that Quran helps in curing depression and other mental health concerns such as anxiety. In addition to this, whenever someone expresses how they are facing mental health concerns, many Muslims assume it is due to being away from the religion and not reading Quran enough. While Quran and Islamic activities can relax your mind, bring you closer to God, just like all other health problems, mental health cannot be cured entirely without having it properly treated.
Rahma Uneeb Narrates An Incident from her Quran Class Where Other Students Believe Anxiety Is Linked with Low Emaan!
Sitting at a Quran class, I hear that oft-repeated assumption that anxiety is a cause of low emaan. “Oh no, here goes again”, I think to myself. It is interesting to note the use of the words chosen and the impression that comes across from the speaker. One mustn’t complain about their situation and have tawakkul on Allah, it is said. “You know what, this is now actually a medical condition” she says with an air of authority that escapes the harrowing experience of an anxiety sufferer. These assumptions and opinions that were voiced in a group of older aged women who probably buy into that narrative of low-emaan= bad mental health made red flags go up in my head because of the long-term implications of considerably harmless comments made about an entire community of mentally ill people in the Muslim society.
Here is my response to these and other comments made. Is there a link between low emaan and anxiety? To be honest, you need to be dead clear by what you mean by anxiety. In my understanding, the anxiety of the soul caused by low emaan is very different from the anxiety of the mind which is a very medical and psychological condition. Having said that I would emphasize how important it is to not guilt-trip these sufferers because their state of mind already tells them that they are not good Muslims, they are not doing enough in terms of their worship and ibadaah and that Allah either hates them or is punishing them. I would further cite examples of people who’ve had panic attacks on prayer mats in the middle of Ramadan after a spiritual high. A crucial crucial reframing needs to take place.
“ANXIETY DISORDERS AND MENTAL ILLNESSES ARE A TRIAL from Allah,”
One which is very testing. One which requires other Muslims to help it heal. There are benefits of being at the side of the sick person. Let me tell you how you can substantially improve your rewards by being at the side of a mentally ill person who has already been stigmatized and self-stigmatizes themselves. The best way to be there for someone suffering from a mental illness is to understand it, empathize with it, try to let go of judgement, educate yourself about it, try to see what is sensitive and insensitive to say, ask Allah for hikmaat in how you deal with them.
My second response is to be very careful when ‘othering’ this community. Talking about such Muslims in a way that they are some other species or they aren’t sitting in that class losing sleep on bad phases is a very hurtful thing to do. Muslims come in all shapes, sizes and mental states of mind and piety is the key to their status with Allah. I have often sensed a sort of arrogance in such comments that imply that somehow these Muslims are inferior to other more practicing Muslims. And I would want to say this in so many ways. MENTALLY ILL MUSLIMS ARE STRONG. VERY STRONG. And Allah is a witness to this. Let’s put you through days on end without sense of normality or peace or happiness and then see if you come out as strong as these beautiful gems of people. These mentally-strong people who have struggled with their minds.
Lastly, I want to talk about tawakul and anxiety and how this links up. Anxiety is a medical state of mind that makes it difficult to trust Allah sometimes, this is not because someone lacks tawakul. Just cause their mind is so clouded with fear that it gets hard to even hold on to things they solidly believe. But yet Muslims who continue their worship, continue to go one more day fasting in Ramadan and who look up to the sky while in an anxious phase DO have a level of trust in Allah. For them to keep fighting, to continue holding on to emaan, for them to move past the stereotypes applied to them and to know that Allah alone understands their state of mind is tawakul. And then Allah knows best, one’s accountability depends on their ability and if someone’s ability is compromised during a bad mental health, more empathy and less judgment are needed.
In short, please please please be kind, be sensitive, be careful. These are Allah’s beautiful souls and we as a community will be accountable for what we say, how we say it and the impact our words and actions have on others.
What we need to collectively understand is how religion, Quran, and Namaz can ease our minds and make it easy for us to communicate with Allah, but if we are facing mental concerns such as anxiety, they need to be cured through a proper channel.
