Complementary Therapies Part 11- Islamic Healing
People who can make sense of their illness, can repair their life story and have a far better chance of living a life they aspire to live beyond their medical prognosis. Do not neglect your mental or spiritual health, because soon it will take its toll on your physical body.
Dear Readers,
Some illnesses are very complex and very baffling to understand. After completing the ED treatment, one is faced with many challenges. All of a sudden ED haze has lifted and one is forced to face the reality of life. ED is not caused by just one particular event or cause, there are many factors involved. There is much more to ED than following a meal plan and maintaining a healthy weight. Therefore, it’s very important that after completing the treatment (or leaving the treatment in middle), whatever your ED, or whatever stage of your ED/ED recovery journey you are at, one keep up with their well-being and don’t take any chances with their physical, mental and spiritual health. One reason why so many people relapse, soon after leaving the treatment is because they still have not uncovered the underlying cause of their illness or have come to acknowledge their deep inner pain and wounds. Instead of acknowledging the underlying cause, many tend to hide their condition. Many also feel a sense of shame and judge themselves as weak not being able to get on with life. Sadly for me psychotherapy failed and so did Cognitive Behavior Therapy. Going back through my past, looking for childhood trauma, and something in my family history that caused my ED turned into a disaster. Week after Week, I would come back home and fire nonsensical questions at my family. Everyone went through sheer hell with my therapy. I got so deep into my ED that the only way out was either death or forced feeding and locking me up in a cell for rest of my life. At the ED unit, I was promised by treatment team that once my weight had been restored, my anxiety, depression and insomnia will also disappear, sadly it didn’t. In fact, treatment team was shocked, when they discovered that with weight gain, I developed Insomnia and overly active mind. After leaving the treatment center, I was left on my own devices, I then embarked on a healing journey and used Islamic Healing to help me deal with many things, mainly healing my emotions. Here I cover part of Islamic Healing. Islamic Healing is a very vast subject and I can’t cover all of it here. I’ve covered healing your Eating Disorder through the Prophetic Foods on this Blog and I’ll try to cover other parts as well, but meanwhile please find a brief version of Islamic Healing below.
Healing
Healers believe that healing energy exists all around us, and that they act as a channel through which healing energy flows into the patient. Healing can provide an important and very valuable support for the person after the treatment or suffering from ED and his or her family. When everything fails, from psychological treatment to conventional medicine, people are left with very little choice but to submit themselves to Higher Power.
Islamic Healing
According to Imam Ghazali, illness increases faith and brings man closer to God. Knowing this nature, we are told by the Qur’an – “O you who believe, seek help with patience and prayers, as God is with those who patiently persevere” (Al-Baqarah: 2:153).
Islamic Healing is based on the knowledge extracted from Qur’an and Sunnah (sayings of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). It is a complete natural holistic soul mind body healing. It is the healing of the inner person, the spirit, heart and the deep mind.
Islamic Healing is:
The healing of memories.
The healing of the wounds created by others as well as personal choices.
The releasing of bondages, addictions and compulsive behaviors.
Freeing oneself from pain and releasing oneself from anxiety and depression.
Removing the footholds that allow ED infestation.
Filling the empty desolate places in our lives with developing a deeper consciousness.
Working deeply in a person to bring forth the true self.
Prayer/Salat
“Remember thy Lord much and praise Him in the evening and morning” (Surat Al Imran: 3:41).
Prayer must be performed five times a day. While the true purpose of salat and fasting are to reach God’s proximity, it can also give spiritual nourishment and harmonize the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual life. I’ve covered this topic before. Please read the Post here:
Qur’anic Healing
We have to pay attention to our emotional health. According to Matthew Manning: Emotional experiences make us who we are; they are our own personal histories woven into the fabric of our brains. But it is not just moments of extreme emotions that leave their mark. Everyday the aftershocks of past emotional upheavals are influencing our actions and silently nudging us toward decisions. Although we may be oblivious to this process, in every moment of our lives we are influenced by the resonance of our past.
This showed me that I had to work on myself to really set myself free from all those limiting emotions. Emotions have the power to disrupt our immune system and affect our hormone levels.
“O mankind, there has come unto you a direction from your Lord and a healing for the heart and for those who believe in guidance and mercy” (Surat Yunus: 10:57).
The best medicine to cure all illnesses is the Holy Qur’an. Each and every prescribed Qur’anic verse has its unique healing property.
“We have sent down in the Qur’an that which is healing and a mercy to those who believe” (Surat Al-Isra: 17:82).
Healing By Listening to Qur’an
The Holy Qur’an recitation sound has wave sounds that have a certain frequency and a certain wave length. These waves spread wave fields that affect the brain positively and restore its balance. This grants the body a strong immunity to resist illnesses or diseases such as Cancer . Listening to the recitation of the Holy Qur’an has been shown in a study conducted by Dr. Ahmed E. Kadi and his associates to lower blood pressure, heart rate, and to cause smooth muscle relaxation. (1)
The Amazing Effect resulting From Listening to Qur’an by Abduldaem Al-Kaheel
Abduldaem experienced many benefits from listening to the recitation of Holy Qur’an. It gave him following results:
- increase the immunity of the body
- enhance the creativity sense
- improve the concentration ability
- heal the chronic and incurable illnesses
- change the behavior and enable people to communicate better and gain trust
- create inner peace and heal the neural tensions
- heal nervousness, irritation and precipitation
- improve the ability of taking right decisions
- decrease fear and hesitation
- improve and strengthen the personality
- heal the normal illnesses such as allergy, headache, flu ,etc.
- improve the speech ability
- protect from diseases such as cancer and so on
- Change some bad habits such as excessive eating and smoking
It is postulated that the echo target of “Alif Lam Meem” (the first three words of Surat Al-Baqarah-the 2nd chapter of the Qur’an) is in the heart and that of Ya-seen (chapter 36) is in the pituitary gland of the brain. (2)
Before Going to Sleep
The Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) advised us to say following prayers from Qur’an before going to sleep.
Surah Ikhlas, Al Falaq, Annas and/or last verse of Al Baqarah (2:286).
3 Kuls
You can Listen to this Here. It’s Recited beautifully by Mishary Al-Afasi.
The Heart
Everything has a heart and the heart of Quran is (Surah) Yasin. n our bodies, the heart is considered to be the most important organ. It supplies the entire body with blood to keep us functioning. Without the heart, the body cannot live. It is to emphasize the great importance of Surah Yaseen that it is called the “heart” of the Quran.
I listen to recitation of Surah Yasin everyday by Mishary Al-Afasi and it’s just Beautiful. It helped me so much with my anxiety and my panics after meal times.
Sufi Healing
Sufi healing modalities involves with purification, breath work, rhythm, deep intuition, deep listening, presence and holy glance of the master, sacred words and its vibration.
Islamic Sufi tradition is rich in the practice of spiritual healing. Sufi Healing has been practiced exclusively by Sufis for centuries.
The Sufis are spiritual teachers within Islam. One of their responsibilities is to maintain and transmit the hidden, deeper knowledge contained in the Holy Qur’an. For the Sufis, the supreme object of life is to serve and obey God, to emulate His divine attributes, and thereby to earn His pleasure. Among the service to humanity, that which the Sufis consider superior to all others is the healing of the sick. Their method is called the Sufi Healing.
The basic principle in Sufi Healing is that the True Healer is God Himself, the Sufis only act as mediators.
The physical healing methods of the Sufis derive first from the Holy Qur’an and from the traditions and actions of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). Sufi Spiritual healing generally incorporates prayers, meditation, herbal and natural remedies belonging to ancient wisdom and other healing methods particularly used by Prophet Muhammad himself.
Dhikr
“Those who believe and whose hearts find rest in the remembrance of God, for in the remembrance of God do hearts find rest” (Surat Ar-Ra`d: 13:28).
“Divine remembrance”, this is practiced as a method to cure mental or physical illness. This replaces the never ending whispers/echos of demon of ED in your mind. It is performed by repeating holy verses or God’s attributes either individually or in a group, usually under supervision of a Sufi teacher.
“There is a polish for everything that removes the rust and the polish for the rust-of- heart is the dhikr (remembrance) of God.”
Prescribing Qur’anic Verses
This is the major characteristics of Sufi spiritual healing use of the healing properties of sacred verses of Qur’an. Again this is done under a Sufi Teacher.
In my next post I’ll cover another never ending part of Complimentary Therapies: Meditation.
Thank you for Reading.
Islam and Eating Disorders 