The Human Dignity and the Spiritual Healing of the Heart: Part 2
Thus, human dignity requires “becoming humane” and not becoming “the lowest of the low”. We become the lowest of the low when we reject faith in God. “Those who reject faith, whether they are followers of the book or idolaters, are the worst of creation and will be in hell fire” (98:6). When we reject faith in God, we stop caring for fellow humans and our environment. We pollute the air and water and drill hole in bottom of ocean to steal oil from mother earth and in the process cause environmental disaster. Like the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), we should have a society for prevention of cruelty to humans. We become inhumane when we oppress each other, engage in unjust war, torture, enslavement and do not fight poverty and homelessness. If we want to raise human dignity, we must practice and teach our children, especially youth, the value of all life and the value of love and love for all. As Dr. Martin Luther King put it, “injustice to one is injustice to all” and “violence against one is violence against all.”
What about the spiritual healing of the heart? Before we talk about healing, we must accept that there is a disease that needs to be healed. The Qur’an says that “there is a disease in their heart and God has increased that disease” (2:7-10). What is the disease of the heart? Most translators call it hypocrisy and rejection of faith. Why would God seal their hearts like canned food, air tight so that nothing good (guidance) can enter into their heart? This can of unbelieving heart is filled with satanic traits like greed, love of money, materialism, egocentrism. The physical manifestation of such heart diseases could be the lack of peace with one’s self and his or her surrounding, with stress leading to high blood pressure, atherosclerosis, diabetes etc, which may originate in our lifestyle.
Spiritual healing of the heart lies in contentment, peace with God, peace with self and service to those in need, including yourself, your colleagues, your neighbors, your family, your community and your country.
The social implication of this disease of the heart is that we hold on to our money and do not give any charity, we do not feed the hungry, we do not clothe the naked, we do not provide shelter for the poor, we do not visit the sick and we do not uplift fallen neighbors.
I am told of a basketball team which had a great thrower who made good passes but the team lost because the receivers were no good. The message from God is great, the Messenger did their job but the followers messed it up. Our hearts some time become rusted and incapable of receiving the Message from God or acting upon the guidance.
The way to polish the heart to remove the rust is by engaging in the remembrance of God (zikr Allah) according to Prophet Muhammad. Qur’an (13:28) says “ Those who believe, and those whose hear find peace in remembrance of Allah, for sure in the remembrance of Allah, do hearts find peace”
The service to those in need above our own need is the hall mark of human dignity. During the battle of Badr, three injured and bleeding Muslims were spotted by a nurse. She approached one of them with water; he said ‘take this to my friend who has bled more than me”. She took the water to him who also refused and directed her to the third one. When she reached him, he was already dead. She came back to second one, he was dead too. She then went to the first one who was also dead by this time. All three while near death had continued to care for someone else. Prophet Muhammad once said “He is not one of us” and he repeated three times. Companions asked, “Who is not one of us?”. He said “the one who does not care for his community”.
By Prof. Dr. Shahid Athar
Source: islam-usa.com
Other links:
Crises of Modern Man
