HELPING OTHERS CURE STRESS

“None of you believes until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself”….

THE PROPHET RECOMMENDS HELPING OTHERS AND MEETING THEIR NEEDS

Many Hadiths (sayings) said by the Prophet of Mercy (pbuh) assure the importance of cooperation, helping others and offering them a hand. The generous Prophet considers faith be incomplete until one loves for his brother what he loves for himself!! He considers who sleeps and knows his neighbor is starving, his faith is incomplete, and also who is visited by a guest, and fails to honor, his faith is incomplete.

Allah’s Apostle says, “None of you believes until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself” [Sahih Al Bani 7384], and also says, “A Muslim is the brother of a Muslim who does not oppress him nor hand him over, and who is after the need of his brother, Allah will be after his need, and who relieves a Muslim from the plight of distress, Allah relieves him from one of the plights of distress of The Day of Resurrection, and who enshrouds a Muslim, Allah will cover him on The Day of Judgment” [Sahih Al Bani 7988],

From this wonderful saying, you realize the magnitude of the Prophet’s concern of helping others and love of goodness to them up to considering any work you do to relieve a Muslim from the plight of distress in this world, enshroud his blemish or provide him a need….Allah will give you multiples of what you have done in this world.

The Great Prophet said, “Anyone who believes in Allah and the Last Day should not harm his neighbor, and anyone who believes in Allah and the Last Day should entertain his guest generously and anyone who believes in Allah and the Last Day should talk what is good or keep quiet.” [From Bukhari & Muslim] Being generous to the guest is Sunnah (tradition) loved by Allah and His Apostle and He rewards big wages on it. Islam not only ordered helping others, but it asked to stop and shun hurting them.

Now, after we have learned how Islam took care of this social side and preserved the safety of the society, cohesion and spread of love, friendliness, sympathetic and compassion among believers, we would like to ask: Is there a scientific miracle or medical and psychological benefits for this deed?!

RESEARCH ATTESTS THAT HELPING OTHERS CURE STRESS

Experts in psychology confirm that helping others lead to ease stress, where getting involved in assisting others stimulates excretion of Endorphin, a hormone which helps in feeling psychological comfort and excitement.

Allan Lex, former manager of “Health Promotion Institute” in USA, affirmed that helping others assists in easing the intensity of stress, where helping others lessens one’s thinking of his personal worries and problems and by doing so, he feels psychological comfort.

The researcher pointed out the necessity of availability of three basic terms for helping others to enjoy the positive benefits of offering a hand, assistance should be systematic, offering personal contact between the helper and who asked for help and the latter who asked for help should be from outside the circle of acquaintances, family and friends.

The researcher asserted that man is not compelled to help foreigners, and he has total freedom to make the help decision or not. That freedom is considered very important to attain the required psychological results from helping others; on the other hand, one may be compelled to help friends and relatives.

Depression, a disease of the era, affects millions yearly in the world outside the Islamic zone. The disease leads to commit suicide; nevertheless, Islam is very keen of the believer and asks him to love goodness and helping others, because Allah Almighty knows that this deed cures depression and raises the immune system in human… See with me the greatness of this religion … Does it not deserve to be followed!

Previous scientific studies showed the importance of tolerance, forgiving others and not to take offense… All those lead to improving the efficiency of the immune system in human and therefore protecting him from different diseases. We can say that any good deed we do may help in improving the mood, raising the immune system level and giving the body an extra dose of immune against diseases and especially stress.

When Islam cared for good deeds, it has introduced this legalization for the benefits of human, society, and for attaining rewards in life and the Hereafter. Therefore, we encounter many verses urging the believer to cooperate and offer services to others for free and without a reward.

See, how this researcher after a number of tests discovered that the best kind of helping is when you do not ask for money or thanks as a return for your help, here we realize the importance of Almighty’s saying, “And they feed, for the love of Allah, the indigent, the orphan, and the captive, (Saying),”We feed you for the sake of Allah alone: no reward do we desire from you, nor thanks.” [Man: 8, 9]

O Allah make all our deeds pure, for the sake of Your gratification, fear of Your punishment, and love to the Seal of Prophets (pbuh)…

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By: Abduldaem Al-Kaheel
Website: www.kaheel7.com/eng

References:
www.aljazeera.com