Physical wellbeing is something that every person attaches great importance to. In fact, many people take great pains and spend huge amounts of money to keep their body in shape and their health in order. Whether it be exercising daily, maintaining a strict diet plan, or various other things, a person is prepared to diligently do all of these, because he understands the importance of his physical wellbeing.
While seeing to the health of one’s physical body is indeed very important, people generally fail to realize that physical health is not the only concern they should be having. Rather, the ‘health’ of one’s spiritual self is even more important and critical.
In one of the very comprehensive du‘aas that Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam) made, he (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam) sort protection from four harmful things that include aspects relating to one’s physical as well as spiritual self. This du‘aa is:
اَللّٰهُمَّ إِنّي أَعُوْذُ بِكَ مِنْ مُنكَرَاتِ الأَخْلاَقِ والأَعْمَالِ وَالْأَهْوَاءِ وَالْأَدْوَاءِ
“O Allah, I seek your protection from evil character, (evil) actions, (evil) desires and (evil) sicknesses.” (Tirmizi #3591, Haakim #1949 and Al-Jaami‘us Sagheer #1472)
Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam) seeking protection from these things, firstly explains their harmful nature, and secondly serves as a lesson for the Ummah to also seek protection from them.
The explanation of these four aspects are as follows:
1. Evil Character: Evil character is a broad term which refers to all evil inner qualities, such as miserliness, enmity, jealousy, pride, shamelessness, etc.
2. Evil Actions: This refers to outward evil actions which include both major and minor sins.
3. Evil Desires: This could include those beliefs and ideologies that are against the Quraan Majeed and ahaadeeth, as well as evil thoughts and desires that come to a person’s mind and thereafter have a great impact on his behaviour and actions.
4. Evil Sicknesses: This refers to the serious sicknesses and ailments which afflict a person’s physical (including mental) self.
(Adapted from Mirqaat vol. 5, pg. 327 and Faidhul Qadeer vol. 2, pg. 138)
These four aspects have an amazing link and connection. When a person has evil character, it causes him to commit evil actions. Thereafter, due to the actions he commits, his desires worsen by means of which he falls into even more wrong. This then causes the punishment and wrath of Allah Ta‘ala to descend on him in different ways, one of them being sicknesses and ailments. For example, when a person has the evil character of shamelessness, it causes him to do wrong actions, such as zina, and subsequently over time, his desires worsen until eventually Allah Ta‘ala’s anger descends on him and he is afflicted with serious sicknesses.
On the other hand, when a person’s inner self is healthy because of him possessing good character, he will do good actions. This will then result in his mind being healthy, in the sense that it will be protected from evil thoughts and desires, and then his physical body will also be healthy and safe from certain illnesses.
Hence, if a person wishes to correct these other aspects of his life, the first and foremost aspect that he should be concerned about is his character, since it is the starting point.