You’ll find her sitting on the branch of her favourite tree,

With a book in her hand, looking over the blue sky is when she feels free,

The wind gives her the news of the lands far far away,

Reading and writing about love, making acquaintance with words is how she spends her day,

You’ll find her talking to the flowers, you see her talking to the moon,

She counts the stars, making maps of the places she’ll visit soon,

She doesn’t wait for her prince to come, for she knows life isn’t a fairytale,

-afreen

Mental health problems =/= weak faith.

If you are a muslim, and you have…

Then please know that the assumption that you suffer from this because of your “weak faith” is inaccurate. Verily, only Allah knows what is in our hearts, and verily, He is the One Who writes our maktub (destiny), wa alhamduliLlah. What we muslims need to understand is, mental illness is caused by imbalances in our brain. It’s not just someone choosing to be sad or acting out. For some people, their brain cannot produce the right chemicals, or some areas of the brain are underdeveloped, or some areas may be less or more active than they should - such is the case of depression, personality disorders, schizophrenia, PTSD and a myriad of other disorders.

And all of that, is not your fault! Yes, getting closer to Islam can help us greatly alhamduliLlah. Every Muslim will benefit from reading Qur’an more, praying consistently, and being reminded about Allah’s message. And our mental health can get worse because of us abandoning Islam, yes, that’s a possibility - after all, most of us know very well the peace you feel in your heart after praying or reading Qur’an by yourself.

But at the same time, nobody should be expected to heal from a mental health condition by praying it away! That is just not how it works. If someone had cancer, would you tell them to avoid seeing doctors and to just pray instead? If your loved one suffered from diabetes, would you tell them to stop complaining about it and suck it up? Or that it’s all in their head?

As the Arabic proverb goes, “tie your camel” - because praying to Allah that the camel won’t escape isn’t enough. In other words, you need to be proactive and take care of yourself. See doctors and therapists, learn how to cope and get better, because you deserve it, in sha’ Allah.

And We will surely test you with something of fear and hunger and a loss of wealth and lives and fruits, but give good tidings to the patient. (2:155)

True...