Ashfa Khoirunnisa

Ramadan & Depression Conteplanting

Assalamualaikum الْحَمْدُ للهِ ربّ العالمين والصلاة والسلام على أشرف الأنبياء وَالْمُرْسَلِيْنَ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبهِ أجْمَعِينَ أَمَّا بَعْدُ With Ramadan around us  where many people are excited and charged, there are also some people who are not feeling the vibe.  Who are not feeling that good. For example when reading our favorite book become mind-numbing, tidy up the room or cooking are so tiring  , working on our passion felt so frustrating.  And things are not okay anymore.  A person who going through depression they often struggles only by doing the very basic chores of their life,  And thinking about Ramadan with that state where they don't even feel like leaving their bed or taking shower and so on, with all the additional procedurer system of Ramdan, definitely could be hard for some of them.  On this occasion Allow me to take all of us to reflect on these great examples given in Quran.  The First is Sayeedah Mariam (A.s) that Allah (SWT) had told her (Maryam) after experiencing the excruciating pains of childbirth in delivering Prophet Issa in isolation,it never ceases to amaze me.  Allah(swt) tells her in Surah Maryam: وَهُزِّىٓ إِلَيْكِ بِجِذْعِ ٱلنَّخْلَةِ تُسَٰقِطْ عَلَيْكِ رُطَبًا جَنِيًّا  "And SHAKE THE TRUNK of the palm tree towards you, and fresh ripe dates will drop upon you."  Keep in mind, Maryam just WENT THROUGH LABOR. SHE WAS ALL ALONE. SHE'S EXHAUSTED and SCARED. Now God is ordering her to shake a tree. Why?  Can't He provide her with food miraculously as He did before when Prophet Zakariah came to checked up on her earlier in the story? (Chapter Ali Imran, verses 37). Why did she have to shake a tree for dates to fall, when Allah could have made the dates come to her without any effort from her side? Something about this scenario is striking.  This has a great lesson, which is that WE have to put in the effort despite of how scared, how lonely,how sad, and how exhausted,  We are! Even if We are as much in pain as a woman who went through labor (which I'm sure we are not) We still have to put in the effort! Nobody can do it for us. WE HAVE TO DO IT! YOU HAVE TO GET OUT OF BED! WE HAVE TO PUT IN THE WORK TO GET BETTER! Now, We might be thinking that “ Astaghfirullah, I'm too weak or TOO DEPRESSED! TOO STRESSED! What change my little effort will bring to this mountain of mess because here everything in my life is GOING WRONG”.  That's exactly where We should look back to the other example, He is Prophet Musa (A.s). Prophet Moses, who God orders to struck the sea with a stick in order to split it and save him and his people from the Pharaoh’s tyrannic. Why did Moses have to strike the sea with his stick , when God could have opened it for him miraculously without any effort from Moses himself? And what a stick could do in front of a GIANT SEA?!!!The scenario here has an answer to your;  "What my little effort can do" type of questions.  Then Prophet Ayyob (Job), He was suffering from skin dissease such as leprosy, and He had to isolated himself like we do now in this pandemic era. As We know, His patience is incomparable. Masyaallah. Perhaps Allah is teaching us a valuable lesson in these famous stories of honorable people. No matter who We are to God, We have to do our own hard work in order to receive the fruit. We have to give something from our own self in order to see the change ahead. We cannot rely on "God's magic" when we haven’t put our own effort in what we want.  Prophet Ayoob’s patience, Sayeeda Maryam's shake and Prophet Moses's strike brought God's help from above, peace be upon them. Mr. Chalwani Nawawi al hajj told us that all Phrophets were hard worker, tenacious no one of them were sluggard and procrastinator. Similarly, our sincere efforts also can bring God's help that can take us out of this condition we're stuck in. There is an opinion that depression is due to lack of emaan and being distant from God which is this is not the case