The Quran and Sunnah is a masterpiece in explaining the human condition. As someone who has studied neuroscience at the graduate level, I can see many things that have been revealed to the messenger of God (saw) that are important for understanding the human "self". 1/

In Surah Tin Allah says "We have certainly created man in the best of stature". From this one understands that the human being has both a cognitive and spiritual superiority. The human being is the best of God's creation. The next verse however reveals something important. 2/

"Then We return him to the lowest of the low, Except for those who believe and do righteous deeds, for they will have a reward uninterrupted".

Allah shows us that while we have the capacity to he the best of creation it has to be qualified or we will fall in rank.

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"Indeed, mankind was created anxious; When evil touches him, impatient; And when good touches him, withholding [of it]; Except the observers of prayer". [70:19-23]

I think people fail to sometimes appreciate the vastness of the above. Human beings are always in a state of perpetual worry. We are locked in a temporal mist where the future is unclear and the past is locked away from being changed. We are essentially powerless creatures.

We seek immediate refuge and respite from our condition. Whether or not someone believes in God, man is always in a state of motion. His heart yearns for contentment and relief. We try to play dice with our lives and worry about what numbers we'll turn next, such is our plight.

Some people spend their whole lives in this anxiety. We are thirsty for meaning and contentment. We are all searching for truth and relief. But in the same world where this problems are born how could we ever find a solution? How can we trust the unpredictability of this world?

We are forgetful creatures. This is a duality of being both a blessing and a curse when it needs to be. By being able to forget we can move forward in life and detach from the feelings of the past; but we can also forget the blessings we are given and the relief God bestowed.

However, the one who is in constant prayer has not erred. For the one who prays isn't performing physical actions. Perhaps on earth only the atoms around him move, but in the heavens his deeds are mounted one after the other. His heart is sealed in comfort and contentment.

For us to escape from this temporal uncertainty we require something beyond time. Something that doesn't submit to our own problems. We need something that has control over our affairs. That provides us with the certainty of existence itself rather than the dice of the dunya.

Cases of anxiety and depression are often caused by a lack of certainty in our affairs. We have no "control" so to speak. The human being then suffers from the lack of three things (1) meaning; (2) contentment and (3) guidance. Without these three he is but a lost traveller.

Remembering God holistically can solve many of our issues. The modern discourse involves reciting endlessly without reflection. True rememberance of God isn't just by mere words but by actual reflection on what God wants and how he wants it. Where is God in your everyday life?

Prayer is not just the recitation of the Quran. Prayer is the reminder that God wants something from you and in everything you do. How your troubles become trials and your victories become tests. Your happiness becomes a blessing and your sadness becomes a cleansing.

When you recite God's name, he is no longer an abstract concept, he is an active participant in the life you live. You don't just merely read "no leaf falls without His permission", you begin to see it in everything you do. God is the one who decrees and you submit to that decree

The issue however is that we want to "read" Islam. As @MohamedGhilan rightly says: "Islam is easy, imaan is hard" and for you to understand that in its entirety requires a holistic and lived programme where God is the ultimate ontological feature and all seeing is through him.

That is why many of the duas we make contain references to rememberance: "O Allah, I hope for Your mercy, do not leave me for even the duration of an eye blink (duration) and correct my total condition. Besides You there is none worthy of worship".

(Hisnul Hasin)

"O Allah, I seek refuge in you from grief and sadness, from weakness and from laziness, from miserliness and from cowardice, from being overcome by debt and overpowered by men.

Bukhari 7/158

“So seek refuge in Allah. Indeed, it is He who is the Hearing, the Seeing.” [40:56]

This wouldn't mean we abandon clinical treatments. We inculcate them with our own understanding. People need to hear about the will of God, his power over all things, and that only with God is salvation and relief ever actualised. God is the ultimate reality, the all powerful.

There is no easy way of ending anxiety, stress and depression. We are all fighting our own battles only Allah knows about.

In the end everything I have said can be summarised by the following verse "Verily in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find peace". (13:28)

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