The Key Pillar to Problem Solving in a Pandemic — according to a Golden Age scholar

The last two years have felt like a blur.

For many, these have been bleak, crushing years, full of hardship which have left many of us on our knees. It is only the more pressing doom of the crisis in Ukraine which has finally taken the pandemic off our screens. With that said, we’re still seeing the after effects of the pandemic in full swing and many people’s lives, businesses and health are still hugely affected.

I went to a funeral last summer. It was a young brother I had gone to college with. At the funeral, I was catching up with people I hadn’t seen for a long time about our collective shock and I noticed something concerning. There was such low morale in general — and some usually very strong people were openly admitting how broken they were in general, or feeling lost and aimless in life. It’s like the stuffing had been knocked out of them.

This quiet desperation and despair is something I am seeing more and more in our Ummah in recent times, sadly. I know many have lost loved ones, wealth and even their own sanity. May Allah give us all sabr and make the struggle a form of purification for us, ameen.

But there’s a great quote attributed to Ibn Al Nafis, a famous scholar of the Islamic Golden Age that we need to keep in mind. He was an Arab polymath, and was the first physician to describe the pulmonary circulation of blood.

In his time, he was asked how pandemics should be dealt with.

He responded:

“Fearful delusions are half of the illness,

Remaining calm is half of the medicine,

And having confidence in Allah is the first step to cure”.

I absolutely love this response.

This is a fundamental pillar in KNOW’s overall philosophy, which shifts our burden, our expectations, our hopes and fears from our fallible, flawed selves, to God’s great, glorious infinite power.

Allah is the Lord of all the Worlds, and there’s absolutely nothing he cannot do. So why worry?

If I said to you tomorrow to do something you’re frightened of, and there was a 100% guaranteed you would be successful, would you do it?

Most people would. But it’s often that fear of failure that plays on our mind. Like having confidence in Allah is the first step to cure for a pandemic, this is true for solving your own issues around being lost, confused or pretty much anything you’re going through.

Your fearful delusions are making you trip up. Staying calm is a key part of the solution.

Trusting Allah’s power is infinite and that He will help you is what gives you confidence that the solution is near. Even if you don’t know how yet, you remain secure and safe knowing that your Lord, the most Powerful, is just one prayer away. He is nearer to you than your own jugular vein, after all.

You don’t need confidence in yourself. You need confidence in Allah. And THAT is what gives you confidence in yourself.

And that kind of confidence and clarity is what makes you fearless in pursuit of your purpose.

You know that you simply cannot fail — everything joins up in the end. If you struggle — it’s part of the journey. If you’re successful, you know struggle is around the corner. It takes ALL the pressure away and you can simply focus on doing what you need to do in a calm manner.

That’s really the fundamental pillar behind being the best version of yourself; finding (and living) your purpose and fulfilling your potential. That’s exactly what I’m looking to help people with more going forward.

If you’d like to transform your life in 2022, post-pandemic and finally discover your God-given purpose then click here to book a call with me, and I will advise you on how we can help you get there insha’allah.