I did not feel good at all! My body ached all over, I felt weak and sleepy and to make matters worse, my throat felt so sore I wondered if I had not swallowed some stones unknowingly. Now add that to the fact that I was starting to feel the beginnings of a very irritating and itchy rough and you can imagine how lousy I must have felt. I kept wondering if I could feel worse than I already did!
Of course I could and had already felt worse more than once in my life. Could I compare my present condition to the time I had to undergo a surgery and had to battle Malaria while I recovered from the trauma of the surgery or the times I had my famous bike and motor accidents or when I was afflicted with chicken pox? Oh no! This was definitely a fun time compared to all those horrible times.
I guess I felt so unhappy this time because just the week before, I had suffered an attack of malaria that left me so weak and without an appetite and just when I thought I was getting over, that my nose started running. As I lay in bed with gloom; bored and unable to go out, I longed for my health to be restored so I could continue my day-to-day activities.
If I could 'feel so bad after just two weeks of being unwell, how would it feel to be ill all the time? How would one cope if one falls ill and all efforts to get better fail? What would life be like to know that one was suffering from an ailment from which one would never recover? I was still thinking of all this when I suddenly remembered my visit to the hospital some days before. As is the normal thing in hospitals, I saw different people with different ailments. Just as I saw those whose cases were milder than mine, I saw those with worse cases.
There were the young who were supposed to be agile but due to illness were weak and had to be supported by friends and family. There were the old and infirm who even in their old age suffered ailments that made them even more dependent on others. Of course there were also those of us who were afflicted with minor ailments but wanted fast relief from the discomfort.
As I lay pondering over this visit, I realised that I had every cause to be grateful to Allaah for His mercies on me. Here I was with the most common of illnesses and busy complaining as if my world had come to an end! What would I have done if I suffered from a disease and a serious one at that?
Would I have been more grateful to Allah if I had been rushed to the hospital unconscious? Would I rather be one of those who looked hail and hearty but carried around a very serious ailment with no cure to appreciate Allaah? Should the knowledge of the fact that every affliction is a exam from Allaah and an opportunity to be cleansed from my load of sins not make me grateful and love Allaah more?
I'm sure that none of us would like to spend our days in pain no matter how little. But remember, we shpuld always perform righteous good deeds so that we can escape the pain of the Hereafter which could last forever!
We pray for all those who are afflicted with one ailment or the other that Allaah grants them peace, heals them ' completely of their illness and makes them healthier than they were before they took ill. We also pray to Allaah to give us continued good health. We must not forget to thank Him however for the gift of our lives, our health and most importantly, Islam.
"Which of the favours of your Lord do you deny?"-Soorah Ar-Rahman(55)
This article was culled from the publications of Deen Communication Limited