نفسیاتی اطلاق: قرآنی مقاصد روح کی سکون اور شفاء میں

By Dr. Ahmed Mohamed Ali Abouseif, President of the American Imams Academy.

We conclude our series with the deepest and most hidden of the human being's fields: his soul and his heart. The Qur'an, just as it rectifies conduct and builds society, heals the soul and grants it tranquility; God described it as a healing, saying: "And We send down of the Qur'an that which is a healing and a mercy for the believers." [al-Isrāʾ: 82]. The objective-based reading of the verses of serenity reveals that among the grand objectives of the Qur'an is the treatment of anxiety, fear, and despair, and the planting of contentment and hope in weary hearts.

The Objective of Tranquility: Stillness Through the Remembrance of God

"Those who have believed and whose hearts are assured by the remembrance of God. Unquestionably, by the remembrance of God hearts are assured." [al-Raʿd: 28]

The objective of the verse is to guide to the true source of tranquility and its inexhaustible spring: the heart's connection with God through remembrance and intimacy. Reflect on its emphatic restriction, "Unquestionably, by the remembrance of God hearts are assured," as though it negates that true tranquility could be in anything else. It teaches that much psychological turmoil is but an effect of disconnection from God and preoccupation with the world, and that the remedy is in returning to Him. Whoever reads it in an objective-based way makes remembrance his first refuge when the chest is constricted, before he seeks stillness in anything else.

Much of the anxiety of today's person stems from constant comparison on social media: he sees people's selected images and so reckons his own life deficient, and chases likes that do not satisfy, growing emptier the more connected he becomes. The objective of the verse of al-Raʿd offers the cure: that tranquility is not bought with a follow nor built upon people's regard, but springs from a connection with God. Whoever wishes to treat the "anxiety of comparison" should look less at what is in people's hands, and increase remembrance and contentment with what God has allotted; there the soul finds rest.

The Objective of Serenity in Hardship

"It is He who sent down serenity into the hearts of the believers that they would increase in faith along with their faith." [al-Fatḥ: 4]

The verse clarifies that serenity (sakīna) is a divine gift that God sends down into the heart at the time of hardship, so it stands firm and does not collapse under the pressure of fear. Its objective is to attach the heart to the One who sends down serenity, not to the means alone, so the believer faces his crises with a firmness whose source is his trust in God and good opinion of Him, not his own strength which may fail him. Note that serenity bequeaths increased faith; hardships faced with trust in God increase the heart's firmness, not its breaking.

The Objective of Hope: Forbidding Despair

"Say, 'O My servants who have transgressed against themselves, do not despair of the mercy of God. Indeed, God forgives all sins.'" [al-Zumar: 53]

The objective of the verse is to fling open the door of hope before the burdened sinner, and to prevent the despair that drives its possessor to further downfall. Reflect on its gentleness: it called them "O My servants," with the honoring annexation despite their transgression, forbade them from despair, then gave them glad tidings of the forgiveness of sins "all" without exception. It is a profound psychological treatment for one who tortures himself with his past and imprisons himself in the prison of sin; it restores hope to him and rescues him from the grip of despair, for the vastness of God's mercy is broader than every sin, and despair of God's relief is more dangerous than sin itself.

The Objective of Ease After Hardship

"For indeed, with hardship comes ease. Indeed, with hardship comes ease." [al-Sharḥ: 5–6]

The Qur'an repeated the glad tiding twice for emphasis and reassurance: that hardship does not last, and that ease is with it and accompanies it, not far from it; the precision of the expression "with hardship," not "after hardship," indicates that relief is nearer than the distressed one imagines. Its objective is to steady the soul in times of constriction with certainty of relief, so it does not surrender to the moment of hardship and reckon it the end of the road. Whoever internalizes this objective meets trials with a patience confident of the nearness of the way out, so hardship does not break him nor does the term of affliction grow long upon him.

The Objective of Patience and Glad Tidings

"And give good tidings to the patient, who, when disaster strikes them, say, 'Indeed we belong to God, and indeed to Him we will return.'" [al-Baqara: 155–156]

The Qur'an teaches the soul how to receive disaster not with panic, but with the word of returning (istirjāʿ) that reorders one's conception: that everything belongs to God and its return is to Him, so the calamity is eased. Its objective is building a patient, balanced soul that does not collapse at loss. It is a preventive treatment that arms the heart before the affliction occurs, and makes the believer ready for the vicissitudes of life with firmness and contentment.

Conclusion of the Series

With this article, ten stations are completed, through which we took you from clarifying the concept and defining the term, to distinguishing it from its siblings, then its history, then its grand objectives, then its figures, then its controls, then its fruit, and finally its three applications in conduct, society, and the soul. The sum of the whole series is that objective-based tafsīr is neither a scholarly luxury nor a contrivance in understanding, but a method that restores to the Qur'an the function for which it was revealed: to guide the mind, purify the soul, reform society, and reassure the heart. We ask God to make us among the people of the Qur'an who read it and live it, reflect upon it and are guided by it, and to bring benefit through this project to its writer and its reader. And praise be to God, Lord of the worlds.

— The series is complete; praise be to God, Lord of the worlds. —

| A takeaway for life: At every constriction or anxiety, make for yourself a "verse of tranquility" to which you flee — such as the verse of al-Raʿd or al-Sharḥ — and read it unhurriedly for two minutes, reflecting on its objective, not merely its letters. God sent the Qur'an down as a healing for what is in the chests, and whoever reads it seeking this objective finds in it a serenity that descends upon his heart, by God's permission. | |---|