Courses › Money worry that will not stop
Worry and anxiety
Money worry that will not stop
Worry is a behaviour rather than a character, the loop runs both ways, and the verses about rizq do not say what the posts say they say.
This course is not financial advice. For anything about your own debt you need free regulated debt advice, which exists in most countries and costs nothing, and this platform will point you to the service where you live. And if you have thought about ending your life, or have thought that the people around you would be better off with the insurance money or without the burden of you, do not carry on reading. Tell someone today and contact your doctor or an emergency service today.
What this course teaches
Worry specific cognitive behavioural therapy, plus problem solving
It separates the worry from the money, because they need different tools. The worry is treated as worry: caught, postponed to a set slot, and examined for the beliefs that keep it running. The money is treated as a problem to be broken into steps, which is a different activity done at a different time.
Why this one
The worry side rests on the same evidence base as generalised anxiety treatment, which is solid. The problem solving side is well supported for practical difficulties. Neither of them pays a debt, and this course does not pretend otherwise.
What this course will not do
Debt advice as a real service. Free, regulated debt advice will do things no course can: negotiate, freeze interest, and speak to creditors for you. This course tells you to go, and does not stand in for it.
Six short lessons on the worry itself, not on the money. It separates being in financial trouble from the mind that is running on it all day, explains why the not knowing is the fuel rather than the size of the number, and takes apart the reading that turns someone's income into a report on their taqwa. Two changes are taught in lesson four and both are small. It gives no financial advice at any point and says clearly where the qualified help is.
Who this is for
Anyone whose money situation has taken over their thinking, who is not opening the post, who lies awake doing sums, or who has been told that if their faith were in better shape a door would have opened. Also for anyone carrying a debt in secret. It assumes no clinical background and no training in the sacred sciences.
What this is not
This is not debt advice and it never will be. It says nothing about your own debt, it compares no products, it will not tell you what to pay, what to stop paying, whom to pay first, or whether to use any particular formal remedy. It gives no fatwa and will not tell you whether anything you hold is riba. It does no exposure work on you and does not ask you to stay with distress until it drops. It is not treatment for problem gambling, which needs a specialist service.
The lessons
6- Where you left off. Money worry is not the same as being bad with moneyTwo separate problems get treated as one, and only one of them is about arithmetic.6 min
- The loop between debt and the mindIt runs both ways, and worry turns out to be something you do rather than something you are.6 min
- What rizq actually means, and what those verses do not promiseThe prosperity reading, the reverse inference, and the bird that goes out in the morning.7 min
- A worry appointment and one real numberContain the worry in time, and swap one estimated fear for one figure you actually looked up.6 min
- What feeds itThe unopened post, the secret, and the hadith that stops Muslims asking for help.5 min
- Where to go, and who the right help isPlain markers, the exact line this course will not cross, and the two kinds of help you need.6 min
What this course is built on
- Qur'an 2:275 to 2:282, 2:286, 3:159, 9:60, 11:6, 29:60, 51:22, 62:10, 65:2 to 65:3, 67:15. Translation throughout: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004. 51:22 and 65:2 to 65:3 are used in the course only together with the correction of the prosperity reading, and are never presented on their own. The reverse inference, that financial difficulty proves a deficiency of taqwa, is named and rejected in lesson three. The scholar reviewer settles the permissible range of use.
- Richardson T, Elliott P, Roberts R (2013). The relationship between personal unsecured debt and mental and physical health: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Clinical Psychology Review, 33(8), 1148 to 1162. Cited for the direction of its finding only. The authors' own limitation, that most included studies are cross sectional, is published in the lesson.
- Borkovec TD, Wilkinson L, Folensbee R, Lerman C (1983). Stimulus control applications to the treatment of worry. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 21(3), 247 to 251. The origin of the worry appointment. The lesson states plainly that the original study was small and old and that this is a well established clinical practice rather than a proven cure. The avoidance theory of worry associated with Borkovec is described in lesson two without being cited to a specific paper.
- Meltzer H, Bebbington P, Brugha T, Jenkins R, McManus S, Dennis MS (2011). Personal debt and suicidal ideation. Psychological Medicine, 41(4), 771 to 778. The reason the suicide marker is placed first in lesson six.
- Sahih al-Bukhari 1429, 1469, 1470, 2387, 6369; Sahih Muslim 1042, 1044, 1598, 1886; Jami' at-Tirmidhi 1078, 2344, 2517, 3563. Only reports graded sound or good are used, and each report inside a lesson links to its full entry with its grading. The dua for debt is cited to Sahih al-Bukhari 6369. Bukhari 2893, which is the reference usually given for it, is a different report about the Khaybar expedition and is not used. The saying that poverty is close to disbelief is named in lesson five as contested and commonly graded weak, and is not cited as evidence. Bukhari 1429 never appears without Muslim 1044 in the same step, and Tirmidhi 1078 and Muslim 1886 never appear without Bukhari 2387 and Qur'an 2:280 in the same step.
- Cuijpers P, Sijbrandij M, Koole S, Huibers M, Berking M, Andersson G (2014). Psychological treatment of generalized anxiety disorder: a meta-analysis. Clinical Psychology Review, 34(2), 130 to 140. Cited for the direction of its finding only, together with the authors' own caveat that effects shrink against active comparators.
- The classical position that tawakkul includes taking the means, read from Jami' at-Tirmidhi 2344 and 2517 alongside Qur'an 3:159, 62:10 and 67:15. Contemporary scholarly disagreement on which modern financial instruments fall under riba is referenced but not resolved, and no product is classified. Scholar flags in this course cover: whether any specific instrument is riba, the scope of the creditor's obligation to postpone under 2:280, eligibility under the al-gharimin category of zakat at 9:60, the permissibility of bankruptcy and formal insolvency remedies, and the priority of settling debt over voluntary giving. None is adjudicated in the lessons.
- Ridley M, Rao G, Schilbach F, Patel V (2020). Poverty, depression, and anxiety: causal evidence and mechanisms. Science, 370(6522), eaay0214. The basis for describing the relationship as a loop rather than an association.
- Free regulated debt advice services, routed by the learner's country. This platform names services and does not advise. In the UK, advising a specific person on a specific debt or credit product, and providing debt counselling or debt adjusting in the course of business, are regulated activities requiring FCA authorisation. Routing must be locale aware and must not hardcode a single country's service. Nothing in this course collects, stores or responds to a learner's financial figures.
- Fitch C, Hamilton S, Bassett P, Davey R (2011). The relationship between personal debt and mental health: a systematic review. Mental Health Review Journal, 16(4), 153 to 166. Background, pointing the same direction as Richardson and colleagues.