Lesson 6 of 6 · Where to go, and who the right help is
The other appointment
You may need two kinds of help and they are not substitutes for each other.
The debt adviser handles the money. The clinical route handles what has happened to your sleep, your concentration and your mood, and it is worth going even while the money is unresolved, because lesson two showed the loop runs in both directions.
Going is not a step outside the religion, and the tradition puts it as an instruction rather than a permission. They asked, Messenger of Allah, should we make use of medical treatment? He replied: make use of medical treatment, for Allah has not made a disease without appointing a remedy for it, with the exception of one disease, namely old age.
Ask your doctor for a referral, or look for a therapist who names anxiety and worry specifically rather than talking therapy in general. Say the three things: how long it has been, what has stopped working, and roughly how much of the day the worry takes. Write them down beforehand, because the appointment is short.
The person on the other end of the debt advice line is described too. He who relieves a hardship for one who is hard pressed, Allah makes things easy for him in this world and the next. You are not imposing on somebody. You are handing them something the tradition rewards.
If your faith matters to how you want this handled, say so at the first meeting. Good practice is to work alongside somebody religiously knowledgeable rather than around them, so that something genuinely required in the religion is never treated as a symptom.
Qur’an and Sunnah
Going is not a step outside the religion, and the tradition puts it as an instruction rather than a permission. This is the exchange.
Narrated Usamah ibn Sharik: I came to the Prophet (ﷺ) and his Companions were sitting as if they had birds on their heads. I saluted and sat down. The desert Arabs then came from here and there. They asked: Messenger of Allah, should we make use of medical treatment? He replied: Make use of medical treatment, for Allah has not made a disease without appointing a remedy for it, with the exception of one disease, namely old age
Sunan Abi Dawud 3855graded sound, albanithe Arabic and its grading
He who relieves a hardship for one who is hard pressed, Allah makes things easy for him in this world and the next. That describes the person on the other end of the debt advice line. You are not imposing on somebody. You are handing them something the tradition rewards.
Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) as saying:He who alleviates the suffering of a brother out of the sufferings of the world, Allah would alleviate his suffering from the sufferings of the Day of Resurrection, and he who finds relief for one who is hard-pressed, Allah would make things easy for him in the Hereafter, and he who conceals (the faults) of a Muslim, Allah would conceal his faults in the world and in the Hereafter. Allah is at the back of a servant so long as the servant is at the back of his brother, and he who treads the path in search of knowledge, Allah would make that path easy, leading to Paradise for him and those persons who assemble in the house among the houses of Allah (mosques) and recite the Book of Allah and they learn and teach the Qur'an (among themselves) there would descend upon them tranquility and mercy would cover them and the angels would surround them and Allah mentions them in the presence of those near Him, and he who is slow-paced in doing good deeds, his (high) lineage does not make him go ahead
Sahih Muslim 2699graded sound, sahihaynthe Arabic and its grading