Likewise, when a person is afflicted with a love that brings him no benefit—an infatuation of some sort, whether for outward beauty, social prestige, wealth, or the like—then if he fails to obtain the object of his desire he suffers anguish, sickness, and debilitation. Should he secure what he longed for, his illness, pain, and distress become even worse. This is like the case of a patient who detests the very food and drink he needs: the aversion itself is painful, and persisting in it only intensifies the pain, perhaps to the point of death—unless the cause of his loathing is removed so that he can accept what benefits and sustains him. Thus he is in pain now, and—unless Allah heals him—the pain that awaits him later is even greater.

The envier’s hatred of the blessing Allah has granted the envied person is like the sick man’s hatred of seeing the healthy eat and drink: he can scarcely bear to watch them. His refusal to give the envied their due resembles the patient’s refusal of the food and drink that would help him. Love and hate that exceed moderation and soundness in the soul are the counterpart of appetite and aversion that exceed moderation and health in the body. The blindness and muteness of the heart that prevent it from perceiving realities and distinguishing what benefits and delights it are comparable to physical blindness and dumbness, which keep a person from seeing visible things, speaking about them, and telling benefit from harm. Just as a blind man who regains his sight experiences enormous relief, well-being, and joy, so the heart’s vision and its beholding of realities surpass bodily eyesight to a degree known only to Allah.

Our purpose here is merely to draw a parallel between the two kinds of illness. The medicine of the religions proceeds along the same lines as the medicine of bodies. Salman once wrote to Abu al-Dardaʾ, “To continue: it has reached me that you have taken to practicing medicine, so beware lest you kill. Allah has sent down His Book as a cure for what is in the breasts.” The Exalted also says: “And We send down of the Quran that which is a healing and a mercy for the believers, but it increases the wrongdoers only in loss” (al-Israʾ 17:82). Healing comes only to those who intentionally take the remedy—that is, the believers who apply the medicine of the Quran to the disease of their hearts.

Bodily illness arises when a person’s natural appetite or aversion departs from moderation: he may crave what cannot be had, lose a beneficial appetite and recoil from what is good for him, or lose the protective aversion to what harms him. It can also result from a weakness in the faculties of perception and movement. Similarly, the heart’s illness arises from love and hate that stray beyond moderation—those passions about which Allah says, “Who is further astray than one who follows his desire without guidance from Allah?” (al-Qasas 28:50), and, “Rather, the wrongdoers have followed their own desires without knowledge” (al-Rum 30:29). Just as the body falls ill when it indulges its cravings without consulting the physician, so the heart is weakened in perception and resolve until it can neither know nor will what truly benefits it and sets it right.