and their life, hearing, sight, understanding, deafness, muteness, and blindness.

But our purpose here is to understand the illness of the heart. We therefore say:

Illness is of two kinds: impairment of sensation, and impairment of natural movement and the voluntary movement associated with it. The loss of either faculty brings pain and suffering. Just as sound sensation and sound voluntary and natural movement bring pleasure and well-being, their impairment brings pain and suffering.

Thus, blessings are a form of bliss: they are the favors Allah bestows upon His servants that bring pleasure and bliss. He says:

“On that Day you will surely be questioned about your blessings.”

That is, about showing gratitude for them. Pleasure arises from sensing what is agreeable, and pain arises from sensing what is disagreeable. Pleasure and pain are not sensation and perception themselves; rather, they are their result and fruit, their purpose and ultimate end.

Illness inevitably involves pain, even though that pain may sometimes subside because of a stronger counteracting factor. Its underlying cause remains present, and the slightest trigger can stir it. Thus, illness necessarily involves the presence of a cause of pain; the pain subsides only when a stronger counteracting factor is present. The heart’s pleasure and pain are greater than the body’s pleasure and pain—I mean its psychological pain and pleasure