Is illness a punishment or an expiation for sins?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
I am a person afflicted with a mental illness, even though I am diligent in maintaining the prayers and the dhikr (remembrance of Allah). Is this illness a punishment for me for the sins I have committed in the past, or is it an expiation for my sins?
Answer:
This mental illness falls into two categories. Either it is a nervous illness, a nervous illness resulting from nervous tension, and this is referred to doctors, who treat it with the permission of Allah. The second category is the illness of waswas (whispers), the mental illness that is waswas, and this is from Shaytan (Satan). It is not a nervous condition, but rather it is from Shaytan. So you must engage in much recitation of the daily dhikr, supplication, recitation of the Qur'an, and seeking refuge in Allah from Shaytan, and it will go away from you with the permission of Allah.
I am a person afflicted with a mental illness, even though I am diligent in maintaining the prayers and the dhikr (remembrance of Allah). Is this illness a punishment for me for the sins I have committed in the past, or is it an expiation for my sins?
Answer:
This mental illness falls into two categories. Either it is a nervous illness, a nervous illness resulting from nervous tension, and this is referred to doctors, who treat it with the permission of Allah. The second category is the illness of waswas (whispers), the mental illness that is waswas, and this is from Shaytan (Satan). It is not a nervous condition, but rather it is from Shaytan. So you must engage in much recitation of the daily dhikr, supplication, recitation of the Qur'an, and seeking refuge in Allah from Shaytan, and it will go away from you with the permission of Allah.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، هل المرض يكون عقاباً أم تكفيراً للذنوب؟ للشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.