The Disease And The Cure | Book Review

In the name of Allah the Most Gracious Most Merciful.

Assalamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh

First I’ll like to start off by thanking Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala for whatever knowledge I was able to obtain from this book. He is Al-Alim.

In all honesty, my limited mind wasn’t able to grasp half the knowledge that was presented in this book, The Disease And The Cure, definitely have to give it a second read or third. Every chapter of this book was enough to give a whole khutbah. So I’ll just mention the things that stood out to me the most and will definitely have a lasting effect on my relationship with Allah moving forward.

The book started off by explaining the importance of dua and its conditions and the things that will cause it to be accepted and denied. Dua is one of the most beneficial remedies given to believers. I’ve definitely found myself running to conversate with Allah more after learning of its importance.

Why complain to the creation when you can complain to the Creator the One who can actually help your situation? And it’s absolutely beautiful that Allah created an avenue like this for us to pour out our hearts to Him so everyone should take full advantage of it.

Now, this is the matter that captured me the most. And it’s The effects of Sins. This disobedience to our Lord goes deeper than we think. Sins affect your life in this world your time in the grave and your hereafter.

So by your disobedience to Allah, you will have created torment for yourself in all 3 transitions of life, as opposed to the opposite where your obedience to Allah will cause you to have ease in the world, protection from the torments of the grave, and then eternal bliss in Jannah.

I knew all about the effects of our sins on our time in the grave and then where we will spend our eternity but not so much about how it affects our life in this world, our hearts and bodies.

5 points to bring out:

1. Deprivation of knowledge. Knowledge is a light that is thrust by Allah into the heart and sins extinguished that light.

2. Deprivation of your substance. Al-Iman Ahmad stated that a servant is deprived of provisions due to the sin he perpetrates just as piety is a reason for attaining provision.

3. The feeling of desolation in your heart between you and Allah. The Dictionary gives the meaning of desolation as “a state of complete emptiness or destruction” This is a void that no pleasure of sin can fill. Very few comprehend this because they feel it’s depression or they blame it on low iman, No it’s your disobedience that causes the distance between you and your Rabb.

4. Weakness and laziness in the body. This affects the person’s ability to perform things like Salah, Reading Quran, and Fasting to name a few.

5. It gives birth to its counterparts. Some of the Salaf said: From the punishments of performing a sin is to successively perform another sin. So you just keep performing bigger and bigger sins.

Those were some honorable mentions but not even scratching the surface. I honestly can’t see myself returning to disobedience after reading these things. May Allah keep me upon the straight path. Ameen

This book also took a deep dive into polytheism I can’t find a way to summarize this matter. But I would say the person who associates partners with Allah has not truly considered Him for He is far above all they associate with him.

And there are a lot of things that lead to it so we need to be extra careful in this matter and keep asking Allah for guidance and protection from it as much as you think you believe in Allah’s oneness. It’s not a matter to play with.

Also, be mindful of the eyes and what it consumes. The thoughts we ponder on bring us no benefit. The speech of the tongue is not beneficial. The steps towards anything that is unrewarding for it would be better if you remained stationed and seated.

The last few chapters of the book were about love. The different kinds of love and the different levels of love. Our love for Allah has to exceed the love we have for anything else so be very mindful not to put something even on the same level of love as Him for it’s one of the more severe forms of polytheism. He is the Most High and that’s the level He has to be on the list of things you love.

Also to be very careful of the infatuation with the one that is beloved to you ( this was a big lesson for me ) was referred to as an illness that opposes monotheism.

That is just a few of the things that stood out to me the most and Knowledge is not what is memorized. Knowledge is what benefits.