Is There a Spiritual Solution for Depression? A Muslim Perspective

Can spirituality be a remedy for depression? Does depression distance us from God? Is depression a lack of faith? Are we nearer to God in happiness than when depressed? I wonder how many of us have struggled with these questions.

Depression is complex and is often the result of an interplay of factors. To understand depression comprehensively, we would have to take into account the individual's biochemistry, psychodynamics, circumstances, habitual thinking, and worldview. If someone has a biochemical predisposition for depression, has recently suffered a disappointment or loss, and, in addition, has little faith that we live in a compassionate and meaningful universe, the conditions for depression are in place. Change one of these factors, however, and the others may be affected as well.

In true depression, we temporarily lose the savor of life; we lack the will and energy to meet the day. The dark cloud of depression can nevertheless be mitigated or at least made bearable by the remedy of spiritual awareness and faith. Instead of being the dark cloud that overhangs one's whole life, depression can lead us through a process in which we reach beyond the clouds to the open sky of divine presence.

To effect a spiritual change is to gain a leverage at a very high level. Spiritual health can change the whole context in which we experience depression, and that, of course, changes everything. Depression can be a descent into ourselves that leads to a more mature faith in the divine beneficence.

Some verses of the Qur'an that directly address the state of depression are from Surah 94: Inshirah ("Expansion"). Here God speaks with a royal "We," which some of the mystics suggest is the voice of the totality of divine attributes:

In the name of God, Infinitely Compassionate and Merciful.
Have We not expanded your heart
And removed its heaviness
which had weighed you down?
Have We not increased your remembrance?
Surely, with every difficulty comes ease.
With every difficulty comes ease.

All of our human experience involves this play of polarities that serve the divine purpose. According to the Prophet Muhammad, blessings upon him, "When Allah decreed the Creation He pledged Himself by writing in His book which is laid down with Him: My mercy prevails over my wrath." And so, whatever sorrow or constriction we experience in life is secondary and subservient to the beneficent Mercy which is the greater portion of life.

The Sufis suggest that we have a remarkable capacity within the human heart. This capacity, mentioned often in the Qur'an, is called "remembrance." Some Sufis propose that this special capacity is given to the heart, which expands and contracts, not to the intellect, which functions in a more steady, even fashion. Remembrance (zikr) could be described, then, as mindfulness of the divine presence, in happiness as much as in sorrow, in expansion as well as in contraction.

Spirituality, then, is not the attainment of a blissful state, but a sustaining of the divine connection through all states.

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