 We praise Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and we send peace and blessings upon his noble and final Messenger and our most beloved Messenger Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and I enjoy him and I advise you and I advise myself to have taqwa of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala publicly and privately outwardly and inwardly one of the things that all that the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam did for us in his Guidance of the believers is to describe the believers To describe who we are and how we should be and one of the things that came on his blessed tongue sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and we're honored to be able to say his blessed words sallallahu alaihi wa sallam is al-mu'min wa kayyisun fatin That the believer is somebody who is intelligent and has insight and looks at things in a nuanced way Kayyis and fatin these two words we can go and spend a lot of time discussing them But that's a general summary of what they mean So he's telling us sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. That's what the believer is We're intelligent. We have insight. We can notice things But he's also telling us how we should be increase our intelligence increase our insight increase how we notice things and This was first and foremost taught to his beloved companions radiallahu anhum and They took this and they started noticing everything he did and they would listen to everything He said and how he said it and where he said it and they would take direction from that and Then the Muslims after that generation after generation continued this tradition of Looking at the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and hearing his words and what he says and taking advice from that So one of the advice that we see that it moves into a tradition and development of a whole science is at tibbun Nabawi prophetic medicine and if you pick up any book on prophetic medicine, it's extensive and Developed early on by the Muslims But a lot of what you see in the development of those books is not just the words of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam It's things that the Sahaba and the early generations the salaf and the people after them They noticed about things he would say Advice he would give to people if you're sick do this try to eat this and they took from his words Indications. Oh, that's what he meant. He's trying to guide us in a certain way and they ran with that so when the early Muslims Expanded and they met the Byzantines and they found that the Byzantines had a medical tradition They learned it Omar radiallahu anhu sent two people to spend two years and he said write down everything that you learn from the Byzantines the room When the Muslims went to the land of Hind of India, they were not they didn't have an inferiority complex and say oh We're Muslims all we need is the Quran and Sunnah. We don't need to take your medicine They learned from that and they incorporated it But what they did is the same advice that Omar radiallahu anhu gave to those two scribes when he sent them to the Byzantines and they came back. He said now take your notes and Place them on the scales of the sharia The book of Allah and the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah Salallahu alaihi wa sallam and that's part of the believers path to be chaos and faten. We don't completely reject We don't completely accept we weigh things on the balance of the of the scales of the sharia of the book of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala and the Sunnah of his blessed messenger salallahu alaihi wa sallam The Muslims never had this inferiority complex when they dealt with science or medicine and they would incorporate Aspects that they would learn from them and early on not only did they learn about Medicine of the body, but they also learned about what we would call today medicine or healing as it relates to mental health Mental health very early on and I remember coming across in one of the books that I had studied Where it talked about some of the some of these aspects that when a person loses their intellect For example, it could be for a number of reasons and they discussed it, but it was just a little it was a cursory discussion in a book that I had read Unfortunately during my studies There wasn't a focus on teaching students of sharia about mental health not just what modern science has Taught us through research and observation and testing But also what our tradition has shown us Do we have examples from our tradition from Muslim scholars? Who have looked at the issue not only of physical health, but also of mental health? So I didn't have this training coming back from my studies overseas And I remember when people would come and ask advice what I was equipped and trained to give advice to them from was from my studies and One of the things that we learn about or now that I can see about mental health when a person starts feeling That something's different something's changing It could be a beginning of an illness a mental illness It could be an illness itself or it could be just something that falls under the category of mental health like anger management and relationships or stress and dealing with stress and These are all things that have that could have a physiological impact impact on the body For example a year ago or now a year and a half ago when the quarantine started There was an internal family medicine doctor here in the Bay Area a lady and she told her staff after quarantine began She said in about three months to get ready for a lot of ladies coming in to complain about hair loss They didn't understand what she was talking about but lo and behold three months on the dot They started getting a lot of appointments for hair loss. Why because the stress of Quarantine on families in the home Started taking its toll on their bodies and one of the signs of increased stress is hair loss And so they had to treat that not just treat the actual hair loss But go and lick and say where'd how could we treat the underlying stress? But now the treatment of the stress at least in the modern medical system Where does that fall which department does that fall under it falls under the mental health department or the with the mental health professionals Now a lot of this and what I'm able to say and able to guide people as they come with their their questions because as I said in the beginning when people were When people have something that's very dear to them a relationship their health They start feeling something they go to the one of the one of the first places that people go to is their religion Their dean and this is not just Muslims, but we go to the religion we go to our religious institutions the masajid We go to our religious figures the imams the ustad as the sheikhs the sheikh as the hafiz the hafiz And say you're a representative of this beautiful wonderful religion and I'm a Muslim and there's questions that I need to To be answered But unfortunately if we don't have the proper training to recognize that this is not in My role we have to be able to direct that to the professionals who can't handle that So if somebody comes and asked me a question about their car I'm going to direct them to the professionals to the mechanics if somebody comes and asked me a question about finance I'll say here's what the sharia says about finance But in terms of application of those rules we need to bring in the experts We need to bring in people of finance the accountants the finance managers and people who that's their world in the same way If it has to do with physical health we go to we bring in the doctors if it's mental health we bring in those professionals When I first came back within a few years a young man came up to me and he asked he had he had some questions for me And he says I'm dealing with this and that and so as he's describing what he's dealing with Now I can say oh, it's OCD obsessive Compulsive disorder not that I can diagnose it myself But just from my studies and being aware about the health the mental health field But as he was asking me questions about his prayer about some other habits that he had I was only able to answer based on what I was trained in and what I knew And I'm doing that now. There's more awareness about mental health issues There's more organizations Muslims and non-muslim organizations that are that are bringing this it's brought being brought into the school But unfortunately for me at that time I gave him advice that wasn't the best advice for him and I gave him advice based on my training But it turns out no that was actually it didn't work out. Alhamdulillah. There was another Imam in the Bay Area who did have more awareness of that and he was able to give him the proper advice that he needed at that time a Few years later there was another situation somebody who had a severe mental health breakdown And they came to where where where I was staying and I didn't know how to deal with them This person was trying to break into the house of where we were staying and they were having you know It was a severe mental health breakdown and how do that I had somebody that I could call one of my mentors Dr. Muhammad Rajib Ali if you know him here in the Bay Area, he's known mostly as In his dental professional, but part of his continuing education was learning more about the mental health field And so he was not as a mental health professional But he's aware and he was been a mentor for me since I was in high school And so when I reach out to me says okay, Rami, you need to do this this this and this And how do that we were able to direct that person to the proper treatment that that that was needed But then I under then I realized through those experiences I need to know more about this and I started learning more about it So now fast forward a few years later through our work in outreach into the prisons and Muslims with the prisons I got a letter from a Muslim in prison And he said he said I've been in solitary confinement now for 14 years Solitary confinement is about a cell that's about 8 by 10 feet and It just has their bed and a toilet and a sink and that's where they're confined no Interaction with other human beings. They can be let out for half an hour a day every 20 You know every 24 hours just to exercise in a small usually enclosed concrete box as well So he wrote me a letter and he said I have a diagnosis and they find that if I don't take my medications They're not going to allow me back into general population But I'm not going to take those medications Because Allah is enough for me and the Quran is enough for me and the kid is enough for me and Dua is enough for me and this is just from the evil eye and from Sorcery and magic and So I'm not going to do it. He said plus I don't trust the doctor So I wrote back to him now having more awareness not as a professional But awareness of mental health and I said brother We do believe in the unseen and we do believe in magic and we do believe in jinn But we also know and this is from our tradition that our scholars have said it could be a physiological imbalance that could be Helped through medication or through therapy. There's other things one of the first people human actually the first recorded person that accurately describes and Diagnosis obsessive compulsive disorder OCD was a Muslim scholar Over a thousand years ago by the name of Abou Zaid el-Balchi And if you if you look at all of his descriptions it matches up to the current Description of what constitutes OCD So we have this in our tradition so I shared with him I said brother if you're rejecting this because of the religion and think it's your religious duty to Reject the help of mental health professionals because you're a Muslim and you're a believer I just want to inform you that it's permissible for you to do this and here's what the scholars have said about it But I'm not going to tell you what to do because that's your choice I said at the same time if you mistrust the doctors that's in the prison situation There's his there's there's evidence of that occurring at the same time There also are doctors who are are true to their Hippocratic oath of do no harm and they may help you That's all I said. I said, but you have to make the decision for yourself a few weeks later a few months later Actually, he wrote back and he said I'm now back in general population after 14 years of solitary confinement because now my my condition is is is being monitored by Professionals and I've accepted that and I'm now back able to deal with people So that for me was, you know Contrasting those two stories of when I did not know how to deal with somebody who has this the mental health issue As opposed to when they do and Alhamdulillah now We have more more training and more explanations and more more people who are talking about that at the same time We also we look back to our Sunnah of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and say Did he indicate certain things that would allow for us to say you know what it's not necessarily mental illness It's just something if we have something that falls under the category of mental health Can we seek out treatment for it? And there's a hadith mentioned on in the Sunnah of Dawood Where the the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam came into the masjid and he saw a man from amongst the Ansar and He's Abu Umama was his name. He said yeah, Aba Umama Mali araka fil masjidi fi ghayri waqt al-salah. He said how come Abu Umama? I see you here in the masjid outside of the time of prayer Now watch what how the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam speaks whenever he speaks remember Kayyi Sunfatin We should look at how he speaks. He didn't speak frivolously. He didn't speak abathan. He didn't speak out of jest everything he said had a Had a purpose So we can look to to see what he what he was saying He said I see you in the masjid Not during the times of prayers in other words You're out of your normal habit because the Sahaba were men and women who when it was time for prayer They were in prayer But if it was not time for prayer they were out in the world serving the Dean of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala in whatever capacity it was And so he's outside of his normal normal routine and he said humumun lezmatini wa duyunun ya Rasulallah I have a lot of humum. I have a lot of anxiety a lot of thoughts and a lot of debts two big sources of stress and So the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam then taught him a dua and he put his hand on his heart and he made a dua for him And that that was removed Now what I take from this it's that famous hadith you see then a lot of masjid hung up. Allahumma I mean I would have become in a Meal hammy well hazan and to the end of the hadith what I would have become in the adzi will castle if you're not Familiar with the hadith It's one of the duas that we can make in the morning in the evening or throughout the day But he taught it to Abu Oma when he saw him in the masjid out of his normal routine And that's one of the things that the mental health professionals ask when they're doing an intake is to say your normal routine Is it going is it changing a little bit because as soon as that changes? That's an indicator There might we might need to do some intervention not necessarily medication not necessarily therapy But those things are available and also just as well to have somebody to give advice. I'm rushing I But I want to share some of the the the hadith and some of the the the benefits that we can get from the Sunnah of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam About about this matter Alhamdulillah was salatu was salamu ala Rasulillah wa ala Ali wa sahabi Aja Ma'in Amma ba'd fa yaa Ibad Allah usikum usikum usikum, Usikum usikum, Usikum usikum asalim, Usikum asalim wa asalim wa sahabi Aja Ma'in Azaalima wa Asalim wa Asalim wa asalim wa sahabi Aja Ma'in In another hadith of the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam he said It was it was narrated by Aisha radiallah on her that a family had had a family member who passed away And so she told them She said make this food called talbina And this was a type of food that the messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam if somebody had somebody pass away He would sit he would tell them make them to tell me now And he would say al-talbeena to mujimmah li-fouad al-mareed to the people by the huzun It's it's it's a healing for the heart of the sick person and it can remove some of the sadness Now look at this. He's not talking about a sick person with a physical ailment He would have people send that to the family of the deceased and he said it can heal your heart So what I want us to think about is sometimes when people present issues that they're going through in life The response that another Muslim might give to them is oh, we're a believer. You should Iman is enough for you You should be a believer believers don't get depressed This is something you'll see even on TV with TV. Sheo sometimes they'll say a famous in that least in the Arab world Al-mu'minu la yusabu bil-iqtiab a believer cannot be cannot get depression cannot get depression So what does that tell the person who's actually experiencing depression if a believer cannot get depression? It tells them your belief your Iman is weak and that's very that's the most precious thing for a believer Is there is their Iman and here we have the messenger of Allah? Telling us that when a person is sad give them this food another indication from that is that yes We do our dua. Yes, we do our dhikr. We read our Quran. We do our salawat But there can also be something that we can use here It's a physical substance to help somebody with in an emotional in emotional state and I'll end on this next hadith Also interesting in love enough Narrated by Abu umama remember Abu umama who was in the masjid in the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam saw him out of his normal routine Because of because of Humeum and because of debts because of anxiety and because of debts So a young man came into the into the masjid of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and he came to the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and he told him He said yeah, Rasulillah. Yeah, Rasulillah. Yeah, Rasulallah. It then leave a zina. Oh, Allah Messenger of Allah give me permission to do zina and the Sahaba said be quiet be quiet Could you imagine if somebody walked into the masjid and asked the Imam or a teacher that same question? And what are you talking about and look at the response of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam? He brought him closer to him. He said would you like that for your mother? No, would you like that for your khala? No, would you for your maternal aunt your amma? No your sister? No your daughter? No, I'm summarizing paraphrasing the hadith and so he went through the whole and then he made a dua He put a hand on his chest and he made a dua for him the man the young man left the the masjid He said I went in that was the most beloved thing to me and I left and it was the most hated thing to me What is the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam teaching us that we don't have to just say haram stop it You can actually go through a process of helping that person understand why it's a problem And that's one of the things that happens in the therapeutic relationship the therapeutic alliance with him into health professional They help you walk through things. It's called talk therapy. I'm not saying the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam was doing talk therapy But we can take indications from it We can say look at what he was doing and that's very close to this just like the tlibbu neboi tradition where we have the Whole tradition it's not word-for-word what he said But he he gave us permission to explore this as an opportunity and I'll end on this to me when I see that hadith I also think that the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam is teaching us about addiction and the reality of addiction and That we should have treatment for addiction in the masjid and Hamdullah this masjid mcc We did have a friends and family support group for people who have a friend or a loved one who was struggling with an addiction We had it here at the masjid It was the one of the first masjids in the country to have that inside the masjid We need more of that and Hamdullah also here at this masjid at mcc We were able to bring in the mental health first aid Responder kit so that people who are not mental health professionals But deal with people in the community know how to respond if they see signs that might be something that's a mental health Issue and we're also going to now bring that to the youth to have that same mental health first responder for the youth And I'll end as well There's a there's a number of organizations Alhamdulillah that have been coming up in the muslim community to serve this purpose We should look out for them and we should try to support them in whatever we can