BEING POOR IS A BLESSING

What is an ideal life? Having a luxurious apartment in New York with a beautiful view; a handsome salary; 24/7 top quality healthcare; fancy food; fancy workplace and a fancy overall lifestyle.

WRONG!

An Ideal life is living in a village; playing in dirt; eating fresh vegetables; fresh animals; breathing fresh air; living without gadgets; pollution free sunlight; all in all a natural life.

Pakistan is an under developed country, right? We lack cleanliness, we lack health care; we lack every resource that the modern countries possess. What if I tell you that despite our underlying living conditions, the death rate of Pakistan is less than those modern countries?  Let’s talk about the countries under spotlight; United States, UK, Italy, France and Spain.

The death rate per 1000 people of the above mentioned countries is:

- USA (8.782)

- UK (9.398)

- Italy (10.566)

- France (9.317)

- Spain (9.115)

- And let’s mention Germany too (11.275)

You can verify the stats on Google. These are NOT Coronavirus deaths, these are general death rates of 2019.

Now, do you know the death rate of Pakistan? It is (6.934). Even during this pandemic, Pakistan is safer than the most advanced countries. What is the reason behind this?

Cleanliness doesn’t mean clean roads; good health is not reliable on medicines; quality food is not expensive; hygiene is overrated.

We may not have clean roads; we may not have access to modern heath care; we may not have access to fancy restaurants; our lifestyle is nowhere near to the modern countries but the modern countries are actually living an artificial life.

Let me give you an example, what is a better choice between a car whose outer structure is beautiful and luxurious looking but is shallow from the inside with weak engine that gives a very average performance; while the other car is rough looking from the outside but is a performance beast from the inside.

What is medicine? Does the modern medicine eradicate disease? No, majority doesn’t. Do you really think that a Panadol actually kills your headache? No, it just turns off the sensors of your brain that make you feel the pain. It’s like a robbery is in place and alarm goes off; the police arrives but instead of stopping the robbery, they turn off the alarm and go back.

I don’t know the medical term but let’s call it ‘GOOD GERMS’. We have good germs in our bodies that fight the bad germs. But if we maintain OVER HYGIENE, if we rely heavily on artificial medicines, we make our good germs idle and when these good germs stay idle for a long time, they become weak and hence we lose the strength to fight a disease. For example, even a world class boxer will find it hard to fight after sitting idle for years with no practice.

Access of resources have made our lives artificial, we have become so reliable on gadgets that if Allah forbid, if someone of us gets stranded on an island, we would have absolutely no idea what to do for survival; we can’t even read a physical map. I read a report that in some modern countries, kids are no longer able to read time on an analog clock. Same goes for medicine, people who have access to good health care and can afford it, they rely heavily on medicines and they keep killing their strength of naturally fighting a disease.

A kid playing in the dirt is way healthier than a kid who grows inside a house maintaining hygiene. Similarly in a country like ours, people live a hard life; they lack modern resources and healthcare, majority works in harsh conditions; no air conditioning, no junk food, no sick leaves; people work even with ailment, no excessive hygiene; hence our strength of dealing with diseases is much stronger. The strength and health of labors is way better than the ones working in an office.

And by the way, like I mentioned above, hygiene is not a show off. Wearing branded clothes; putting on makeup and cologne; eating with forks and knives; washing hands continuously with sanitizers are not the standards of hygiene. As a Muslim, we are taught the most balanced practices of hygiene. We perform ablution five times a day; we are told to wash our hands every time before and after eating food; we are told to shave excess public hairs; we are told to purify ourselves after love making; we are told to keep our private parts clean; we are told to eat halal food and to stay away from alcohol. Eating with hands is the Sunnah of our beloved Prophet PBUH; He PBUH used to lick His fingers after eating; I have heard it several times that there is something in our fingers and nails that is actually good for our digestive system.

Now compare our hygiene with the modern world hygiene. Their streets might look better than us; their houses might look more hygienic but I am sure there bodies aren’t. The type of food they eat; the amount of alcohol consumption; personal hygiene and even love making hygiene is very poor. We all know what type of love making they perform. And on top of artificial lifestyle and artificial hygiene, they rely heavily on artificial medicine.

Don’t forget, medicine is a business too. Nothing in this modern world is selfless; everything is a way to earn money. Be it education or healthcare.

And above all, it’s all about psychology. Most of the time, we feel perfectly fine until a disease is reported. Human body can never be in a perfect shape. Even if you take a brand new car for inspection, the report won’t be a 100% positive. Similarly, you take a fit person who is living a great life to a hospital and he will come out with a dozens of complications and suddenly that person’s life will change. The diseases won’t have much effect but psychologically it will haunt the person. For example, you are living with a neighbor happily for several years and one day you come to know that your neighbors are thieves. Your whole perception will change, you will start living in fear, even if a small piece will go missing in your house, the first thing that will come in your mind will be the neighbors.

I know Pakistan is not perfect either. Living conditions are pretty bad and lots of changes are required. There are people living below the poverty line. Their good germs have fought so much that they too have no strength left in them. But the whole point is that the modern resources are not the only ideal way of living; it’s actually the opposite. Lacking some of the most advanced resources is also a blessing in disguise for us.

And I have not compared the whole country with another whole country. Every country has all types of people; rich, poor, middle class. Not everyone in Pakistan lacks resources and not everyone in USA has the resources. Our lifestyle depends heavily on our financial resources. The same comparisons can be made within countries; you will find the clear differences between the rich and poor of your own country.

We should live a balanced life; we should not heavily rely on machines and medicines; we should live a natural life as much as we could and most importantly, we should rely on spiritual healing more than scientific healing; because no matter how advance we become, our resources will always be limited; it’s only the Almighty with unlimited resources. We just have to keep balance between Dua and Dawa. We should neither rely on spiritual healing blindly nor on medicine.