How to Cure Depression

Here is a Ṣaḥīḥ (Authentic)[1] ḥadīth from Imām al-Ṣādiq (عليه السلام) on how to cure depression.

حدثنا أبي (رحمه الله)، قال: حدثنا سعد بن عبد الله، عن أيوب بن نوح، عن محمد بن أبي عمير، عن مثنى بن الوليد الحناط، عن أبي بصير،

My father[2] (رحمة الله عليه) has narrated to us, he said: Sa`ad b. `Abd Allāh[3] has narrated to us from Ayūb b. Nūḥ[4] from Muḥammad b. Abī `Umayr[5] from Muthanna b. al-Walīd al-Ḥannāṭ[6] from Abī Baṣīr[7] said,

قَالَ قَالَ لِيَ الصَّادِقُ ع أَ مَا تَحْزَنُ أَ مَا تَهْتَمُّ أَ مَا تَأْلَمُ قُلْتُ بَلَى وَ اللَّهِ قَالَ فَإِذَا كَانَ ذَلِكَ مِنْكَ فَاذْكُرِ الْمَوْتَ وَ وَحْدَتَكَ فِي قَبْرِكَ وَ سَيَلَانَ عَيْنَيْكَ عَلَى خَدَّيْكَ وَ تَقَطُّعَ أَوْصَالِكَ وَ أَكْلَ الدُّودِ مِنْ لَحْمِكَ وَ بَلَاءَكَ وَ انْقِطَاعَكَ عَنِ الدُّنْيَا فَإِنَّ ذَلِكَ يَحُثُّكَ عَلَى الْعَمَلِ وَ يَرْدَعُكَ عَنْ كَثِيرٍ مِنَ الْحِرْصِ عَلَى الدُّنْيَا

al-Ṣādiq (عليه السلام) said to me, 'Do you become sad, worry, and suffer?' I said: 'Yes, by Allāh!' He (AS) said: ‘When that (happens) to you, then remember death, your loneliness in your grave, the flowing of your eyes on your cheeks, the breaking of your joints, the worms eating from your flesh, your misfortunes, and your separation from the world. For that is what prompts you to do (good) actions, and deters you from many of the desires of the world'[8]

Bibliography

al-Ḥillī. al-Khulāṣah al-`Aqwāl. 1st ed. 1 vols. Qum: , Dār al-Dukhā’ir, 1411.

al-Kashī. Ikhtiyār Ma`arifah al-Rijāl. Ed. Dr. Ḥasan al-Muṣṭafawī. Mashhad: Mu’assasah al-Nashr fī Jāmi`ah, 1390.

al-Najafī, Hādī. Mawsū`ah Aḥādīth Ahl al-Bayt. 1st. 12 vols. Beirut: Dār Iḥyā’ al-Turāth al-`Arabī, 1423/2002.

al-Najāshī. Rijāl. Ed. Musa al-Shabiri al-Zanjani. 5. 1 vols. Qum: Mu’assasah al-Nashr al-Islāmī, 1416.

al-Ṭūsī. al-Fihrist. Najaf: al-Maktabah al-Raḍawiyyah, n.d.

—. al-Rijāl. 1st. Qum: Mu’assasah al-Nashr al-Islāmī, 1415.

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[1] Hādī al-Najafī has said this ḥadīth has a Ṣaḥīḥ Isnād (authentic chain of narrators). (See: Hādī al-Najafī, Mawsū`ah Aḥādīth Ahl al-Bayt, vol. 4, pg. 23)

[2] Abū al-Ḥasan, `Alī b. al-Ḥussayn b. Bābuwayh, father of al-Ṣadūq, is thiqah (trustworthy) according to al-Najāshī (See: al-Najāshī, al-Rijāl, pg. 261, person # 684), al-Ṭūsī (See: al-Ṭūsī, al-Fihrist, pg. 273, person # 393 & al-Ṭūsī, al-Rijāl, pg. 432, person # 6191), and al-Ḥillī (See: al-Ḥillī, al-Khulāṣah, pg. 94, person # 20).

[3] Sa`ad b. `Abd Allāh b. al-`Asharī al-Qummī is thiqah according to al-Najāshī and al-Ṭūsī (See: al-Najāshī, Rijāl, pg. 178, person # 467; al-Ṭūsī, al-Rijāl, pg. 427, person # 6141; al-Ṭūsī, al-Fihrist, pg. 75, person # 306).

[4] Ayūb b. Nūḥ b. Darrāj is thiqah according to al-Najāshī (See: al-Najāshī, al-Rijāl, pg. 102, person # 254), according to al-Ṭūsī (See: al-Ṭūsī, al-Fihrist, pg. 43, person # 59; ; al-Ṭūsī, al-Rijāl, pg. 352, person # 5214).

[5] Muḥammad b. Abī `Umayr is thiqah (trustworthy) according to al-Najāshī (See: al-Najāshī, al-Rijāl, pg. 326, person # 887), al-Ṭūsī (See: al-Ṭūsī, al-Fihrist, pg. 404, person # 618 & al-Ṭūsī, al-Rijāl, pg. 265, person # 5413), and al-Ḥillī (See: al-Ḥillī’s al-Khulāṣah, pg. 140, person #16).

[6] Muthanna b. Walīd al-Ḥannāṭ is thiqah (trustworthy) or praised per the statements of Ibn Faḍḍāl in al-Kashī’s al-Rijāl (See: al-Kashī, Ikhtyār Ma`arifah al-Rijāl, pg. 338, saying # 623)

[7] Abū Baṣīr is Yaḥya b. al-Qāsim al-Asadī, he is thiqah according to al-Najāshī (See: al-Najāshī, al-Rijāl, pg. 441, person # 1187)

[8] al-Ṣadūq, al-Amālī, Majlis # 55, pg. 435, ḥadīth # 2