Hearts find rest in the remembrance of Allah

Recently scientists have claimed that faith in God can relieve pain and that religious people can rely on their religion to endure suffering with greater fortitude.

Research at Oxford University has found that believers can indeed rely on their religion to endure suffering with greater fortitude. Academics at the Oxford Centre for Science of the Mind structured the study around 24 participants, 12 of whom were Roman Catholics and the other 12 atheists. The volunteers were not told the true purpose of the experiment, only that it was designed to judge how people felt pain while contemplating pictures of different things.

The researchers found Catholics seemed able to block out much of the pain when they saw a religious pictures but there was no such brain activity among the atheists, whose pain and anxiety levels stayed roughly the same throughout the experiment when the researchers showed them an ordinary photo.

Participants spent half an hour inside an MRI scanner, receiving a series of 20 electric shocks in four separate sessions while looking at either religious or non-religious pictures. The researchers added that the front right-hand side of the brain of the believers lit up on the scanner, indicating that the neural mechanisms of pain modulation had been engaged but that there was no such brain activity among the atheists

Writing in the scientific journal Pain, the researchers concluded that at least some religious believers can moderate their pain by thinking about it more positively. As long as there is a direct effect of viewing religious pictures on reducing pain, we can understand why the remembrance of Almighty Allah make hearts feel rest. The Almighty says, “Those who believe (in the Oneness of God) and whose hearts find rest in the remembrance of God, verily, in the remembrance of God do their hearts find rest.” (Sura ArRa‘d ayah 28).

Western scientists have discovered this fact only at this time but the question is who told the illiterate Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, this in a place full of illiteracy and underdevelopment? The answer is Almighty Allah who says about Himself, “AllKnower of the unseen and seen, the All-Mighty, the All-Wise.” (Sura At-Taghabun, ayah 18).