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How Islam Teaches Healthy Living

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A healthy lifestyle is important for everyone. Islam not only provides practical guidance on how to develop spiritually, but also provides a comprehensive understanding on how to maintain our physical, mental, and social health. This is because each of these aspects of our health support and affect each other. Islam teaches healthy living, by providing a balanced and harmonious method to achieve optimal health. However, health is transient. We need to work on finding this balance regularly and constantly. 

How to develop positive health habits

Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is not easy. However, by introducing positive habits and being consistent in developing them can lead to a healthier lifestyle. The definition of being healthy will be different for different people and alter throughout the different stages of our lives. We shouldn’t compare ourselves to others. Rather, we should focus on our personal physical, mental, and spiritual growth. It is also important to remember that developing these healthy habits and making a change can take time. By making small changes one at a time, changing negative habits into positive ones can become more achievable. And an achievable change is more likely to become a habit you keep. 

 Physical health
 Maintaining balance

When it comes to physical health, eating well, exercising, and sleeping well, all contribute to our physical health. All these aspects of our physical health require a balanced approach. Refraining from over-indulgence in foods, crash diets or strenuous exercise are all unsustainable long-term and lead to imbalance in maintaining our physical health. Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) exemplified this by stating “fill the stomach one third with food, one third with water and leave one third empty. This practice of maintaining balance prevents sickness and disease, now proven by science.

Practicing moderation

Moderation in eating, along with regular movement is fundamental to maintain a healthy physical lifestyle. Eating and drinking slowly and mindfully is also beneficial. Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) practiced this method and science now also supports the many benefits of this practice. Eating that which is good for you, and not harmful to consume is another teaching of the Holy Quran that sustains your physical health. Modern-day practices such as intermittent fasting, only eating at certain times of the day, gentle, consistent movement throughout the day, and maintaining a good sleep schedule are all practices emphasised by the teachings of Islam to keep your body in a healthy state.

Cleanliness and hygiene

Practicing good hygiene and cleanliness is important for our physical health. This includes habits like bathing, dental hygiene and keeping ourselves and our surrounding environment clean. Poor hygiene and a lack of cleanliness not only affects us physically, but also affects our self-esteem. Maintaining good personal hygiene will also help prevent you from spreading diseases to other people. Cleanliness is an important part of Islam. Caring for one’s hygiene is not only deemed a good habit in Islam but also rendered into rituals that constitute part of the faith itself.

Mental health
 Embracing a positive mindset

Mental health plays a huge role in our general well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act. Positive thoughts and a healthy mindset are key to our mental wellbeing. Positive thinking, or having an optimistic attitude, is the practice of focusing on the good in any given situation. It simply means you approach the good and the bad in life with the expectation that things will go well. When we focus on our strengths, we are also being grateful for all the good in our lives as well, which in turn also keeps us grounded and positive and thus keeping our mental health in check.

Keeping mentally active

Physical activity is a great way to keep you not only physically, but also improves your mental wellbeing. Research shows that doing exercise releases feel-good chemicals called endorphins in the brain. Even a short burst of 10 minutes of brisk walking can improve your mental alertness, energy, and mood. Whether you’re tending your garden or running a marathon, exercise can significantly improve your quality of life. However, keeping mentally active does require that we intentionally take steps to disconnect from stresses and worries on life, while we focus on our mental wellbeing.

 Taking time out

When you relax, you give yourself permission to let go of worries for a while. It gives your mind and body time to recover from the stresses of everyday life. For some, this may include things like meditation or prayer. There are so many benefits of meditation and prayer, studies have proven that when well-practiced, these tools can put us on the path to understanding and breaking deep-rooted bad habits and even healing illnesses. Prayer helps your brain disconnect from old synapses and develop new ones, triggering the release of feel-good chemicals in the brain.

In Islam, the regimen of five daily prayers at their prescribed times enables the building of a good habit of remembering God multiple times a day. In an age where there is so much interest in meditation and finding ways to reduce the stress of modern life, the five daily prayers could not be more useful. Prayer is a means to tap ourselves out of those thoughts and pay attention to something greater and find our peace. That is why God says, “Aye! It is in the remembrance of Allah that hearts can find comfort.”

Social and behavioural health
Nurturing relationships for better health

It is important to nurture our relationships and interactions with others for a healthy and functional life. Friends and family can make you feel included and cared for. They can help keep you active, keep you grounded and help you solve practical problems. Talking about your feelings can help you stay in good mental health and deal with times when you feel troubled. When you give your time or attention to other people in a personal, professional, or voluntary role, it can make you feel better about yourself as well as feel less isolated. Social connections can lower anxiety and depression, help us regulate our emotions, leading to higher self-esteem and empathy, and actually improve our immune systems. By neglecting our need to connect, we put our health at risk.

In addition, studies show they also have higher self-esteem, greater empathy for others, are more trusting and cooperative and, therefore, others are more open to trusting and cooperating with them. In other words, social connectedness generates a positive feedback loop of social, emotional, and physical well-being. Unfortunately, the opposite is also true for those who lack social connectedness. Low levels of social connection are associated with declines in physical and psychological health as well as a higher likelihood for antisocial behavior that leads to further isolation.

Positive behaviour leads to healthy habits

When we look at behavioral health, this includes the ability to regulate our behavior and our habits. Our behavior plays a key role in disease development and control. Unhealthy behaviours could include things like smoking, alcohol consumption, tobacco use, inactivity, and poor diets. All these are important and adjustable risk factors for many chronic diseases and causes of death and disability. In the ideal, a person who practices a variety of behaviors in a health-enhancing manner can be described as living a healthy lifestyle.

Spiritual health
True spiritual wellbeing

Spiritual health refers to our connection and relationship with God, our Creator. Our spiritual health refers to that core dimension of you – your innermost self – that provides you with a profound sense of who you are, your purpose in life. Spiritual wellness may mean different things to different people. For some, spirituality may be synonymous with traditional religion, while for others it relates primarily to the quality of personal relationships or love for nature. But, true spirituality or real spiritual wellbeing can be achieved through religion, when we are directly communicating, in a two-way method with a living, loving God.

Modern psychology has recognized that a core aspect of the human mind involves spirituality. Wellness is defined in the dimensions of mind, body, and spirit/soul. We cannot have total wellness if we ignore any one of these dimensions. The Prophet (peace be upon him) constantly preached the message of health, he knew that healthy bodies carry healthy souls. So, just like we focus on improving physical or mental health, we also need to pay attention to our spiritual health.

Spirituality according to Islam

Having spirituality is essentially the ability of a person to process the world around them and discover meaning and significance. In the Islamic tradition, this process involves contemplating the signs of God that exist in the world and extracting knowledge to inform us on how to act, think, and feel. For example, when a person witnesses the change in trees during spring, perhaps it reminds them of the temporary nature of this world, inspiring them to strive for loftier aims in life, that their life has a bigger purpose and meaning. Or perhaps the different colors inspire them to recognize the beauty of the diversity of humankind. When a person with high spiritual intelligence goes through life, their mind is constantly abstracting positive meaning and significance from the events that unfold around them. This fuels positive spiritual states such as inspiration, optimism, gratitude, and perseverance.

A further requirement for attaining spiritual health and happiness is self-purification in thought, word, and deed. It is true that no one is perfect, but one should strive and be ever watchful in maintaining one’s conduct and attitude towards everybody and everything free of blemish. One should eradicate all feelings of resentment, malice, jealousy, impatience, pride, revenge, envy, injustice, scorn, and all kinds of ill-feelings towards others. On the other hand, one should cultivate feelings of love, kindness, sympathy, forbearance, humility, patience, charity, justice, courtesy, helpfulness, understanding and other pleasing virtues.

A balanced, holistic approach

Having good spiritual health revolves around having insightful and nurturing relationships with your own self and others, a strong personal value system, and cultivation and fulfilment of purpose in life. These things are those that give us a sense of inner peace, comfort, strength, love and connection with a Higher Being. Islam presents the most comprehensive guidance on how to develop one’s spiritual health by establishing a connection with God. Until God affirms His existence through revelation it is not possible for us to establish a connection with Him. Ultimately, Islam’s holistic approach to health covers all aspects of the mind, body, and soul. A truly health-conscious person blends diet, nutrition, and exercise with the remembrance of God and an intention to fulfill all their obligations.

 

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Editorial

No Discrimination

Australia is deemed to be one the most multi-faith, multilingual and multicultural countries in the world. We firmly believe in the value of diversity. Any

Privacy Policy

This privacy policy (“Policy”) describes how the Website Operator (“Website Operator”, “we”, “us” or “our”) collects, protects and uses personally identifiable information (“Personal Information”) you (“User”, “you” or “your”) may provide on the muslimsdownunder1.10web.me website in the course of accessing and using our services (collectively, “Website” or “Services”).

It also describes the choices available to you regarding our use of your Personal Information and how you can access and update this information. This Policy does not apply to the practices of companies/partnerships or otherwise that we do not own or control, or to individuals that we do not employ or manage. The website is directed to users in Australia only.

About the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Assocation (“the Management Association”) promotes social, moral and spiritual well-being. The Management Association is committed to the propogation of the true teachings of Islam through peace and harmony. To promote ‘Love For All and Hatred For None’ and to establish open and honest communication, the Management Association manages and oversees the Muslims Down Under platform (“Muslims Down Under”). Muslims Down Under is an online platform aimed at tackling extremist ideologies and removing misconceptions related to Islam and Muslims.

Automatic collection of information

Our top priority is user data security and, as such, we exercise the no logs policy. We process only minimal user data, only as much as is absolutely necessary to maintain the Website or Services. Information collected automatically is used only to identify potential cases of abuse and establish statistical information regarding Website usage. This statistical information is not otherwise aggregated in such a way that would identify any particular user of the system.

Collection of personal information

You can visit the Website without telling us who you are or revealing any information by which someone could identify you as a specific, identifiable individual. If, however, you wish to use some of the Website’s features, you will be asked to provide certain Personal Information (for example, but not limited to, your name and electronic mail address). We receive and store any information you knowingly provide to us, for example through a blog submission, comment or when you fill in any online forms on the Website. The information collected may include the following:

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You can refuse to provide us with your Personal Information but then you may not be able to take advantage of some of the Website’s features. Users who are uncertain about what information is mandatory are welcome to contact us.

Personal Information and User Comments

The Website offers opportunities to comment and engage in content published. These comments are any actions taken by you that are designed to be visible to other public users. Any information you disclose in comments or other like engagement, along with your screen name and electronic email address, becomes public and may be used by the Website for online or offline promotional use. Should you choose to engage in the comments of the Website you should be aware that any Personal Information you submit can be read, collected and stored by the Website.

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Storing personal information

We will retain and use your Personal Information for the period necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements (“retention period”) unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law. We may use any aggregated data derived from or incorporating your Personal Information after you update or delete it, but not in a manner that would identify you personally. Therefore, the right to access, the right to erasure, the right to rectification and the right to data portability cannot be enforced after the expiration of the retention period.

Use and processing of collected information

In order to make our Website and Services available to you, or to meet a legal obligation, we need to collect and use certain Personal Information. If you do not provide the information that we request, we may not be able to provide you with the requested services. Some of the information we collect is directly from you via our Website. Any of the information we collect from you may be used for the following purposes:

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Any information collected through webforms will be provided to the Management Association. This information is stored for the purposes as mentioned above and is used only to facilitate further correspondence between you and our platform. As a user you may object to this use but doing so may result in your webform request not being processed.

Processing your Personal Information depends on how you interact with our Website, where you are located in the world and if one of the following applies: (i) You have given your consent for one or more specific purposes; (ii) Provision of information is necessary for the performance of an agreement with you and/or for any pre-contractual obligations thereof; (iii) Processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which you are subject; (iv) Processing is related to a task that is carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in us; (v) Processing is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by us or by a third party.

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Information transfer and storage

Depending on your location, data transfers may involve transferring and storing your information in a country other than your own. You are entitled to learn about the legal basis of information transfers to a country outside your own, and about the security measures taken by us to safeguard your information. If any such transfer takes place, you can find out more by checking the relevant sections of this website or inquire with us using the information provided in the contact section.

The rights of users

You may exercise certain rights regarding your information processed by us. In particular, you have the right to do the following: (i) withdraw consent where you have previously given your consent to the processing of your information; (ii) object to the processing of your information if the processing is carried out on a legal basis other than consent; (iii) learn if information is being processed by us, obtain disclosure regarding certain aspects of the processing and obtain a copy of the information undergoing processing; (iv) verify the accuracy of your information and ask for it to be updated or corrected; (v) under certain circumstances, to restrict the processing of your information, in which case, we will not process your information for any purpose other than storing it; (vi) in certain circumstances, to obtain the erasure of your Personal Information from us; (vii) receive your information in a structured, commonly used and machine readable format and, if technically feasible, to have it transmitted to another controller without any hindrance. This provision is applicable provided that your information is processed by automated means and that the processing is based on your consent, on a contract which you are part of or on pre-contractual obligations thereof.

The right to object to processing

Where Personal Information is processed for the public interest, in the exercise of an official authority vested in us or for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by us, you may object to such processing by providing a ground related to your particular situation to justify the objection. You must know that, however, should your Personal Information be processed for direct marketing purposes, you can object to that processing at any time without providing any justification. To learn whether we are processing Personal Information for direct marketing purposes, you may refer to the relevant sections of this document.

How to exercise these rights

Any requests to exercise User rights can be directed to the Owner through the contact details provided on this website. These requests can be exercised free of charge and will be addressed by the Owner as early as possible.

Privacy of children

We do not knowingly collect any Personal Information from children under the age of 13. If you are under the age of 13, please do not submit any Personal Information through our Website or Service. We encourage parents and legal guardians to monitor their children’s Internet usage and to help enforce this Policy by instructing their children never to provide Personal Information through our Website or Service without their permission.
If you have reason to believe that a child under the age of 13 has provided Personal Information to us through our Website or Service, please contact us. You must also be at least 18 years of age to consent to the processing of your Personal Information in Australia.

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We offer electronic newsletters to which you may voluntarily subscribe at any time. We are committed to keeping your electronic mail address confidential and will not disclose your electronic mail address to any third parties except as allowed in the information use and processing section or for the purposes of utilising a third-party provider to send such emails. We will maintain the information sent via electronic mail in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.
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Cookies

The Website uses “cookies” to help personalise your online experience. A cookie is a text file that is placed on your hard disk by a web page server. Cookies cannot be used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer. Cookies are uniquely assigned to you, and can only be read by a web server in the domain that issued the cookie to you.
We may use cookies to collect, store, and track information for statistical purposes to operate our Website and Services. You have the ability to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. To learn more about cookies and how to manage them, visit internetcookies.org

Do Not Track signals

Some browsers incorporate a Do Not Track feature that signals to websites you visit that you do not want to have your online activity tracked. Tracking is not the same as using or collecting information in connection with a website. For these purposes, tracking refers to collecting personally identifiable information from consumers who use or visit a website or online service as they move across different websites over time. How browsers communicate the Do Not Track signal is not yet uniform. As a result, this Website is not yet set up to interpret or respond to Do Not Track signals communicated by your browser. Even so, as described in more detail throughout this Policy, we limit our use and collection of your personal information.

Links to other websites

Our Website contains links to other websites that are not owned or controlled by us. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other websites or third-parties. We encourage you to be aware when you leave our Website and to read the privacy statements of each and every website that may collect Personal Information.

Information security

We secure information you provide on computer servers in a controlled, secure environment, protected from unauthorised access, use, or disclosure. We maintain reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards in an effort to protect against unauthorised access, use, modification, and disclosure of Personal Information in its control and custody. However, no data transmission over the Internet or wireless network can be guaranteed. Therefore, while we strive to protect your Personal Information, you acknowledge that (i) there are security and privacy limitations of the Internet which are beyond our control; (ii) the security, integrity, and privacy of any and all information and data exchanged between you and our Website cannot be guaranteed; and (iii) any such information and data may be viewed or tampered with in transit by a third-party, despite best efforts.

Data breach

In the event we become aware that there has been unauthorised access to, or unauthorised disclosure of, or loss of, any Personal Information collected by the Website. We reserve the right to take reasonably appropriate measures, including, but not limited to, investigation and reporting, as well as notification to and cooperation with law enforcement authorities. In the event of a data breach, we will make reasonable efforts to notify affected individuals if we believe that the unauthorised access to, or unauthorised disclosure of, or loss of, any of the Personal Information is likely to result in serious harm to the user to whom the Personal Information relates to, or if notice is otherwise required by law. When we do, we will post a notice on the Website and send you an electronic mail.

Legal disclosure

We will disclose any information we collect, use or receive if required or permitted by law, such as to comply with a subpoena, or similar legal processes, and when we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, protect your safety or the safety of others, investigate fraud, or to respond to a government request.

Changes and amendments

It is at our discretion to update this Privacy Policy from time to time and will notify you of any material changes to the way in which we treat Personal Information. When changes are made, we will revise the updated date at the bottom of this page. We may also provide notice to you in other ways at our discretion, such as through contact information you have provided. Any updated version of this Privacy Policy will be effective immediately upon the posting of the revised Privacy Policy unless otherwise specified. Your continued use of the Website or Services after the effective date of the revised Privacy Policy (or such other act specified at that time) will constitute your consent to those changes. However, we will not, without your consent, use your Personal Data in a manner materially different than what was stated at the time your Personal Data was collected. Policy was created with WebsitePolicies.

Acceptance of this policy

You acknowledge that you have read this Policy and agree to all its terms and conditions. By using the Website or its Services you agree to be bound by this Policy. If you do not agree to abide by the terms of this Policy, you are not authorised to use or access the Website and its Services.

Contacting us

If you would like further information about this Policy or wish to contact us concerning any matter relating to individual rights and your Personal Information, you may send an email to managing.editor@muslimsdownunder.com