DAILYREFLECTION
O Allah! Grant me health in my body. O Allah! Grant me good hearing. O Allah! Grant me good eyesight. There is no god but Thou. ... I heard the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) using these words as a supplication and I like to follow his practice.
This week our eyes read the bedtime story twice and then stayed on a screen long after we meant to put it down, while our ears spent the commute under earbuds. We rarely think of either until something aches.
Abu Bakrah asked Allah for wellbeing in each of them by name, three times every morning and evening, because he had heard the Prophet ﷺ make this du'a. The word at its centre is 'afiyah, being kept well and safe from harm. Asking for it while everything still works turns a body we take for granted into a trust Allah has placed with us for a while.
That gratitude does something for us too. When we make a habit of noticing what we've been given, our mood tends to lift. Our eyes respond to plain care as well: every twenty minutes at a screen, a twenty-second look at something about twenty feet away helps ease the strain.
Abu Bakrah's son heard his father say it day after day until he asked about it. So picture the dad saying it half aloud while the kettle boils, or the grandmother at the window after Maghrib. Someone in the house is listening.
The Prophet ﷺ told his uncle al-'Abbas, twice, to ask Allah for 'afiyah. If our eyes or ears are already troubling us, it's Allah who heals, so let's keep the du'a and the doctor's appointment together.
First step: this evening at Maghrib, let's say it three times, Allahumma 'afini fi badani, Allahumma 'afini fi sam'i, Allahumma 'afini fi basari, la ilaha illa ant, and then give our eyes and ears ten minutes with no screen and no earbuds.
Reflect on this: When did we last thank Allah for our hearing and sight on a day they felt fine?