Ocular Health: Spiritual Advice Needed

[CosmicPathos]

I did not want to post this here but my PM service has been deactivated on these forums so I had no other way except to mention my problems in public. I needed advice from some mature and senior members on this forum: Hamza, Vale, Woodrow etc.

I have been diagnosed in July 2010 with bilaterial (in both eyes) lattice degeneration of the retina. It basically means that my retina has dead vessels and pigmentation through out it. The etiology of this degeneration is not known and it is not reversible. It is not congenital (at birth) but rather developed in teenage years. 8-11% of human population has lattice.

Why am I worried? two reasons.
1- I am scared of going blind. 1% of Lattice patients will have retinal detachment. Retinal detachment is a scary disease and if I get it, I will never have the same quality of vision again .... its like treading through no man's zone ...its like living on uncertainty, knowing that you will go blind but dont know when, spending each and every second of my life waiting for the momentous occurrence of retinal detachment....

. I need spiritual strength to accept the fact of becoming blind if I do become blind because simply put I do not know the will of Allah. He very well could have written blindness for me .... So my question is that, if you were in my place, then how would you react? what duas would you read to gain strength? Would you ever ask Allah to reverse your lattice? Isnt it like asking Allah to give someone a lost limb? Allah swt never ever regrows the limb of a person who has lost it, how can I expect a reversal of my lattice? It seems I can only ask Allah to keep me away from detachment. I cannot ask Allah to reverse my lattice, because simply put, its not physically possible. Is that the right attitude while making dua? Or should I ask Allah to reverse my lattice (I really want to get rid of it) even though rationally its not possible?

2- I am at an important point in my life. Just started professional school (allhamdulillah) and a month before starting a new and challenging part of my education, this news was broken to me ... it was all Allah's plan, to unveil this condition on to me right when a happy moment was starting in my life. Allhamdulillah I am okay with it but being a human, its pretty hard to accept to lvie with it when most of people in my new class are seemingly healthy ... how can I overcome these thoughts and become the sheep of my Lord so that whatever He does to me, it becomes acceptable to me???

wsalam.

p.s. I do not need "I am sorry" comments. you dont have to be sorry for my trial.

 

[جوري]

you are more likely to go blind from someone sticking two bobby pins in your eyes at a football game than from this disease, it is very minimally progressive and retinal detachment occurs in less than 1% further retinal detachment in and of itself doesn't automatically translate to blindness .. you should follow up yearly with your doctor with or without it.. in fact this is what we call an incidentaloma, similar to nonfunctional tumors in the lung/kidney or brain.. so you get no I am sorry from me, you get a quickly snap out of it and think that just because someone is visibly healthy doesn't actually denote that they are.. everyone has their own private hell to live..

 

[جوري]

an addendum to the above, you can ask Allah swt for anything, there are no laws against it.. I have seen people given 3 months to live go on to live 4 years (that I am aware of, probably more if I were to follow their cases) --secondly, I don't know what you are complaining about, I am nearly blind in one eye, my vision is so awful I used to wear contacts until they caused me a corneal abrasion and now have to wear these hideous glasses (well they are stylish) but still I'd rather not be wearing them especially when driving and desperate for full coverage sunglasses.

Now, life comes with no guarantees, none whatsoever -- we are apt at always feeling sorry for ourselves and comparing our lives to others, but the fact is we are not singled out for suffering, but the way we deal with the 'suffering that man was always meant to endure' makes all the difference in our character, personal and professional growth..

 

[CosmicPathos]

you are more likely to go blind from someone sticking two bobby pins in your eyes at a football game than from this disease, it is very minimally progressive and retinal detachment occurs in less than 1% further retinal detachment in and of itself doesn't automatically translate to blindness .. you should follow up yearly with your doctor with or without it.. in fact this is what we call an incidentaloma, similar to nonfunctional tumors in the lung/kidney or brain.. so you get no I am sorry from me, you get a quickly snap out of it and think that just because someone is visibly healthy doesn't actually denote that they are.. everyone has their own private hell to live..

jazakAllah for that. quite therapeutic.

Yes, just because someone does not look sick does not mean they are not, its just what are the chances that their sickness is as "dangerous" as mine especially at this age while at school ... I dont know ... khayr, no point of dwelling on it .... i should start believing that the higher the level of emaan, the more severe the tests.

 

[جوري]

^^ your 'sickness' isn't 'dangerous' many people have it, many people go on with diseases they don't know that have, I have a genetic anemia that I never knew I have because so many doctors are incompetent or lazy or cheap, but I actually suspected because it runs in my family.. you just live with things and your limitations, although I don't think this will bring you any limitations.. I think you are just nervous and worried about this new stage in your life and you are looking for some sort of portal with which to vent out that anxiety and have it be justified..

I think you should saddle up and do your work, you have a long difficult road ahead of you that will require all your effort so that is where you should channel it!

and Allah swt knows best

 

[CosmicPathos]

^^ your 'sickness' isn't 'dangerous' many people have it, many people go on with diseases they don't know that have, I have a genetic anemia that I never knew I have because so many doctors are incompetent or lazy or cheap, but I actually suspected because it runs in my family.. you just live with things and your limitations, although I don't think this will bring you any limitations.. I think you are just nervous and worried about this new stage in your life and you are looking for some sort of portal with which to vent out that anxiety and have it be justified..

I think you should saddle up and do your work, you have a long difficult road ahead of you that will require all your effort so that is where you should channel it!

and Allah swt knows best

jazakAllah for that. I guess my emotional feelings have been exaggerated after spending some time in new place and most especially in a competitive environment where everyone is type A personality, overzealous, good on the outside but competitive from within. I guess I just needed to vent out the loneliness I was feeling with no "true" friends at school, in the form of this concern. then throw bunch of anatomy on top of it and the first quiz I flunked.. please make dua for me.

otherwise how have you been ya ukhti? please update me, send me a pm.

 

[جوري]

I have been crap but al7mdlillah 3la kol 7al..
I need to tell you that it only gets worse from here so toughen up..

 

[AabiruSabeel]

Sister Vale's Lily has already said what was needed. I would just add that reading the Qur'an looking at it helps keep the vision strong. I remember reading about a musalsal Hadith in which all the narrators say that they had a problem with their vision and their teacher asked them to read the Qur'an by looking at it and their vision was restored. Can't find the source right now. Miswak also helps in keeping the vision strong.

It is ok to ask for reattachment of the lattice in Dua. What is physically impossible for us is not impossible for Allah. He can restore it if He wants. Try to pray extra Nafl daily like Salat Adh-Dhuha (Ishraq) or Tahajjud and keep asking Him. Everything is under His control. We can't even blink without His help.
And everything belongs to Him. If He takes back anything, it's His right to take it back because it was only His trust (amanat) with us to utilize. The life, health, wealth, energy, time, knowledge, skills etc are all Allah's trust with us to utilize them in the way that pleases Him. May Allah give us the ability to fulfill that trust.

 

[CosmicPathos]

jazakAllah for the responses. very helpful. I guess reading surah Yasin and rahman everyday will inshallah help and provide the much needed contentment, inshallah.

I still await your beautiful perspective, woodrow. wsalam.

 

[SFatima]

Asoa, fairly old thread, was going through old threads and came across this, may all those with ailments be blessed plentiful with speedy shifa and the blessings of this world and the hereafter. No expert here but I have a few beneficial home remedies for some ailments.

1. Put some zam zam water in an eye dropper bottle and put a couple of drops into your eyes, 2 or 3 times a day, for as long as you can, till you get better.
2. Eat Ajwa dates regularly, they're proven to nourish atrophic or near atrophic cells.
3. Drink plenty of carrot juice, it not only tastes good ( if the carrots are thin, red,medium sized and crispy juicy like in my country : p ), it is extremely good for the re juvenation of eyes, tried and tested.
4. Read sura fatiha 7 times (or even once if short of time) , shoof on your hands and touch your eyes with your hands for just a while, you can spread the same hands all over your body from head to toe, for protection from illnesses all over. Do this everyday.

Recite ya Nooru, plenty of times in a day.

Read these dua-e shifaa on this page, they are really really good subhanAllah. Also, there are many other Quranic and masnun duas linked on the side of this page, I keep booklets of these duas with me all the time, and Alhamdulilah they offer TREMENDOUS benefits! Reading them regularly makes you memorize them without much effort, read with translation to relate to the meanings.

http://dua.farhathashmi.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8&Itemid=9