A faith-based organisation, Al-Mu’minaat (the Believing Women), has underlined the role of qana’ah (contentment) and tawakkul (reliance) on Allah in preventing depression among Muslims.
The organisation believes that despite the rise in the cases of depression among Nigerians, it records a low level among its fold because members have been trained to place their trust totally in Allah in directing their affairs.
Al-Mu’minaat advocated these as its Lagos chapter held a Health Awareness Day/Marriage Counselling Seminar on Saturday, July 27, in collaboration with its national headquarters.
The venue, TMC Da’wah Centre, Lagos, was filled to capacity by thousands of Muslim women from different Islamic organisations including Al-Mu’minaat members – within and outside Lagos.
Speaking at the well-attended event, Amirah Al-Mu’minaat Lagos, Hajia Bilqis Abdullah, noted that the seminar marked the maiden edition, and the first time the national and state bodies are coming together to organise a seminar.
According to her, “We have not organised a seminar of this nature before. This is the first time we are having a marriage seminar from the office of the State Naibatul Amirah and a health awareness programme from the office of the National Welfare Officer.
“We wanted our audience to have a double day. If we had called people only for the marriage seminar, a lot of them would be in attendance because it talks about marital discord. On the other hand, if we call people only for the health awareness programme, they will also come for it because it talks about depression. However, most of the factors that lead to depression are tied to marriage, especially marital discord.
“So, we considered the two as issues that go hand-in-hand to enable a lot of people gain from both at the same time.”
The organisation invited a renowned marital counselling expert and a Senior Partner with M-Solution Consulting International Ltd. (MSCI) Dr Sulaimon Ogunmuyiwa and Dr (Mrs) Morufat Omotayo, a public health physician, as the guest lecturers for the marriage and health awareness seminar.
‘Efforts to sensitise members ‘
Speaking further on the efforts by Al-Mu’minaat to educate its members on marriage, an important aspect of social life, the Amirah disclosed to Muslim News that the Muslim women-led organisation facilitated training of selected members by MSCI, a top-class marital counselling center.
“Some of our members have been trained to become professional counsellors. The first batch featured 30 counsellors and similar batches afterwards. Thus, we have trained hands and we are trying to encourage our members starting from local government to start having standard counselling centres.
“Also, part of what we do is that we run monthly counselling centres which hold during joint teribiyyah only. It is only when you come for teribiyyah you are able to meet counsellors. However, we are planning to have a standard counselling centre where people can walk into at anytime to meet a counsellor on marital challenges or any other issue.”
‘Rising case of depression’
The Amirah lamented the increasing cases of depression arising from marital discord in the country.
She affirmed that the way out, especially for Muslims, is to be content and repose complete trust in Allah for everything.
“I saw a video of somebody who committed suicide around Ikorodu area of Lagos. There has been a rise of suicide cases arising from depression. It is not prevalent among Al-Muminaat members and by extension Muslims because of qana’ah (contentment).
“Our people have been trained to be contented with whatever we have. Also, our tawakkul; we have been trained to rely on Allah on whatever it is that is giving us problems – e.g marriage, children or work. We have been trained to put our trust totally in Allah which has kept us going. That is why we don’t have issues on depression among members. On the other hand, marital discords and depression are prevalent in the society.”
Marital Counsellor emphasises patience among partners
The guest lecturer, Dr. Ogunmuyiwa, while speaking on the topic, “Marital Discords: Effects and Consequences as it Affects a Home”, advised partners to develop and demonstrate enough patience with one another to avoid discord.
He identified inability to understand the needs of one’s partner as the major cause of marital discord.
“Marital discord affects the children because they are the victims of any marital discord. It also affects the general wellbeing of the parties involved. It destabilises the social connection between families and all these are indications that all is not well with the society. When the home is peaceful and the relationship is sound, the community will be sound in return and this will have far-reaching outcome on the society at large,” Dr. Ogunmuyiwa said.
The marital counsellor expressed his delight at the impressive turnout of women for the seminar and commended their rapt attention to the lecture.
“The turnout was impressive for me and it’s quite a long time since I presided over a large assemblage of Muslim sisters for a seminar of this nature. I feel elated that they are able to come together to learn from one another and share a few things.
“They gave me their rapt attention and followed the presentation. I feel humbled to see the number of phones out to record. The sensible questions raised reflected their understanding of the topic,” he told Muslim News on the sidelines of the event.
The guest lecturer commended Al-Mu’minaat for organising the seminar, and urged the host to make it two or three times in a year to achieve maximum impact.
“They should organise more of this programme. They should not make it an annual programme; at least two or three times in year for us to actually get our impact and they need to further create counseling units that will help to attend to some of these issues.
“There is need for counselling education and counselling sessions to help people say their mind and help people solve their problems. Some of the questions asked are individual questions, which could not be attended to but if there is a counselling session, it will be very helpful.”
Adopt consistent, standard lifestyle: Dr. Omotayo
In the second presentation, the guest lecturer, Dr Omotayo, who spoke on “Curbing Global Prevalence of Depression amongst Women: Your Role my Role”, charged women to adopt a consistent and standard lifestyle to prevent depression.
She stressed the need for regular exercise, adequate sleep, stress management and healthy relationships in getting rid of depression.
“It was reported by the World Health Organisation (WHO) that about 7 million Nigerians were struggling with depression as at 2019. Everyone faces depression at one point or the other. Depression can be low, moderate or severe. It can be just a single episode in a lifetime, recurring or seasonal.”
The expert said depression leads to people getting easily and unnecessarily irritable and facing difficulties in having a good sleep.
“As part of lifestyle modification to prevent depression, we need to have regular exercise. As Muslims, we are blessed to have solat, which serves the purpose of exercise. However, we need to also design a separate time for ourselves for regular exercise. We also need to be consistent with it. This will aid healthy living.
“Adequate sleep is also important. Allah says “He created the day for work and the night for rest. When we get adequate sleep, the body will reset itself. We also need to manage stress and avoid overcommitment, and take a healthy diet. All these prevent depression.
“We also have what we call social support. This means that by building strong and healthy relationships we can share our feelings and challenges. This will make us express our feelings instead of bottling them up,” she added.
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