Health of Soul, its necessity and importance

Health literally means keeping and being healthy; in scientific terms, it means preventing diseases, promoting life, preserving and protecting human health. In these definitions, it seems that the health of the soul, which is one of the most important areas, has been neglected. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the nature of the human soul, and how to achieve prosperous factors as well as how to avoid and prevent the destructive factors of the soul. This analytical study was carried out as library research, using religious sources and reviewing the verses and quotations of the Imams in Islamic texts and studies by the scientists. Accordingly, the existence of the truth of the soul was first proved by rational and evidentiary arguments. Then, utilizing intuition and logic, its significance was confirmed so that it would be necessary to pay attention to this fact and its health. All ethical issues were considered in this study and the researchers declared no conflict of interests. Neglecting the health of soul beside contaminating it certainly causes the soul's truth to be subjected to spiritual death. Human’s connections with his actions including physical acts such as nutrition play a transcendent role like that of spiritual acts such as beliefs and credos. According to the viewpoint of the Amir al-Mu'menān (AS), the human body has six states: sometimes it is alive and sometimes dead, it is healthy and sometimes sick, and sometimes sleeping and sometimes awake. The human soul also has the same six modes. Not observing the health of soul will have negative consequences such as mental and spiritual illnesses for the individual and society. Moreover, it results in the loss of eternal prosperity and the prevalence of crime and betrayal in human society.