Human wellness and development: the importance of religion

Abstract

Man is a religious being. This statement is impliedly understood based on the fitrah (the pattern by which God creates man) that every newborn is born with. One of the elements of fitrah is that every man acknowledges the existence of God. Acknowledging existence of God implies religion since God is central in all religions. Since man is a religious being, his wellness and development are very much associated with religion. This is comparable to philosopher's statement that man is a social being where human wellness and development is very much associated with his social affairs. Religious teachings guarantee the comprehensive and affective solutions to the human wellness and development, spiritually, psychologically, physically etc. However, lack of religious knowledge and confusion make man away from their religion. Religion is perceived as obstacles of human development. For this purpose, the paper tries to show the importance of religion to human wellness and development. It begins with analyzing the true nature of man. After that, some human problems will be discussed in order to see their correlations with man's religious negligence. The paper ends by illustrating some religious theories and practices that help man in solving their living problems.