© Shutterstock
In 2024, the Accra Psychiatric Hospital, Ghana’s premier mental health institution, reported that 26% of its patients were struggling with drug or alcohol-related conditions, a worrying 12% increase from earlier years.[i]
A year earlier, a study at the University for Development Studies in Tamale found that 17.8% of undergraduate students had used Tramadol at least once in their lives. Even more alarming, 85.05% of these students used at least one other substance alongside it, often cannabis.[ii]
Many began using Tramadol not for pleasure, but for what is now called “academic doping,” attempting to suppress fatigue and study far beyond natural limits. What began as a functional shortcut quickly turned into poly-drug dependency.
Addictions today do not always begin with needles, pills, or powders. Modern life is full of small, silent habits that slowly rewire the brain. It might start with perhaps just more episode, one more scroll, one more snack, but soon the mind can’t be satisfied by normal levels of pleasure anymore. The brain builds tolerance to dopamine and starts demanding more just to feel the same spark.
Normal moments feel dull, meaningful moments feel slow, and even silence starts to feel uncomfortable. The mind keeps pushing for more: faster, funnier, louder, stronger and all the while the world is more than happy to give you that, as long as you bring your attention, your time, and preferably your wallet.
At that point you’re just not addicted. You’re being professionally harvested for profit.
Islam does not ban pleasure. It simply teaches you to enjoy life without losing your peace or your principles. Have fun, but not at the expense of your mind, your family, or society. If something destroys homes, feeds selfishness, spreads vulgarity, or leads to crime, then it is not freedom. It is a trap that looks like pleasure but eats you from the inside.
Real enjoyment makes you better. Fake enjoyment makes you empty. So how does Islam help tell you the difference before it controls you? It warns us quite clearly that anything that makes you forget Allah, no matter how normal or harmless it seems, has already turned enjoyment into destruction. The Holy Quran sets a golden standard:
یٰۤاَیُّہَا الَّذِیۡنَ اٰمَنُوۡا لَا تُلۡہِکُمۡ اَمۡوَالُکُمۡ وَلَاۤ اَوۡلَادُکُمۡ عَنۡ ذِکۡرِ اللّٰہِ ۚ وَمَنۡ یَّفۡعَلۡ ذٰلِکَ فَاُولٰٓئِکَ ہُمُ الۡخٰسِرُوۡنَ
O ye who believe! let not your wealth and your children divert you from the remembrance of God. And whoever does so — it is they who are the losers. [iii]
The Promised Messiah, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as) of Qadian, explains regarding this verse:
“Rizq (provision) is of two kinds: one as ibtilā (a trial) and the other as isṭifā (a chosen gift). The rizq that comes as a trial is the kind of provision through which a person loses his connection with Allah. Instead of bringing him closer to God, it pulls him further away until it eventually destroys him.”[iv]
This explanation should make us realize that same quiet question sits beneath many of our choices: Is this bringing me closer to God or slowly pulling me away? We need not say it out loud. It hides in our habits, routines, and even our harmless “just this once.” But that is the real decision being made each time.
It is important to remember that Islam is not an extreme religion that expects you to spend every hour in prayer. Having fun is allowed and evident from the life of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (sa). But when entertainment starts to harm people, damage morals, or weaken society, Islam calls for restraint. Not because joy is forbidden, but because anything that poisons the heart is never worth the laughter it brings.
The Fourth Caliph of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, Hazrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad (rh), discusses this concept as he explains the verse:
وَالَّذِیۡنَ ہُمۡ عَنِ اللَّغۡوِ مُعۡرِضُوۡنَ
And who shun all that which is vain [v]
He explains:
“To find time for light entertainment is neither bad nor prohibited in Islam. But if the entertainment begins to exert a negative influence on society as a whole, it is certainly not recommended. Moreover, if instead of providing a genuine outlet for the stresses of life, entertainment becomes an objective in itself, it would be condemned as laghw (vain and wasteful) in the Quranic terminology. When entertainment begins to interfere in the daily pursuits of life or takes a toll upon one’s time which could be better spent otherwise, it too would be classified as vain according to the Arabic word laghw.” [vi]
Addiction is almost never defeated by sheer willpower or guilt. You don’t fight desire by suppressing it. You overcome it by giving the heart something better to want. As Marc Lewis writes in The Biology of Desire: Why Addiction Is Not a Disease:
“The trick to overcoming addiction is thus the realignment of desire, so that it switches from the goal of immediate relief to the goal of long-term fulfillment.”
This idea is not new. What modern psychology now describes as “realigning desire” is, in fact, a spiritual principle that the Holy Qur’an articulated over 1400 years ago. The Qur’an does not merely command us to abandon evil, it teaches how evil is overcome: not by suppressing the wrong, but by cultivating the right. Allah states:
إِنَّ الْحَسَنَاتِ يُذْهِبْنَ السَّيِّئَاتِ ذَلِكَ ذِكْرَى لِلذَّاكِرِينَ
“Surely, good works drive away evil deeds.” [vii]
(Surah Hud, 11:115)
The Holy Prophet (sa) taught also taught believers:
أَتْبِعِ السَّيِّئَةَ الْحَسَنَةَ تَمْحُهَا
“When you commit a wrong, replace it with a good deed, for it will wipe it away.” [viii]
The Promised Messiah (as) has also further elaborated on this concept, He stated:
“Good deeds wipe out evil deeds. So, keep these good deeds and spiritual delights in your heart, and pray that you may be granted the kind of prayer that belongs to the truthful (ṣiddiqin) and the righteous (muhsinin). When Allah says: ‘Surely, good works remove evil deeds’ (Qur’an 11:114), it means that good deeds or prayer erase sins. And in another place, it is said that prayer protects a person from indecency and wrongdoing. Yet we observe that some people still commit sins despite praying. The answer is that they do pray, but without spirit or sincerity. They only perform the physical motions of prayer as a lifeless habit and ritual. Their soul is dead. Allah does not call such prayers good deeds. Here, the word hasanat (good deeds) is used instead of salah (prayer), even though the meaning is the same. The reason is to point towards the beauty, excellence, and inner goodness of true prayer, the kind of prayer which carries within it a living spirit of truth and a real power of blessing. Such a prayer, and I say this with certainty, truly and surely removes evils.” [ix]
An interesting question was posed to the Fifth Caliph of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, His Holiness Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad (aba). He was asked why Allah multiplies the reward of a good deed but counts a bad deed only once.
His Holiness explained that this reflects the boundless generosity and mercy of Allah. God Almighty wishes to grant the greatest rewards to His faithful servants, and so He has established a system in which a single good deed is multiplied many times over, while a sin is recorded only once. His Holiness noted that, in simple mathematical terms, this means that a person’s good deeds have the power to outweigh and even erase their bad deeds. This alone is a clear sign of Allah’s ever-merciful nature. Rather than questioning such a blessing, His Holiness remarked that a believer should feel joy and profound gratitude for this divine favour.[x]
It is here that the deeper beauty of Islam begins to be apparent once again. The mercy of Allah is not only seen in how our deeds are counted, but also in how He guides the human heart. Islam does not suppress desire, it reforms it. It elevates pleasure. Through Salat, five times a day, Islam gives you intentional pauses, purposeful breaks to realign the soul, to remember Allah, and to feel what true fulfillment tastes like.
Real freedom is not the absence of desire; it is the ability to desire what is higher. The Holy Quran states:
أَلَا بِذِكْرِ اللَّهِ تَطْمَئِنُّ الْقُلُوبُ
“Surely, in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find comfort.” [xi]
The Third Caliph of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, Hazrat Mirza Nasir Ahmad (rh), in one his sermons stated with regards to this verse:
“In the world, there are many countries and groups of people who are considered highly advanced in worldly terms, but when we reflect on their lives, we see a lack of inner peace in both their individual and collective lives. They admit that although they have gained a lot from the world, they have not attained peace of heart, and they are still in search of it. If a person truly reflects, it becomes clear that it is only the remembrance of Allah that can grant real contentment and bring peace to the heart. It is through the remembrance of Allah alone that the human heart finds true tranquillity.
In another place, after mentioning the effects of prayer and congregational prayer on human life, Allah the Almighty says: “And the remembrance of Allah is the greatest” (Al-‘Ankabut: 46). This remembrance of God is the greatest and most powerful virtue. The remembrance of God is the most convincing force. It is the thing that saves a person from the curse — from being cut off from God.”[xii]
The famous Rat Park experiment, conducted by psychologist Bruce Alexander in the 1970s, showed that when rats lived alone in empty cages, they became addicted to morphine, but when they lived together in a rich, social environment the addiction almost disappeared.
It taught a simple truth: when a living being is surrounded by support, connection, and a shared space, it becomes stronger and less vulnerable to harmful desires.
In the same way, Islam does not leave a believer on an island. It gives us congregational prayer, a spiritual community that shields the soul the way a healthy environment shields the body.
His Holiness Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad (aba) has highlighted the importance of congregation prayer :
“Why are military posts and camps established along national borders? As I mentioned, they are set up for the protection of the country, so that the nation may remain safe from enemy attacks, and so that, in the event of an attack, the army is immediately prepared to respond. In the same way, the greatest danger a believer must protect himself from — the danger that requires him to establish his own “spiritual camp” — is the danger of Satan. It is the danger of worldly desires that Satan places in the heart. Through these desires, Satan launches his attacks. Therefore, to be safe from them, the believer has been given the “camp” of congregational prayer. This is the protective force that shields a person from Satan’s attacks. Through it, one is saved from sins and develops an inclination toward good deeds.
Similarly, congregational prayer carries 27 times more reward than praying alone.” [xiii]
The Promised Messiah (as) explained that this is not a coincidence but by design. He states:
“In prayer, the extra reward that has been placed in congregation has a purpose. That purpose is to create unity. And in order to bring this unity into visible practice, Islam has instructed and emphasized to such a degree that even the feet should be aligned.”[xiv]
Thus, Islam not only connects us in worship, but in love, care, and shared responsibility. This deep bond was described by the Prophet (sa) when he said:
تَرَى الْمُؤْمِنِينَ فِي تَرَاحُمِهِمْ وَتَوَادِّهِمْ وَتَعَاطُفِهِمْ كَمَثَلِ الْجَسَدِ إِذَا اشْتَكَى عُضْوًا تَدَاعَى لَهُ سَائِرُ جَسَدِهِ بِالسَّهَرِ وَالْحُمَّى
The Holy Prophet (sa) said, “You see the believers as regards their being merciful among themselves and showing love among themselves and being kind, resembling one body, so that, if any part of the body is not well then the whole body shares the sleeplessness (insomnia) and fever with it.” [xv]
Addiction is not only about substances. It is about the habits and desires that quietly pull the heart away from God. Islam guides us back by giving us something better to seek. Through prayer, remembrance of Allah, good deeds, and the support of community, it lifts our hearts from temporary pleasure to lasting peace. True freedom comes when the soul finds comfort in Allah. When that happens, harmful desires lose their power, and the heart discovers real contentment.
About the author: Ahmad Kamal is a missionary of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. He graduated from Jamia Ahmadiyya International Ghana in 2024 and is currently specializing in the writings of the Promised Messiah (as) at Jamia Ahmadiyya International Ghana, where he also serves as a teacher.
[i] https://www.scribd.com/document/901887441/The-Growing-Drug-Addiction-Crisis-in-Ghana
[ii] Lasong J, Salifu Y, Kakungu JAWM. Prevalence and factors associated with tramadol use among university students in Ghana: a cross-sectional survey. BMC Psychiatry. 2024 Nov 27;24(1):853. doi: 10.1186/s12888-024-06230-z. PMID: 39604896; PMCID: PMC11603979.
[iii] Holy Quran 63:10
[iv] Al-Hakam, Volume 3, Number 22, dated 23 June 1899, page 1
[v] Holy Quran 23:4
[vi] Mirza Tahir Ahmad, Islam’s Response to Contemporary Issues, Islam International Publications Ltd., Tilford, Surrey, p. 111.
[vii] Holy Quran 11:115
[viii] (Jami‘ at-Tirmidhi, Hadith 1987)
[ix] (Review of Religions, Vol. 3, No. 1, p. 5)
[x] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iVPgxr7sHY https://www.alhakam.org/khuddam-usas-midwest-region-25-october-2025/)
[xi] Holy Quran 13:29
[xii] “Khutbat-e-Nasir, Volume 7, pages 343–344.”
[xiii] Friday Sermon – 20 January 2017 Delivered by Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, Khalifatul Masih V (aa)
[xiv] Malfuzat, Volume 8, pages 247–248, 1985 Edition
[xv] Riyad as-Salihin 224
Add Comment