From The Desk Of Sheikh Bilal
"Did You Drink Enough Water?" — And What That Has to Do with Your Soul
Friday May 22nd, 2026 | 5th Zilhaj, 1447AH
Issue #03
When someone says they’re not feeling well, there is almost always one question that comes before any other:
“Did you drink enough water?”
It doesn’t matter what the complaint is — a headache, tiredness, brain fog, dizziness. Before any diagnosis, before any remedy, before any real investigation, someone in the room will ask about water. And the strange thing is, they’re usually right to ask.
Why We Always Ask About Water
There are a few reasons this question has become so universal.
Dehydration is common — and easy to miss. A remarkable number of everyday symptoms are caused or made worse by mild dehydration: headaches, fatigue, dizziness, difficulty concentrating, low mood. The problem is that people often don’t notice they’re slightly dehydrated until those symptoms are already showing. It’s a hidden deficiency, which makes it the first thing worth checking.
It’s a low-risk, high-reward fix. Drinking water is safe, simple, and immediately actionable. You don’t need a prescription, a doctor’s visit, or a specialist. You don’t need to wait. It is one of the rare suggestions that can help quickly and almost never hurts. When something is both potentially impactful and completely without downside, it becomes the obvious first move.
It overlaps with almost every condition. Whether someone is dealing with a cold, heat exhaustion, stress, digestive trouble, or general unwellness, hydration plays a role in how the body copes and recovers. Water isn’t just one cure — it’s a baseline condition for almost everything else to work properly.
It’s a socially kind suggestion. When someone we care about isn’t feeling well, we want to help. But we often don’t have enough information to say anything specific or useful. “Drink some water” is a non-invasive, non-judgmental way to show concern without overstepping — a way of saying I see you, and here is something you can do right now.
In short, we ask about water first because dehydration is common, its effects are wide-ranging, the fix is easy, and there is no downside to trying.
Now Apply That Logic to the Soul
All of this maps perfectly onto something much older and much more consequential.
When a person’s soul is troubled — when they feel spiritually restless, when their heart is tight, when their life feels out of alignment, when they are anxious or lost or disconnected from meaning — the question that should always come first is the same kind of question:
“Are you praying?”
Not because prayer is magic, and not as a dismissal of real pain. But for exactly the same reasons we ask about water.
Salaat Is the Water of the Soul
Spiritual dehydration is common — and easy to miss. Most people who have drifted from their prayers don’t announce it. The effects creep in quietly: restlessness, a sense of meaninglessness, emotional fragility, distance from God. Just as physical dehydration often goes unnoticed until the headache arrives, the absence of prayer shows up in symptoms that feel unrelated — until you look closer.
It is a low-risk, high-reward act. Prayer asks nothing that cannot be given. It requires no wealth, no status, no prior condition. It is immediately accessible, and its potential benefit is immeasurable. There is no downside to praying. None. Even if a person prays with a distracted heart, the act of standing before God — of returning — carries worth that cannot be quantified.
It overlaps with almost every spiritual condition. Grief, anxiety, arrogance, ingratitude, confusion, broken relationships, fear of the future — salaat speaks to all of it. It is not a solution to one problem but a restoration of the fundamental relationship from which all problems can begin to be addressed.
It is the pillar, not an option. The Prophet ﷺ said:
“Prayer is the pillar of the religion. Whoever establishes it has established the religion, and whoever abandons it has demolished the religion.”
A pillar is not decorative. A pillar holds everything up. When it weakens, everything above it becomes unstable — and no amount of repair to the walls or roof will matter until the pillar is restored.
What the Ahl al-Bayt Said About Prayer
Imam Ali (a.s.) said in Nahj al-Balagha:
اللَّهَ اللَّهَ فِي الصَّلَاةِ فَإِنَّهَا عَمُودُ دِينِكُمْ “Allah, Allah — concerning prayer, for it is the pillar of your religion.”
This is from his last will before his martyrdom. Of everything he could have said, he chose to begin with prayer. Not as one obligation among many, but as the thing everything else depends on.
He also said:
“Hold fast to prayer — for it is the support of your religion, it repels Satan, and it draws you near to the Most Merciful.”
And in Nahj al-Balagha:
“Prayer is the means of drawing near to Allah for every God-fearing person.”
Imam Jaʿfar al-Sadiq (a.s.) was even more direct about what its absence means:
مَا بَيْنَ الْكُفْرِ وَالْإِيمَانِ إِلَّا تَرْكُ الصَّلَاةِ “Between disbelief and faith is nothing but abandoning prayer.”
This is not a figure of speech. It is a description of a real boundary — the line between a life oriented toward God and a life that has quietly drifted away from Him. And that drift, like dehydration, rarely feels dramatic in the moment.
He also said, recorded in Wasā’il al-Shīʿa:
لَا يَنَالُ شَفَاعَتَنَا مَنِ اسْتَخَفَّ بِالصَّلَاةِ “Our intercession does not reach the one who takes prayer lightly.”
The word istakhaffa — to take lightly, to treat as insignificant — is the real warning here. The danger is not only abandoning prayer outright, but the gradual diminishment of its weight in our hearts.
The Same Logic, Applied to the Spirit
Why we ask “did you drink water?” | Why we should ask “are you praying?” |
|---|---|
Dehydration is common and easy to miss | Neglect of prayer creeps in quietly |
Wide-ranging effects on the body | Salaat affects every dimension of spiritual life |
Immediately actionable, no downside | Prayer is always accessible, with no cost |
Low-risk, high-reward intervention | Even an imperfect prayer is a return to God |
It’s a baseline — other fixes depend on it | The pillar holds everything else up |
A Closing Thought
The next time someone tells you they’re not feeling well — spiritually, emotionally, in their heart — before anything else, before advice or analysis or solutions, ask the water question.
Are you praying?
Not as a rebuke. Not as a dismissal. As a genuine, caring, first point of inquiry — because just as the body has a baseline need without which nothing else works properly, so does the soul. Prayer is that baseline. It is the simplest, most accessible, most universal remedy the Ahl al-Bayt pointed us toward — and there is no downside to returning to it.
The pillar must stand before anything else can.