Did the prophets ever have psychological problems or were they in distress like normal people?

Dear Brother / Sister,

- Prophets are human beings too. They were also tried and tested. The tests of great people are great. As a matter of fact, the Prophet (pbuh) said, “The ones who suffered the most among people are prophets.” (Hakim, Mustadrak, 3/343) They do not show weaknesses like us as human beings but their bodies, spirits and hearts feel pain too. 

When the Prophet conveyed the message of Islam in Makkah, as he put it, ‘the trouble he suffered from some ignorant and stubborn people who lacked good manners was much more than the pain he felt in the Battle of Uhud’.

- The prescriptions the prophets used in the face of those great troubles were prescriptions of belief, reliance on Allah (tawakkul), patience and worshipping.

Agonies decrease as true knowledge increases in parallel with the power of belief.  

To believe in Allah, who is Rahman (the All Merciful) and Rahim (the All Compassionate), gives man power that overcomes all problems.  When the Prophet (pbuh) had some worldly problems, he would say, “We were created to worship Allah, not to think about the worldly problems”, make wudu and perform prayers. That is the prescription of belief and worshipping.

The pleasure that a person who believes in the existence of the hereafter will take from eternal rewards are so powerful that they eliminate the problems of the world. That is the key to patience originating from belief. This key opens all doors of endurance, leads its owner through the corridors of problems and makes him settle in the room of peace. Is what made Hz. Yusuf the king of Egypt not this patience?   

There are levels of patience and endurance just like the levels of belief. As Badiuzzaman Said Nursi, who had a belief similar to the belief of the Era of Bliss, puts it, “In fact, for a worshipper with a truly illuminated heart, it is possible that even if the globe of the earth became a bomb and exploded, it would not frighten him.”

What saved Hz. Yunus from the mouth of the fish under the sea was his belief in Allah that was at the level of the truth of certainty. 

What saved Hz. Ayyub from that terrible disease was his reliance on the endless mercy of Allah.

What saved Hz. Musa from Pharaoh and made the sea a desert for him was his belief in, reliance on and surrendering to Allah. 

“Belief is both light and strength. Yes, one who acquires true belief may challenge the whole universe and be saved from the pressure of events in accordance with the strength of his belief. Saying, "I place my trust in Allah," he travels through the mountainous waves of events in the ship of life in complete safety. He entrusts all his burdens to the hand of power of the Absolutely Powerful One, voyages through the world in ease, then takes his rest in the Intermediate Realm. Later he may fly up to Paradise in order to enter eternal happiness. Otherwise, if he does not rely on Allah, rather than flying, the burdens of the world will drag him down to the lowest of the low. That is to say, belief necessitates affirmation of Divine unity, affirmation of Divine unity necessitates submission to Allah, submission to Allah necessitates reliance on Allah, and reliance on Allah necessarily leads to happiness in this world and the next." (Nursi, Sözler, Yirmi Üçüncü Söz, Birinci Mebhas, Üçüncü Nokta).

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