Does the body need vitamins?

One of the characteristics of Ayatollah Behjat was his indifference towards food. At the time when he was a poor young student in Najaf the poverty lead him to be content with one loaf of bread as his daily meal and this custom lived on even after him reaching Marjaiyyah and recognition.

One of his students writes in his memoirs: For each Eid Ghadir I was in charge of the yearly feast that Ayatollah Behjat used to make where he invited Ulema and righteous believers to a big meal. Meat was barbecued and offered to the guests but Ayatollah Behjat himself never ate of the food. Instead after the feast was over and all guests had gone he told me to prepare some food and then he and myself would sit together and he would eat with me. He only ate bread and yoghurt though and as much as I insisted that he take grilled meat or at least some rice he would decline.

His son Ali (Behjat) also narrates that most of the mornings and evenings his father would eat only mere bread and a cup of sweet tea and sometimes also a cucumber and nothing more then this!

In the West we are taught the importance of vitamins and how proper food affects the body positively. Yet Ayatollah Behjat lived to be 96 years of age and active until the last moments! While in the West many aged people lose much of their capacity and even need help for their every day life. How can this be? Doesn’t the body need vitamins?

I brought up this with my respected mother who is also a nurse. The discussion was quite an interesting one around a cup of delicious hot tea. She was of the opinion that stress is the main factor that differs the spiritual men from us ordinary people. She said that stress has a huge negative impact on the brain and thus also the rest of the body. A person who is deeply involved in spirituality is also probably very calm and serene and is not easily affected by stress and difficulties that we meet in our lives.

While we are stressed out for a simple task at work an old man like Imam Khomeini was able to administer an entire country in war with all its difficulties and dangers. But the intense sense of trust in Allah, the enormous conviction and the consciousness of the constant divine presence must have been the main factors for his firmness and calmness. Thus mental, inner and spiritual well being is as much important as physical well being. And the mistake we probably make in the West is to neglect to internal factors and pay attention to only external causes.

Ayatollah Misbah Yazdi said once to his students that he was so absorbed in his studies that he forgot eating and drinking until hunger and thirst became to intense. He then went out of Hawza, bought a piece of bread, bent down and drank a sip of water from the tap and then returned to the library to continue his research. But Ayatollah Misbah concludes for his students, “We lived like this but you should not do so! You should take care of yourselves!”

And his words are indeed true. There are Ulema who spent their entire youth staying up all night long worshipping who now at old age can’t even read a book due to the heavy head ache they immediately feel from concentrating.

So the question is: If spiritual well being makes a person live 90 years in perfect harmony, how long could a person live who is cautious with both his spiritual well being and his physical well being?

(References: Ayatollah Seyyed Mahdi Shams al-Din, “Hadithe Deltangi” p.90-91)