Carrot and the prayer

Assalamualaikum WBT.

Quite a while ago I sat in a class where they talked about the benefits of carrot (obviously it was the food functional class). "Beta carotene in the carrot will be converted to Vitamin A in the liver, which will later help in the formation of rhodopsin in the eye. This helps prevent night blindness and also eye degeneration in old people. But in people of good eyesight (or just slightly near/farsighted like us), it does not help much.

Interestingly, why does people seem to believe that Carrots can improve eyesight? Well, this comes from a WW2 story where German was fighting the British. British came up with a new invention, the ground-based radar which made lots of German planes being shot down. But to prevent the German from knowing about the radar, they spread the rumor that British pilots are fed with lots of carrot that made them see everything better (LOLWOUT). The rumor was so believable that even the British people--and us too, till today--eat carrots to improve eyesight.

OK, put that aside--well a few days back I saw this show on TV, it was about Islamic medicine, which someone asked what is the cure to poor eyesight. Which the ustaz answered,

"Buy 21 pieces of baby carrots, and eat them, while saying this prayer."



I was like, "why 21 carrots? why not one big one, or eleven tiny ones? Why not the supplements, the juice, the essence?" Correct me if I'm wrong--as of now, I haven't found any hadith towards eating 21 pieces of carrot for health, nor a story which actually described the Prophet eating 21 pieces of carrot.

So point is here? Well, like my friend said, disease is a matter of God's will. It happens on his will, it goes away on His will too. For me, it's not the prayer nor the carrots that made the eye better--it's God. His will.

But that does not mean you should "work" for it though. Just like working makes you earn your paycheck, eating medicine (and praying for it too) will earn you your health.

Good day, and eat your veggies!

p.s. speaking of rumors...it seems that americans does not understand the significance of Saidina Ali and the 11 september here. lol