The Nature of Ailments and Remedies

&
The Benefits of Illness
&
Concerns about Never Getting Sick

The Nature of Ailments and Remedies

Allah has created a remedy

The Prophet Mohammad said:
For every disease Allah has created a certain remedy.

(Nahj al Fasahah Maxims of the Prophet Mohammad- transl. Dastjerdi, pg 91, #692)

Allah first gives rise to the cure

The Prophet Mohammad said:

Allah does not give rise to any disease unless He first
offers its cure.

(Nahj al Fasahah Maxims of the Prophet Mohammad transl. Dastjerdi, pg 346, #2456)

There is a Cure for Every Ailment

The Prophet Mohammad said:

Treat yourselves with medicine, for truly Allah has not

sent down any ailment except that He has sent down a
cure for it with the exception of death and old age.

(The Scale of Wisdom - Rayshahri, pg 399, # 2264 & Kanz al Ummal #28088)

The bitterness of the remedy

Imam Ali said:
The pain of one who cannot bear the bitterness of a
remedy will continue.

(The Scale of Wisdom Rayshahri, pg 401, #2276 & Ghurar al Hikam, #2909)

It is possible for a medicine

Imam Ali said:

It is possible for a medicine to be an ailment and an

ailment to be a medicine.

(The Scale of Wisdom Rayshahri, pg 401, #2275 & Nahj al Balagha, letter31)

Diseases are
The Prophet Mohammad said:

Diseases are Allahs whips on the earth for the correction

of people.

Nahj al Fasahah Maxims of the Prophet Mohammad transl. Dastjerdi, pg 67, # 450)

More on the Nature of Good Health

Including:
The Benefits of Illness
&
Concerns about never getting sick

The Benefits of Illness

Allah will wipe out the sins of

The Prophet Mohammad said:
No Believer and Muslim man or woman fall sick
except that Allah will wipe out their sins.

~~~~~~~

The wrong doings of a sick person

The Prophet Mohammad said:
The wrong doings of a sick person fall off of them like the
falling of leaves from a tree.

(The Scale of Wisdom ~Rayshahri, pg 992, #5762 & 5761 consecutively & Al Targhib wa al
Tarabih, vol 4, pg 292, #55 & 56)

Fever is Allahs Prison on Earth

Imam Ali said as part of a longer tradition:
Fever is the forerunner of death. It is Allahs prison on
the earth. Whenever Allah wants to imprison someone on
the earth, they will get a fever.
Fever will shed ones sins as leaves fall off a tree in the
fall.

(Al Khisal ~ Saduq, g 1074, #27-5)

The Reward for Illness

Imam Sadiq said:
One nights sleeplessness during an illness that afflicts a believer
is equal to a years worship.

~~~~~~~

One nights fever

The Messenger of Allah said:

One nights fever expiates a years sins.

(Tibb al Aimma Medicine of the Imams- Transl. Ispahany, pg 5)

On the Reward of the Patient One

Imam Sadiq said:
Whoever, when suffering from an ailment, patiently
endures it and considers it a means of proximity to Allah,
Allah writes for them the same reward as that of a
thousand martyrs.

(one copy to Vices and Virtues section of the notebooks and one to Health Care notebooks
& one copy to L.T.)

(The Scale of Wisdom Rayshahri,, pg 605, #3447 & Tibb al Aimmah, pg 17)

Staying awake from illness or pain

Imam Baqir or Imam Sadiq said:
Staying awake from sickness or pain for one night carries
a greater reward than the worship of one year.

(The Scale of Wisdom Rayshahri, pg 9992, #5763 & & Al Kafi vol 3, pg 114, #6)

When a Believer becomes sick

Imam Kazim said:
When a believer becomes sick, Allah reveals to the angel
on their left shoulder:
Do not write a sin for my servant as long as they are in
My confinement and my grasp.
And He reveals to the angel on the right shoulder:
Write for My servant what you were writing for them in
merits when they were healthy.

(The Scale of Wisdom Rayshahri, pg 9992, # 5764 & Al Kafi, vol 3, pg 114, #7)

Concerns about never Getting Sick

If ones body does not become sick

Imam Baqir said:
If a body does not become sick it continues to make
merry and there is no good in a body that only makes
merry.

(The Scale of Wisdom Rayshahri, pg 994, #5773 & Mishkat al Anwar, pg 487, #1626)

The Prophet Mohammad said about good

health
The Prophet Mohammad said:
Continuous good health suffices as an ailment.

(The Scale of Wisdom Rayshahri, pg 993, #5771 & Tanbih al Khawatir, vol 2, pg 7)

~~~~~~~

If one does not endure any harm in their

body
The Prophet Mohammad said:

Indeed Allah hates a wicked evil person who does not endure any
harm in their body or their wealth.

(The Scale of Wisdom Rayshahri, pg 993, #5772 & Al Daawat, pg 172, #482)

About Concealing Illness

&
The Etiquette of Visiting the Sick

About Concealing Illness

Whoever becomes sick three times

The Prophet Mohammad said:
Allah Almighty has said:
Whoever becomes sick three times and does not
complain to any of their visitors, I change their flesh to
flesh better than what they have and blood better than
the blood they had before.
If I cure them then I will cure them they will have no sin.
And if I take them in death, I will take them to My Mercy.

(The Scale of Wisdom ~ Rayshahri, pg 993, # 5765 & Al Kafi, vol 3, pg 115, #1)

Whoever conceals their pain and illness

Imam Ali said:
Whoever suppresses pain that they have been inflicted with and
conceals it for three days form people and complains to Allah
instead, Allah will rightfully cure them from it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Imam Ali said:
Whoever conceals their hidden illness, their physical will not be
able to cure it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Imam Ali said:
Whoever conceals their sickness from physicians has betrayed
their body.

(The Scale of Wisdom Rayshahri, pg 993 #5767, 5768 & 5769 & Al Khisal, pg 630, #10 &
Ghurar al Hikam#8545 and 8612 conseq.)

The Etiquette of Visiting the Sick

Visiting the Sick

The Prophet Mohammad said:
The one who visits the sick dives into Divine Mercy.

(The Scale of Wisdom ~ Rayshahri, pg 994, #5775 & Kanz al Ummal#25141)

Make your visits to the sick brief

The Prophet Mohammad said:
The best kind of visit to the sick is the briefest one.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Keep the visit to the sick brief unless

Imam Ali said:
The visitor with the greatest reward with Allah is the one
who when they visit sits briefly. That is unless the sick
person likes the company and wants and asks them to sit
longer.

(The Scale of Wisdom Rayshahri, pg 994, #5778 & 5779 and Kanz al Ummal, # 25139 and
Al Kafi, vol 3, pg 118, #6)

The length of the visit should be

Imam Sadiq said:
The visit to the sick should be as long as the time it takes
to milk a camel.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

The visit to the sick should be just long

enough
Imam Sadiq said:
The complete visit to the sick should be just long enough
for you to put your hand on their arm and hurry to leave
them because the visit of the foolish is harder for the sick
person to bear than their pain.

(The Scale of Wisdom ~ Rayshahri, pg 995, #5780 & 5781 and Al Kafi, vol 3, pg 118, #2 and
vol 3, pg 118, #4)

When You Visit the Sick, Take Something to

Them

It is narrated in Al Kafi that a servant of Imam Sadiq said:

One of the Imams servants became sick so we went to
visit him as a group of the servants of the Imam.
We met Imam Sadiq on the way and he asked:
Where are you going?
We replied:
We are going to so and so to visit them.
The Imam said:
Stop!
So we stopped and he asked:
Do any of you have an apple or a quince or a citron or
some perfume or a piece of sandalwood?
We said:
No, we do not have any of these.
The Imam said:

Dont you know that the sick person is comforted by

anything that is brought for them?
(The Scale of Wisdom ~ Rayshahri, pg 995, #5782 and Al Kafi, vol 3, pg 118, #3)

Whoever visits a sick person

Imam Sadiq said:
Whoever visits a sick person, seventy thousand angels
will escort them seeking forgiveness for them until they
return to their house.

(The Scale of Wisdom ~ Rayshahri, pg 994, #5777 & Al Kafi vol 3, pg 120, #2)

Allah will say about visiting the sick

The Prophet Mohammad said:

Allah Almighty will say on the Day of Resurrection:
O Son of Adam! I became sick and you did not visit Me!
And then they will ask:
O Lord! How can I visit You when You are the Lord of the
Worlds?
The Almighty will say:
Did you not know that My servant so and so became sick
and you did not visit them?! Did you not know that if you
had visited them you would have found Me there with
them?

(The Scale of Wisdom ~ Rayshahri, pg 994, # 5775 & Al Targhib wa al Tarhib, vol 4, pg 317,
#3)

Visit the Sick and Attend Funerals

The Prophet Mohammad said:

Visit the sick and attend funerals as it will remind you of
the Hereafter.

(The Scale of Wisdom ~ Rayshahri, pg 994, # 5776 & Kanz al Ummal #24143)