Ash-Shafi (The Healer)

Al-Azhar Quran Teaching | Ash-Shafi (The Healer)

Ash-Shafi (The Healer)

 
He heals you for a cause …
 
He heals you with the weakest of causes …
 
He heals you through the strangest of causes …
 
He heals you with what appears to be no cause at all …
 
And He heals you without any apparent cause!
 
Have the pains overwhelmed you? Have the aches drained you? Has illness painted your life in shades of gray?
 
Do you dread visiting doctors, get tired of walking through hospital corridors, and confuse the names of clinics with appointment dates and the faces of patients?
 
If so, let me share something that will cleanse your spirit of its burdens and exhaustion.
 
It is the Name of Allah, Ash-Shafi—The Healer.
 
Allow your exhausted soul to take a moment to breathe and reflect on this merciful Name. Once you seek comfort in its shade, you will realize how much you need it and how far you’ve been from it.
Get in touch

No More Illness

Ash-Shafi is one of Allah’s beautiful names, for which we praise Him. We praise Him for choosing this Name, for embodying the attribute of healing, and for being the One and Only who restores health to His servants. This Name conveys its meaning clearly, yet its apparent meaning reflects its hidden treasures.

Healing is inherently tied to illness.

And because illness is a recurring aspect of human life—varied in its pain, countless in its forms—it leaves no one. The one healed from eye pain may suffer a headache, and when the headache subsides, joint pain may arise. Once that is alleviated, a fever may take over, and when the fever cools, colitis may flare up. If that subsides, a tooth nerve may attack.

Thus, scarcely a day passes without pain!

And even if your body is saved from pain, you might see your brother groaning, your mother crying, your child moaning, or your loved one in anguish.

Get in touch
Life is a field of diseases, aches, and sighs. That is why Allah named Himself Ash-Shafi—so that your pains may prostrate at the altar of His Mercy, and your ailments may bow at the threshold of His Power.
 
Illness is a great exposure that afflicts the arrogance of humankind. It is an unexpected wilting through which a person loses his vitality and a humbling blow to this anxious and withholding soul.
 
Allah decreed that the body’s radiance dims temporarily so that humans may acknowledge their frailty and recognize that they hold no power or might.
 
Allah decreed illness on human beings to be a reminder of something similar to illness: death. Just as illness marks the end of vitality, so too does death mark the end of life.
 
O man, your reality is death. Everything within you resembles death. Your sleep is a form of death. Your illness is a form of death. Every transition between stages of life is the death of the previous one. Youth is the death of childhood. Old age is the death of youth. You are more akin to death than to life; however, the illusion of immortality deludes us. Thus, illness screams through our bodies, declaring their demise.
Get in touch
As this weakened body lies on a sickbed, he watches those visiting him—bearing crowns of health and wellness—and amidst it all, memories of dust stir within him. The scent of the grave prevails his being, whether he realizes it or not.
 
While you are sick, your soul engages in closed meetings with the deceased. The early signs of internal collapse appear in your eyes, lips, and trembling cold limbs.
 
Life within you waves its hands in farewell to those visitors.
 
When the illness reaches its ultimate, and you’ve been thoroughly cleansed of worldly attachments, Ash-Shafi, Glory be to Him, permits the illness to leave your body and commands health to return to its former state, and suddenly, the rosy color reappears on your cheeks, and a smile that had withered under the weight of sickness blossoms once again.
Get in touch

Heals you with no Cause

 
He heals you for a cause …
 
He heals you with the weakest of causes …
 
He heals you through the strangest of causes …
 
He heals you with what appears to be no cause at all …
 
And He heals you without any apparent cause!
 
He heals with herbs, heals with simple and compound medicines, heals with food, and heals with water…
 
One of the strangest things I have read is about a child suffering from tuberculosis and other illnesses. The doctors claimed his death was imminent and permitted his father to take him to the countryside to enjoy the fresh rural air and natural fields in his last days. While walking, holding a cold piece of cake in his hand, he met an elderly man who looked into his pale eyes and asked, “Do you want to live, my boy?”
 
The boy nodded. The man replied, “How can you hope for life while eating dead food? You must eat living food—meat, vegetables, and everything created by God in nature that still carries the warmth of the soil and the essence of life!”
 
The child recalls, “That man’s advice resonated deeply in my heart. From then on, I only ate living food—the kind bursting with the vitality of life: various meats, fresh vegetables, warm bread freshly harvested from the fields, and ripe fruits. My health improved, and my body flourished. My father then took me to the hospital, and after tests and examinations, the doctors were astonished—there was no trace of the illness.”
 
This story is told by the same child after he grew up and became one of the world’s most famous food therapists, Gayelord Hauser, in his book ‘Food Makes’.
 
Yes, the doctors had sentenced him to death, but the King of Kings had not!
 
Yes, the doctors thought his life would end in the countryside, but God willed otherwise!
 
Yes, the doctors could not cure him, but God was neither unable nor will ever be unable.
Get in touch

You are Unaware!

 
Who placed the secrets of healing in vegetables, meats, and other things available to the poorest of the poor?
 
It is God, the Healer, Glory be to Him.
 
You might unknowingly suffer from an illness and eat food that heals you without realizing.
 
You may fall ill and then recover without ever knowing of your illness or your cure.
 
God may place healing in the water itself, and we all remember the Hadith: “The water of Zamzam is for whatever it is drunk for (1); it is nourishing food and a cure for sickness (2).” Many a patient, weary from illness, has been healed by persistently drinking this blessed water by God’s permission.
 
If you explore the Hadiths on healing, you will find a wealth of Prophetic remedies, some of which Ibn al-Qayyim gathered in his book ‘Prophetic Medicine.’
 
For instance, examples of remedies include Indian and marine costus, cow’s milk and ghee, senna and fennel, black seed, barley porridge (talbinah), and even acts of worship like night prayers… Authentic Hadiths support all.
 
Indeed, He the Al-Mighty heals through patience, supplication, charity, seeking forgiveness, repentance, contentment, and sometimes, He heals without any cause at all.
Get in touch

And the Light Returned…

 
A man entered upon us in the Library of the Religious Affairs at King Abdulaziz Hospital in Tabuk; his face clouded with panic and his bright smile missing. We asked him what was wrong, and he told us that his son had been hospitalized on the upper floor after an accident that caused him to lose his sight.
 
What a devastating blow it was to us, but how much more to this father’s heart?!
 
He pleaded, “I need one of you to come with me and recite Ruqyah (Supplications of Healing) for my son. May Allah heal him!
 
Immediately, my companion stood up and went with him. After an hour, he returned and told me he had recited Ruqyah, comforted the father, and reminded him of the Prophet’s Hadith: “Heal your sick with charity.” (1)
 
The father immediately took out 500 Riyals from his pocket and gave it as charity with the intention of his son’s healing.
 
Two days later, the father returned with a transformed face and asked my companion to accompany him again. When my companion returned after half an hour, he was radiant and exclaimed: “Good news! He can now see some light in the room!” The father, overjoyed, handed him 1,000 Riyals to give to charity.
 
That was at the end of the week. On Saturday, my companion told me the father had come again and taken him to his son’s room. I could hardly believe it when he said that the child had regained his full sight as it was before! The boy could see life again.
 
Who healed him? Who restored life to his eyes? Who brought back the light to his vision?
 
 “His command, when He wills something, is only to say to it, ‘Be,’ and it is.”
 
Glory be to Him, He said to the boy’s sight, “Return,” and it returned.
Get in touch

Return to Him

 
He asks nothing of you but to return to Him, to seek the path that leads to Him
 
Return to Him with contentment.
 
Return to Him in prostration.
 
Return to Him in repentance.
 
Return to Him in seeking forgiveness.
 
Return to Him in charity.
 
Return to Him in acknowledgment.
 
Knock on His door, and wait for healing…
 
No hospital on earth can heal you unless Allah wills it.
 
No doctor in the world can diagnose your illness unless Allah allows it.
 
One wealthy man suffering from kidney failure was taken by his sons to Egypt for a kidney transplant. They arranged with the family of a young girl to pay 100,000 Saudi Riyals in exchange for her kidney.
 
In the morning, as everyone was at the hospital, the man requested to meet the girl who decided to sell her kidney before the surgery. She entered, shy and hesitant. He asked her: “What made you decide to sell your kidney to an old man like me?”
 
She replied: “Necessity. My family is poor, and my siblings are in university. I have to do something to help them!!”
 
Her words struck him like a slap, waking him from the stupor in which he had forgotten the poisoned blood in his body. He wondered: “Is it reasonable that someone could give up part of his body, a portion of his life, just to eat and survive?!”
 
He immediately called his sons. When they entered, he ordered them to cancel the surgery and take him back to Saudi Arabia. He decided to donate 100,000 Riyals to the girl as a charity without taking a single Riyal from her.
 
Despite resistance and even anger from some of his sons, they finally yielded to their father’s desire.
 
Upon returning to Saudi Arabia, he resumed his regular dialysis treatments. During a routine check-up, the doctors, astonished, discovered that his kidney had started functioning again!
 
The healing power of the King of Kings does not require a surgeon’s scalpel. He is the Sovereign who looks from His glorious heights, healing the sick, relieving the distressed, bringing back the lost, and mending the wounded…
Get in touch

An Appointment in Advance

 
He afflicts you with illness so that you may return to Him, and once you return, He lifts the disease because it has served its purpose.
 
He afflicts you with illness to humble you, and once you humble yourself and submit, He lifts the disease because it has served its purpose.
 
He afflicts you with illness to make you feel for others, and once you feel their pain, He lifts the disease because it has served its purpose.
 
He afflicts you with illness to test your patience and contentment, and once you show patience and contentment, He lifts the disease because it has served its purpose.
 
The Healer, for Whom you need no appointment, no referral card, no need to arrive fifteen minutes early at least, He is Allah.
 
Just say, “O Allah,” and behold, the greatest divine hospital opens its doors to you: a hospital of mercy, power, kindness, and healing.
 
My friend once told me he heard the sound of bones shattering under the wheels of his car. He stopped, trembling, and carried the child to the hospital. His heart was pounding. The child’s father and grandfather arrived. My friend, in a daze, couldn’t imagine the possibility of taking a child’s life.
 
The sound of the shattering bones echoed in his ears
 
The child’s grandfather approached, calmed, and reminded him that whatever Allah wills will happen, and they would accept His decree.
 
This grandfather led them in the ‘Isha prayer in the hospital Masjid and recited, “And give glad tidings to the patient.” My friend wept bitterly.
 
After the prayer, the doctors informed the father and grandfather that the child’s chances of survival were slim due to a severe skull fracture. My friend was devastated and withdrew to his home, unable to work for an entire week, overwhelmed by shock.
 
There was no greater remedy for that child’s greater than the grandfather’s faith, the mother’s prayers, the father’s certainty, and their collective reliance on Allah.
 
Less than a week later, I visited that child. To my amazement, he laughed, played, and spoke with us. Allah had proven the doctors wrong. The Mender of broken bones had spoken: “Whatever mercy Allah opens to the people, none can withhold it.”
 
Who else can mend shattered bones, restore a smile to a broken face, and breathe life into a body on the verge of death?
 
Only Allah can.
Get in touch

Full Stop

 
This is the Father of Prophets, Ibrahim (peace be upon him), who came to his Lord with a heart free of even an atom of association with others that may afflict weak hearts. Through his word, the believer understands the lesson and only resorts to the Ever-Living, who never dies: “And when I am ill, it is He who cures me.”
 
Only Him, none but Him
 
Put a full stop here. You will need no one else if He wills your cure, and no one else will help you if He doesn’t.
 
The body of Job (Ayoub, peace be upon him) was afflicted with leprosy, his family scattered, and his wealth lost. The most optimistic people lost hope in his recovery. Yet he remained patient and devoted, enduring the flames of affliction with his head bowed before his Lord. After years of suffering, a humble prayer escaped his lips—a prayer filled with humility and certainty: “Indeed, adversity has touched me, and You are the Most Merciful of the merciful.”
 
The gates of mercy opened.
 
Divine Decrees from the seventh heaven descended for that distressed soul.
 
Years of torment ended in a moment, and an era of healing began.
 
Why do you go to anyone else?
 
Why do you seek refuge in others?
 
Why do you trust these lifeless beings around you, forgetting the Ever-Living who never dies?
 
Who deluded you into thinking that healing comes from elsewhere?
 
How did life deceive you so quickly, making you forget the One Who brought you out of your mother’s womb without a doctor, placed sustenance in her breast for you, and taught you, in your ignorance, how to latch onto her chest and nurse? Have you forgotten the One who instilled mercy in her heart to hold you and care for you?
 
How quickly you’ve forgotten?
 
                   How easily have you believed you could do without Him?
 
Through illness, He reminds you of your earliest day.
 
Through illness, He says: Return to Me. Just as I created you from nothing, I alone can lift affliction from your body.
Get in touch

Contentment

The cure may be closer than you think! Look at Job (Prophet Ayoub, peace be upon him), who was instructed simply to strike the ground with his foot, and there it was: “a cool bath and a drink.”

The cure had been near him all along, lacking only the divine will so that causes of healing would be complete. When Allah willed, Ayoub knew the cure, and by His permission, the cure was effective.

You don’t need to book a flight to Washington, Paris, or Beijing. Your cure, if Allah wills, is near; just book for your heart a journey to the City of Contentment:

Your remedy is within you, but you do not feel it.

And your illness is from you, but you fail to perceive it.

If you are content with Allah, He will grant you contentment.

Illness is among the most challenging tests of contentment. If you respond to this test with satisfaction, the result will be satisfying by Allah’s permission.

But some may ask: How can I be content with illness, which naturally brings pain and discomfort? How can I be content with something I detest?

Imam Ibn al-Qayyim answers this question, saying:

“There is no contradiction here, for one may be content with an affliction because of the good it leads to, even while disliking the pain it causes. It is like bitter medicine, and one knows that it brings healing. Thus, contentment and aversion can coexist.”

Say through your sighs what your Prophet taught his nation to say: “I am content with Allah as my Lord, with Islam as my religion, and with Muhammad as my Prophet.”

Say it with your heart. Train your heart to submit to its meaning. Wash your heart with these words until it is cleansed.

Contentment with Allah stems from being content in Allah. And if you are content in Him, He will satisfy you.

Let your heart breathe contentment. Let it taste the sweetness of contentment. Then, observe your body; you will see signs of healing spreading through its corners by Allah’s permission.

Gather your hands, call upon Him by His Name in your supplication, and then wipe your body. By His decree, He may restore what seemed lost.

Make illness the beginning of a new chapter—one in which you come to know your Lord through His Name, Ash-Shafi (The Healer).

Get in touch

Rivers of Sins

 
You have been ill many times in your life, haven’t you? Who healed you? Wasn’t it Allah? Why do you think this particular illness is beyond His power? Such thoughts and feelings deserve His punishment, and your illness may be a punishment for your ill belief. Rid your heart of illness first, and then seek refuge in the Healer, for He will heal you.
 
All those hospital patients are merely waiting for the Permission of the Healer, the Exalted, to grant them recovery.
 
There is no sigh that He does not hear, no pain that He does not know its place, and no gasp that He does not see its flames in the heart.
 
Then, when His will is fulfilled, and rivers of sins flow through your sighs, He commands health to return. And there you are, walking on Allah’s earth, cleansed of your sins.
 
Because He is the Most Merciful, He heals you.
 
Because He is the All-Knowing, He heals you.
 
Because He is the Forbearing, He heals you.
 
Because He is the All-Powerful, He heals you.
 
Because He is Allah, He heals you.
 
With Him, you will erase the names and numbers of doctors!
 
With Him, you will forget the locations of hospitals!
 
With Him, you will cancel clinic appointments!
 
Build a new hospital in your room, and call it the prayer mat.
 
Set an appointment with prostration.
 
Engrave in your heart a single name: Ash-Shafi (The Healer).
 
O Allah, the Healer, write Your healing and Your mercy for every weak soul, every exhausted body, and every weary heart. Indeed, You are the All-Hearing of supplications.
Get in touch