How To Use The Quran as Shifa'

A believing Muslim knows about the timeless verse that was revealed in the Quran that says, "And We reveal of the Qur’an that which is a healing and a mercy to the believers." [Q.17:82]

Interestingly, Allah swt puts in the word shifa' (healing) to be associated with the Holy Quran. Thus effectively guaranteeing its potency in healing. The question that we naturally will then ask is, "What afflictions can the Quran heals?"

Whilst we know that the primary healing of the Qur’an is in curing the intellectual doubts, falsehoods or half truths concerning God, humanity’s true purpose, life’s essential meaning, and our ultimate end; and in providing humanity with a practical and liveable morality suitable for all times or places, it offers psycho-spiritual relief to mind and soul as well. And to add on to this magnificient benefit, the Prophet pbuh also mentioned in a hadith narrated by Abu Sa`id Al-Khudri,

Some of the companions of the Prophet (ﷺ) came across a tribe amongst the tribes of the Arabs, and that tribe did not entertain them. While they were in that state, the chief of that tribe was bitten by a snake (or stung by a scorpion). They said, (to the companions of the Prophet (ﷺ) ), "Have you got any medicine with you or anybody who can treat with Ruqya?" The Prophet's companions said, "You refuse to entertain us, so we will not treat (your chief) unless you pay us for it." So they agreed to pay them a flock of sheep. One of them (the Prophet's companions) started reciting Surat-al-Fatiha and gathering his saliva and spitting it (at the snake-bite). The patient got cured and his people presented the sheep to them, but they said, "We will not take it unless we ask the Prophet (whether it is lawful)." When they asked him, he smiled and said, "How do you know that Surat-al-Fatiha is a Ruqya? Take it (flock of sheep) and assign a share for me." - Sahih al-Bukhari 5736

The hadith above illustrates very clearly that verses of the Quran, heals the physical impairments and afflictions a man can suffer from.

Ibn al-Qayyim (rahimahullaah) said: “The aggregation of the sicknesses of the heart; are the sicknesses of doubts and desires, and the Qur’aan is a cure for both types.”

He further adds that the Qur’aan has a profound effect in healing the sicknesses of the heart and body, the comprehensiveness of its healing. He summarized in the following words

“So Allaah, The Glorified, has never revealed a cure from the heavens that is more universal or more beneficial or greater or more valiant in the eradication of sickness than the Qur’aan.”

The Secret of Using The Holy Quran as a Shifa'

There is perfect wisdom in the writing of Ibn al Qayyim below to make us understand how to use the Quran more effectively,

Ibn al-Qayyim (rahimahullaah) said: “Indeed many of the treatments benefit through conviction of belief and fine acceptance and a completeness of taking (to it), and the people have witnessed wonders in that regard, and this is because the natural disposition intensifies in its acceptance of it, and the soul is delighted by it, so the strength is invigorated, and the mandate of the natural disposition grows stronger and it emits an inborn fervency – thus it assists in repelling the harmful element.

Conversely, there may be many beneficial remedies for that ailment, yet its performance is cut short due to the poor belief of the sick person in regard to it, and a lack of taking to it with acceptance on the part of the natural disposition, hence it does not bring about any effect over it.

I regard this to be the greatest of remedies and cures, and the most beneficial for the hearts and bodies, and for the means of subsistence and the afterlife, and the life of this world and the Hereafter, and it is the Qur’aan which is a cure from every sickness. How it benefits not the hearts that do not believe that it contains a healing and benefit, rather it does not increase them except in sickness to their sickness, and there is nothing for the healing of the hearts by way of remedy at all that is of more benefit than the Qur’aan. Since its healing of them is perfect and complete which does not leave within them an ailment – except that it heals it and safeguards its health over it unrestrictedly, and affords it protection with complete protection from every harmful and detrimental element.

Yet despite this; the turning away of most of the hearts from it, and their lack of firmly convinced belief – in which there should be no doubt in it that it is as such, and a lack of utilizing it, and the relinquishment away from it to that of the remedies that the sons of their stock have embarked upon have brought about obstruction between that and being afforded cure by way of it. So the customary practices have gained ascendancy, and the avoidance (from it) has intensified, and the ailments and chronic diseases have gained a stronghold upon the hearts. While the patients and the doctors are reared upon remedying the sons of their stock along with that which their elders had laid down for them and those that they venerate and entertain good opinion of, hence the calamity magnifies and the sickness takes root, and the maladies and ailments have become set – defying their efforts to remedy them. Every time they seek to remedy them with those modern treatments; their affair increases in gravity – and they gain strength.”[1]

He said likewise: “So Prophetic medicine does not suit except good bodies, just as the healing by way of the Qur’aan does not suit except good souls and hearts that are alive. So the turning away of the people from Prophetic medicine is like their turning away from seeking cure from the Qur’aan which is a beneficially effective cure, and that is not due to a deficiency in the remedy, but rather due to impurity in temperament and perversion of locale and a lack of acceptance of it – and Allaah is The One Who grants ability.”[2]

[1] Zaad al-Ma’aad vol 4 p.101

[2] Zaad al-Ma’aad vol 4 p.36