Du‘ā for illness, and visiting the sick

Illness comes to everyone, and the narrations give words both for the one who is ill and for the one who visits. This page brings together what the Sabīl library holds on it: the du‘ā said when visiting someone who is ill, the ruqyah recited over the ill, the du‘ā for one’s own pain, the Qur’ān’s own words on healing, and the place the library gives to visiting the sick among the rights Muslims owe each other. Every du‘ā is shown with its Arabic, a transliteration, its meaning and the source the library gives; the narrations are listed by number at the end. Under some verses the page also shows the notes of that edition; they are the edition’s words, not this page’s, and this page has not checked them. Nothing here takes the place of medical care, and for a question about your own circumstances, ask a scholar.

Healing is from Allah

In the Qur’ān, Ibrāhīm, describing his Lord, says that when he is ill it is He who heals him.

And the Qur’ān says of itself that it is sent down as a healing and a mercy for the believers.

The card “Illness & the sick”

Among the cards of the Pocket Companion named “Du‘ā for life events”, one is headed “Illness & the sick”. It holds three texts, each with its own label and source line.

Visiting the sick

The first is a du‘ā said to the one who is ill: asking Allah the Mighty, Lord of the Mighty Throne, to cure them. Its label reads “Visiting the sick · 7×”, so the count is the card’s. The library cites it to Abū Dāwūd and at-Tirmidhī with the grade ṣaḥīḥ. In both narrations Ibn ʿAbbās reports that the Prophet ﷺ said that whoever visits a sick person whose time has not come and says these words seven times, Allah will cure them of that illness; the card’s source line gives this in short.

The ruqyah over the ill

The second calls on Allah as Lord of mankind and Remover of harm, and asks Him to cure, for He is the Healer and there is no healer but Him. The library cites it to al-Bukhārī with the grade ṣaḥīḥ. In that narration it is Anas who recites it, as the ruqyah of the Prophet ﷺ, over a man who told him he was ill. The source line adds that it is said “with al-Fātiḥah and the three sūrahs”. The card’s text stops before the last words of the ruqyah in that narration.

For one’s own pain

The third is for the one who is in pain: seeking refuge in Allah and His power from the evil of what one feels and fears. The library cites it to Muslim with the grade ṣaḥīḥ, and the source line adds “hand on the place of pain”. Its transliteration line prints “(3×)” after the opening word and “(7×)” after the words that follow; this page reports the two marks as the card prints them.

Reciting al-Fātiḥah and the three sūrahs

The Qur’ān Companion, another set of the Pocket Companion, has a table headed “What to read, and when”. Its row for illness reads: “al-Fātiḥah · the three sūrahs, with ruqyah”. The table ends with one source line for all its rows, which names al-Bukhārī, Muslim, at-Tirmidhī and an-Nasā’ī with the grade ṣaḥīḥ.

Two narrations in al-Bukhārī speak of reciting over the sick. In one, ʿĀ’ishah reports that whenever the Prophet ﷺ was ill he would recite the Muʿawwidhāt over himself and blow, and that when his illness grew heavy she recited them over him and passed his hands over his body. In the other, Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī reports that a Companion recited al-Fātiḥah as ruqyah over a chief who had been bitten or stung, and he recovered; the narration goes on to say that the Prophet ﷺ, when they asked him, approved of it and told them to take their payment.

The card The three sūrahs prints al-Ikhlāṣ, al-Falaq and an-Nās, and al-Fātiḥah is in the Qur’ān reader. How many times these are recited over someone who is ill is not given on the card or in the table, and this page does not give it either.

Visiting the sick, among the rights owed

The last card of Adab & Akhlāq, the library’s title on manners and character, is headed “Rights owed”: the rights of parents, of the neighbour and of the road. Its last line lists six things a Muslim owes another, and visiting him when he is ill is one of them; the library cites that line to Muslim with the grade ṣaḥīḥ, and a narration in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim speaks of six rights of a Muslim, visiting him when he falls ill among them. The card is not shown here, because the library’s own checking has not settled a question about the grading of another line on it.

The card before it, headed “The sick & the guest”, opens with the manners of a visit, with a short du‘ā beneath them. It is not shown here, because the library’s own checking has not settled a question about the English of another line on it. It stands as printed in Adab & Akhlāq.

References

Verses of the Qur’ān, by sūrah and verse, shown above: 17:82; 26:80. Named in the prose: sūrah 1 (al-Fātiḥah).

Narrations, by collection and number as sunnah.com numbers them: al-Bukhārī by the numbering of Fatḥ al-Bārī; Muslim by Muḥammad Fuʾād ʿAbd al-Bāqī’s numbers, with the letter sunnah.com adds where it divides one; Abū Dāwūd and al-Tirmidhī by sunnah.com’s numbering. The library names the collection under each text; the number is the narration it cites.

• The du‘ā on visiting the sick, seven times: Sunan Abī Dāwūd 3106; Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī 2083.
• The ruqyah, as Anas recited it: Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 5742.
• For one’s own pain, the hand on the place of pain: Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 2202.
• The Muʿawwidhāt recited in illness: Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 5016.
• Al-Fātiḥah recited as ruqyah: Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 5736.
• The six rights of a Muslim: Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 2162b.

From the Sabīl library: the Pocket Companion, the cards “Illness & the sick”, “What to read, and when” and The three sūrahs; Adab & Akhlāq, the cards “Rights owed” and “The sick & the guest”, linked, not quoted.

Where to go next

• The Pocket Companion has the “Du‘ā for life events” set and the Qur’ān Companion, to read or to print as cards.
• Adab & Akhlāq has the cards on manners and on rights owed.
• The library’s card headed “Medicine” is in Ḥalāl Consumables. It is not shown on this page: the library’s own checking has not settled a question about a grading on that card.
• Du‘ā for anxiety, distress and grief gathers the du‘ās the library files under distress and grief.