The Quran heals
In my book, The Holy Qur'an Speaks, I noted that the Qur'an is a source of healing and the following textual references portray that:
Advertisement
"And We send down of the Qur'an that which is healing and mercy for the believers but it does not increase the wrongdoers except in loss". Quran 17:82
"...say, 'it is, for those who believe, a guidance and care..." Quran 41:44
Abdullah Ibn Masoud narrated a hadith of the Prophet (SAW) that he (SAW) said; "Seek cure from two sources, Honey and the Qur'an (Recorded by Ibn Maajah).
In the above Quranic texts and the hadith, the Arabic word used to portray the Qur'an as a source of healing is "Al-shifaau" which means "cure".
The Qur'an was never mentioned as a source of medicine. The indisputable fact is that any medicine has two dimensions, namely, a curative dimension and harmful dimension.
In other words, a medicine can either be harmful or beneficial, because almost every medicinal preparation has certain adverse side-effects.
The Arabic word for medicine is "Al-dawaau' and the Qur'an has not been described as such. What the Qur'an gives has only one dimension, namely, curative benefits, hence, it's mention as "Al-shifaau" cure, healing.
The Qur'an does not have any bad side effects and as such it has not been mentioned as "al-dawaau", medicine. Additionally, the healing provided by the Qur'an is for the noble servants of Allah, the almighty, who have faith in Allah and have committed their lives to Him, the Almighty.
There are two main types of sicknesses associated with human beings. These can be captioned under abstract and material sicknesses.
Abstract sicknesses are maladies of the human heart and they are divided also into two categories. The first category is sicknesses related to the human heart and within the self.
The main cause of such sicknesses is the state of uncertainty that man finds himself in respect of what might have adversely happened to him and what may also happen to him.
This state of uncertainty and previous adverse occurrences lead to sorrow, worry, anxiety, fear and doubt. These are abstract sicknesses within the human self and do not go beyond it.
The second category of abstract sicknesses is related to the heart and within the human self but it goes beyond the self.
The main cause of this kind of sickness is that the self thinks about progress of others and gets disturbed. That was why I said this kind of sickness is within the human self but it goes beyond it.
Examples of this kind of abstract sickness are envy and hatred.
The envious person becomes disturbed about the providence that Allah, the Provider, has bestowed on any of His servants.
Incidentally, envy targets providence of the servant of Allah, the Almighty, and that is the first step towards hatred. If the envious person continues to observe that the one he is envying is still progressing in life by Allah's Grace, he then moves from targetting the providence to targetting the owner of the providence himself/herself.
The envious person then begins to do everything to destroy the individual and that is the core of hatred and animosity.
Material sicknesses are related to maladies that afflict the physical body of the individual. Diseases like malaria, fever, headache and others belong to this category.
Advertisement
But how does the Qur'an provide cure and healing for both abstract and material sicknesses?
It has been indicated that abstract sicknesses have two categories, namely, those within the self like anxiety, worry, fear, doubt, sorrow and the like and those within the self like envy and hatred. The Quran provides remedies for both situations.