Abu Harira said: The Prophet صلى الله عليه واله وصحبه وسلم saw me when I was asleep. I was writhing with pain in the stomach. He said: Does your stomach give you pain ? And I answered: Yes, O Prophet صلى الله عليه واله وصحبه وسلم . Then he said: Arise and pray; for verily in prayer there is cure. This is related by Ibn Maja.
Note: The above words of the Prophet صلى الله عليه واله وصحبه وسلم are quoted in Persian. Their meaning is ' Have you a pain in your stomach ?'. For the Persian word ' shikam' is the equivalent of the Arabic word 'batan ' and ' dard ' is the same as ' waja '. With regard to the above tradition wise men say that there are two things to be learnt from it. The first is that the Prophet صلى الله عليه واله وصحبه وسلم could speak Persian. And the second is that prayer cures pain in the heart, in the stomach and in the bowel. In the same way we can deduce three principles. First there is the divine command to worship. Secondly there is the psychological aspect i.e. the sufferer will forget his pain in his prayer so that his feeling of pain will grow less and so finally his strength will overthrow the pain and cast it out. And thirdly it teaches that the best doctor is he who uses all manner of guile to strengthen the faculties. At one moment he will give strength by food, at another by setting in motion joy and grief or even hope and fear. But prayer is the best of them all. If a man is engaged in worship, he will feel apprehension, fear, hope, nervousness, and love. And when he takes thought of the next life, he will strengthen the faculties, delight the heart, and drive away disease by this very means.
It is related from some source that the child of 'Ali once had an abscess. No one dared to make the necessary incision. His family gave him the opportunity to go away and say his prayers. Then they were able to make the incision, for he paid no attention to them, being engrossed in prayer.
Abu Ayyub used to order his family to keep silence in the house when he was there. But when he was at prayer, he used to allow talk, saying: I cannot hear your conversation now, for I am at prayer. Once a wall of the mosque fell down while he was praying. It did not distract him.
Praying is a natural thing, being both a psychological and a physical exercise. For it contains within itself standing, bowing, and prostration as well as pauses, tranquillity, piety, worship, submission, self-humiliation, and other things. By all these the joints of the body will be moved and relaxed and in addition most of the organs, especially the stomach and bowel. How strong is the power of all of these to void the two impurities and to hasten the exit of food from the stomach.
Said al-Muwaffaq 'Abd-ul-Latif in his book called Kitab-ul-Arba'in:
I once saw a group of idlers and vile people all enjoying good health. So I enquired the cause of this and learnt that they prayed often, repeating their prayers during the night. So at last I said to myself: How great are the benefits of prostration for sufferers from colds and catarrh.
Prostration is indeed of the greatest use in opening the nostrils when they are blocked. And how great is the help of prostration in casting forth of the two impurities and the hastening of the exit of food from the stomach and bowels and in moving waste matter within them and ejecting it. For within some of the vessels there is food pressing upon food and one meal will fall upon another. Again, many a time prayer brings pleasure to the individual and removes bad thoughts and puts out the fire of anger. Prayer produces humbleness before Allah and submission to others. Prayer softens the heart and makes to a man forgiveness dear and revenge hateful.
Many times when engaged in prayer right opinion enters in and a good conduct of affairs and a well-chosen answer are clear. Often the worshipper remembers in prayer what he had previously forgotten.
Prayer makes a man think of his beginning and his end and of how he stands in this world and the next. It will remind him of his personal reckoning, especially if he stands long in prayer, above all during the night, when the eyes droop and voices are hushed and the power of the under-world is weakened and the thirst of the flocks is quenched and the power of the spiritual world is increased and gloomy thoughts turn happy. This is what the Prophet صلى الله عليه واله وصحبه وسلم meant when he said: O Bilal, let us take rest in prayer. And again when he said: I have made my comfort in prayer because from it man derives pleasure and the pleasure of it brings comfort and because prayer contains the excellencies of this world and of the next.
We have already mentioned the saying of the Prophet صلى الله عليه واله وصحبه وسلم : Digest your food with the name of Allah and with talk of Him. This is one of the reasons why the Tarawih prayer is customary. And so from prayer is derived the best of this world and of the next.
From prayer descends the power emanating from the beatific vision of Allah the Creator. And hence it is that prayer drives out all that is in the body of sickness and infirmity and discovers to a man his own character so that he strives to make perfect what is good and to abandon what is evil.
Sahil bin Sa'd reports as follows: The Prophet صلى الله عليه واله وصحبه وسلم spat into the eye of 'Ali when he was suffering from ophthalmia and had implored his blessing. And 'Ali was cured. Al-Bukhari and Muslim report this tradition. Indeed this chapter falls short in its description of the virtues of prayer. But Allah knoweth best.
It is said that a man complained to the Prophet صلى الله عليه واله وصحبه وسلم about pain in his eyes. Replied the Prophet صلى الله عليه واله وصحبه وسلم : Gaze upon the Holy Book. It is said that a certain man complained to the Prophet صلى الله عليه واله وصحبه وسلم about the stubbornness of his own heart. Replied the Prophet صلى الله عليه واله وصحبه وسلم : Stroke the head of an orphan and give him to eat. The same complaint was once made to Abu Dawud who said: Visit the sick, accompany corpses (to the grave yard), and visit tombs.
Said al-Marizi: Ahmed related: I once had fever and a man wrote for me the following charm against fever: In the name of Allah the Beneficent, the Merciful: by the Name of Allah: by Allah Himself. And I confess that Muhammad is the Prophet صلى الله عليه واله وصحبه وسلم of Allah. Fire be thou cold and agreeable to Ibrahim upon whom harm is intended. But we have defeated them.
O Lord of Gabriel, Michael and Raphael, cure the owner of this writing by Your skill and by Your power and by Your might. O Lord of Creation. Amen. So be it.
Said 'Uthman ibn abi al-'Asi: A man complained to the Prophet صلى الله عليه واله وصحبه وسلم of a pain that he felt in his body ever since he had become a Muslim. The Prophet صلى الله عليه واله وصحبه وسلم replied to him: Put your right hand on the place of the pain and say seven times: I fly to the protection of Allah and His power from the evil which I find. Muslim reports this tradition.
Said Khalid bin al-Walid: O Prophet صلى الله عليه واله وصحبه وسلم , I cannot sleep at night by reason of my insomnia. So the Prophet صلى الله عليه واله وصحبه وسلم replied: When you go to your bed to sleep, then say: O Allah, Lord of the Seven Heavens and whatsoever is overshadowed thereby and Lord of the Seven Earths and whatsoever is upon them and Lord of the Devils and of those they have misled, be for me a Helper against all the evils of creation if any one of them oppresses me. May Your help stay long with me. Exalted be Your praise. There is no Allah other than You and no Allah excepting You. Al-Tirmidhi extracted this tradition. Note: The word ' insomnia' means an inability to sleep.
Of Khalid it is said that he complained to the Prophet صلى الله عليه واله وصحبه وسلم of Night Terrors. The Prophet صلى الله عليه واله وصحبه وسلم replied: Shall I teach you certain words that I was taught by Gabriel? I fly to the Face of Allah, the Generous, and to the complete words of Allah, more than which no man can do, be he good or bad. I fly from the evil which comes down from Heaven, which struts therein, and from the evil which is on the ground, and from the evil of temptations by day and by night, and from the evil of calamities of both day and night, and from all except what brings with it a blessing. 0 Merciful One. This is reported by al-Tabari.
PRESCRIPTION FOR AN ELECTUARY WHICH BRINGS PEACE TO THE HEART AND DRIVES OUT ALL APPREHENSION.