The Twentieth Remedy

O sick person who seeks a cure for his ailment! Illness is of two kinds: one real, the other imagined. For real illnesses, Shāfi-i Hakīm-i Dhul-JalālAllah, the true Healer, Whose wisdom and majesty are without limit. has stored a remedy for every illness in His vast pharmacy, which encompasses the whole face of the earth.Those remedies require the existence of illnesses. Moreover, in Islam, taking and using medicine is permitted; however, the effect and the healing must be attributed to Allah alone. Indeed, just as He is the One who creates the remedy, He is also the One who grants healing.

Following the medical advice of competent, religious physicians is an important remedy. For most illnesses arise from wrong choices, failure to observe proper diet, wastefulness, mistakes, dissipation, and carelessness. A religious physician will, of course, offer guidance and advice within the bounds of Islamic law. He will discourage wrong choices and wastefulness, and he will offer consolation. By taking the physician’s advice and consolation to heart, the illness is lightened and brings relief instead of distress.

As for imagined illnesses, their cure is to pay them no attention. The more attention is given to them, the greater and more severe they become. The less attention is given to them, the more they diminish and disappear. For example, when someone swats at bees, they swarm around his head; but if he ignores them, they fly away. When someone in the dark pays attention to the glimpse of a swinging rope, it may grow in his imagination and even make him run away like a madman. But if he pays it no attention, he will understand that it is not a snake but an ordinary rope, and he will laugh at his needless panic.

Indeed, if an imagined illness continues for a long time, it turns into a real illness. In sensitive and nervous people, this is a harmful disease. They make a mountain out of a molehill and lose their spiritual strength. Especially if they are treated by merciless and unscrupulous physicians, their delusions increase even further. If they are rich, they lose their wealth; otherwise, they lose either their reason or their health.

The Twenty-First Remedy

O sick brother! Although your illness causes physical pain, you experience a spiritual joy that cancels out the pain of your physical suffering. For if your father, mother, and other relatives are still alive, then their deeply pleasant shafqaCompassionate and unconditional love, such as a mother's love for her child., which you had forgotten, awakens once again around you. Through this, you again perceive the tender glances you saw in your childhood. Moreover, many friends around you, whose affection had remained hidden until then, once again approach you with love through your illness. Truly, compared with these benefits, your physical suffering is only a small price.

Since those whom you proudly served and whose appreciation you tried to gain now, because of your illness, serve you with compassion, you have become the master of your masters. Since you have attracted the compassion and shafqaCompassionate and unconditional love, such as a mother's love for her child. of your fellow human beings, you have found yourself surrounded by many helpful and willing friends. Moreover, through your illness you have received, as it were, an order to rest for a time from tiring duties; you are now resting.

Indeed, since illness contains such benefits, your limited pain in the face of these pleasures should lead you not to complaint, but to gratitude.