Summary of Previous Lesson
The Shaykh began by summarizing the last class:
The Qur’ān is the easiest and best cure you can ever have. If an individual perfects the act of curing illness by employing Sūrat al-Fātihah, he would have found that Sūrat al-Fātihah has a seriously outstanding, amazing, great impact regarding healing generally—whether the disease is of the soul, body, or heart.
Whenever a person fell ill at home, the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) would recite al-mu’awwidhāt and blow it on the body. Whenever the Prophet took ill, he would recite upon himself Sūrat al-Ikhlās, al-mu’awwidhāt, Āyat al-Kursī, al-Fātihah…
The Three Essential Elements for Effective Cure
Chapter: The Reasons for Delay or Absence in the Cure
At this stage, there is a matter requiring our attention. The Qur’ān is a cure for every illness. The adhkār that we read, verses of the Qur’ān, and those supplications that we make by which we seek cure—with which we make ruqyah—these verses are themselves very beneficial. They are means of cure by themselves, like saying paracetamol is a cure itself for headaches and other ailments.
However, this matter requires that there is acceptance—there should be acceptance by the place that is receiving the cure. The place you are reciting al-Fātihah must be able to accept it; the body shouldn’t reject it. In medicine, the body has what is called drug hypersensitivity—the body might reject it. The person you are reciting the ruqyah on should have acceptance; his body must comply.
The third element is the individual giving the cure—the power of influence of the person reciting the ruqyah. You can liken that to the knowledge and experience of a doctor who is handling the process of cure in a hospital—the experience and intuition.
Three things are involved: The medicine itself. To make it influential, effective, and potent, two other things are to be considered:
- The Medicine: The Qur’ān, adhkār, and du’ā’
- The Recipient: The person receiving the cure must be able to accept it
- The Giver: The person administering the medicine should have some strength inside him that will make it impactful
If you are reciting al-Fātihah and not receiving a cure, it means there are some weaknesses in the other two elements: either the recipient’s body is rejecting the medicine, or something is preventing the individual from having the impact of that medicine on him, or something is slowing down the healing process.
This also happens with physical illness and the effectiveness of medicine. They say your lifestyle, what you eat or drink can affect the influence of the medicine. They also mention human error, overdose, or it could be because the individual’s genetic composition is rejecting the medicine—issues of diet, lifestyle, or drug abuse.
The Interplay of the Three Elements
Ibn ul-Qayyim said the same thing applies with the human mind. When the human mind receives ruqyah, you combine the individual accepting the medicine and the person reading ruqyah—he has a kind of soul that is impactful, has intrinsic power of influence. The combination of these three things will influence the removal of the disease.
Yes, we may find medicine. Yes, ALlāh has created medicine for every illness He had created, and the entirety of the Qur’ān is cure itself. It remains the recipient and how fast he can accept the medicine, and also the person giving the ruqyah—the doctor.
It is the interplay of these three things that brings about cure.
The Same Principle Applies to Du’ā’
Likewise, our du’ā’—du’ā’ is among the strongest of the means to put away things we don’t like. As we speak about the Qur’ān, the same we say about du’ā’. Du’ā’ is among the strongest means to put your body away from things you don’t like, and also one of the strongest means to attain the things that you desire.
Ibn ul-Qayyim said: “But you can find that you are making du’ā’, but the impact is delayed. That can be because of the fact that the du’ā’ itself is weak.”
How a Du’ā’ Can Be Weak
How can a du’ā’ be weak?
It is a kind of du’ā’ ALlāh Himself doesn’t like—it has aggressiveness or wrongdoing inside it. Or the īmān is weak—he’s making du’ā’ but doesn’t have high hope that it will be answered.
Another reason is that at the time he’s making du’ā’, he wasn’t actually turning to ALlāh completely. He hasn’t gathered all his attention to ALlāh. The du’ā’ is weak, the mind is weak, and the attention is weak. Your du’ā’ will be like a loose bow and arrow. How do you fire an arrow with a weak string? Ibn ul-Qayyim said the arrow you want to shoot with that kind of bow would come out so weak.
The Poisons of Du’ā’
Another reason is the mind being covered up with sin. There might be presence of something that prevents ALlāh from accepting your du’ā’. I call them “poisons of du’ā’“—like when you eat harām.
The bow may be strong, the string may be strong, the arrow may be strong, but there is something preventing it from reaching its destination—or maybe you are doing injustice.
Or the man is hardly ever serious—he laughs all the time, always makes jokes, and they completely occupy his mind. A man covered in sin—if he makes du’ā’, how will it be potent? A person whose job is even to make people laugh, who is not the serious type—the du’ā’ will be weak because it’s coming from a weak mind.
If you fire an arrow from a weak string, it might even drop at the same spot. Many people are like this—they shoot arrows with weak bows.
The Proper Way to Make Du’ā’
Make du’ā’ to ALlāh, call upon ALlāh. When you are invoking ALlāh, be sure that you are hopeful that ALlāh will answer you. Not someone with an absent mind—he is upon du’ā’ and he’s checking his phone, he’s on Instagram or Facebook. This will affect his du’ā’. Pray with full attention and conviction that ALlāh will accept your du’ā’ bi-idhnillāh.
Understand that certainly ALlāh will not accept any kind of du’ā’ from a mind that is absent. You are absent-minded because the mind is covered with many things diverting the attention.
It’s like a plant you plant with weeds all around it. No matter how much fertilizer you put, it will affect the growth of the plant if you don’t take care of the weeds. Make du’ā’ when you are upon certainty of īmān.
Application to Ruqyah
So when you make du’ā’ or ruqyah, it remains about you and the person you are reciting it upon.
This book requires that you read it and sit down to think about it, to implement it. I hope that we go back to listen to it again (the audio recording) and sit down to think about how it affects us. What are the things you are doing that are obstructing getting a response to your du’ā’?
Like being involved in sins, or being absent-minded, or not praying with full conviction.
Reflection Points
- Examine your own receptivity: Are you open to receiving ALlāh’s cure through His Book?
- Assess your spiritual state: Are sins creating barriers between you and ALlāh’s response?
- Evaluate your attention: Are you present-minded when making du’ā’ and ruqyah?
- Check your conviction: Do you truly believe ALlāh will answer your du’ā’?
- Consider your lifestyle: Are there “weeds” in your life that need to be removed?
May ALlāh preserve Shaykh Abu Nāsir upon goodness. Āmīn.
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