A scorpion sting and seven verses
A group of the Prophet's Companions were travelling when they camped beside a tribe that refused to host them. Soon afterwards the chief of that tribe was stung by a scorpion. His people tried everything they knew, then came to the travellers asking whether any of them could treat him. One Companion went and recited Surah Al-Fatihah over the man. The narrations in al-Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah say he recited it seven times. The chief recovered and the tribe paid them thirty sheep.
The Companions were unsure whether they could accept payment, so they waited until they returned to the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). He smiled and asked a question that has echoed ever since: "How did you know it is a ruqyah?" Then he told them to divide the sheep and set aside a share for him. The account is recorded in both Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim. A ruqyah is a recitation used for healing. With that one question the opening chapter of the Quran was confirmed as one.
What Ibn al-Qayyim wrote
Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah died in Damascus in 1350. He was the foremost student of Ibn Taymiyyah and one of the most widely read scholars in Islamic history. The medical chapters of his great work Zad al-Ma'ad are known today as The Prophetic Medicine. In its alphabetical listing of remedies, between entries on foods, herbs and perfumes, he gives a full entry to Al-Fatihah.
He calls it the Mother of the Quran and the seven oft-repeated verses. He describes it as a complete cure, a beneficial remedy and the perfect ruqyah. He writes that it lifts sadness, anguish and fear and that it is the key to richness, success and strength. Then he adds a condition. A key only opens a door when its teeth are cut. The teeth of this key are the meanings inside the chapter: knowing Allah by His names, praising Him, worshipping Him alone, relying on Him alone and asking Him for guidance. Whoever recites it with that understanding holds a working key. Whoever recites it without thought holds a blank one.
This was not theory for him. He records that he fell ill during a stay in Makkah with no physician and no medicine to hand. He took Zamzam water, recited Al-Fatihah over it repeatedly and drank. He writes that he recovered completely and that he went on to use the same remedy for many pains afterwards with great benefit.
Why certainty is part of the cure
Many people recite Al-Fatihah every day and never think of it as medicine. Ibn al-Qayyim explains the gap in another of his books, Ad-Da' wa ad-Dawa' (The Disease and the Cure). A healing recitation is like a sword, he says. A sword does not cut because it is sharp. It cuts because of the arm that swings it. Three things are needed: a sound blade, a strong arm and nothing standing in the way.
The blade here is never the weak point. The words are the words of Allah. The arm is the heart of the person reciting. Certainty that Allah is the One who cures, full attention on what is being said and complete trust in handing the matter over to Him are what give the recitation its force.
The third condition is that nothing blocks the cure from reaching the person. Ibn al-Qayyim names these barriers in the same book: a heart that is heedless or distracted, persistent sin, unlawful income and the impatience that gives up when relief does not come at once. When the way is clear the blade can land.
When in pain, a person can also try reciting Al-Fatihah inwardly while directing the verses at the place that hurts, with the heart fully present and complete trust that Allah will bring relief. Whichever way it is recited, words mumbled with a wandering mind are a sword left in its sheath.
It also matters where the cure comes from. The Quran quotes Prophet Ibrahim (peace be upon him) saying of his Lord, "And when I am ill, it is He who cures me." The recitation is a means. The healing belongs to Allah. Certainty in that is the whole point.
What modern research has noticed
Science has no instrument for measuring a cure sent by Allah. However, it can measure what belief and recitation do to pain and stress in the body. The findings sit comfortably beside what Ibn al-Qayyim wrote.
In 2008 neuroscientists at Oxford University gave mild electric shocks to 12 practising believers and 12 non-believers while each looked at a religious image. The believers reported about 12 percent less pain. Their brain scans showed strong activity in the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, a region that dampens pain signals. The non-believers got no relief from the same image. The researchers concluded that religious belief can give a person a framework for switching on the brain's own pain control.
Studies on the Quran point the same way. A 2018 systematic review gathered 28 trials on listening to Quran recitation and found reduced anxiety in almost every one, in settings from surgery wards to dialysis units. A later analysis of four trials found that women who listened to recitation during labour reported less intense pain. The state Ibn al-Qayyim asked for, which is attention, trust and surrender, is a state the body responds to.
How it is practised
The method in the sources is simple. Recite Al-Fatihah slowly with attention on its meaning, seven times as the Companion did. Place a hand on the place that hurts. In Sahih Muslim the Prophet (peace be upon him) taught a Companion in pain to put his hand on the spot, say Bismillah three times and then say seven times, "I seek refuge in the might and power of Allah from the evil of what I feel and fear." The chapter can also be recited over water which is then drunk, as Ibn al-Qayyim did in Makkah.
Al-Fatihah can be a cure in its own right. The chief in the narration was healed by recitation alone. Ibn al-Qayyim writes that those who truly understand its meanings can use it in place of many medicines. The Prophet (peace be upon him) also taught his Companions to seek treatment because Allah has not sent down a disease without also sending its cure. That is why The Prophetic Medicine lists Al-Fatihah beside honey, black seed and henna. All of them are means and the One who cures through them is Allah.
Every Muslim who prays recites these seven verses at least seventeen times a day. The remedy has been on the tongue all along. All that is needed is to remember its power and recite it with certainty.
References
- Sahih al-Bukhari 2276 and 5736. Sahih Muslim 2201. Sunan al-Tirmidhi 2063. Sunan Ibn Majah 2156. The narration of Abu Sa'id al-Khudri on Al-Fatihah as a ruqyah.
- Sahih Muslim 2202. The narration of Uthman ibn Abi al-As on placing the hand on the place of pain.
- Quran 26:80.
- Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah. Zad al-Ma'ad, the chapters known as at-Tibb an-Nabawi (Healing with the Medicine of the Prophet).
- Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah. Ad-Da' wa ad-Dawa' (The Disease and the Cure).
- Wiech K et al. An fMRI study measuring analgesia enhanced by religion as a belief system. Pain, 2008.
- Ghiasi A and Keramat A. The effect of listening to Holy Quran recitation on anxiety: a systematic review. Iranian Journal of Nursing and Midwifery Research, 2018.
- Effect of listening to Qur'an recitation on severity of pain and anxiety during labor: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences.