The Quran is a cure

Surat Yunus contains some extremely beautiful verses:

يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلنَّاسُ قَدْ جَآءَتْكُم مَّوْعِظَةٌۭ مِّن رَّبِّكُمْ وَشِفَآءٌۭ لِّمَا فِى ٱلصُّدُورِ وَهُدًۭى وَرَحْمَةٌۭ لِّلْمُؤْمِنِينَ

قُلْ بِفَضْلِ ٱللَّهِ وَبِرَحْمَتِهِۦ فَبِذَٰلِكَ فَلْيَفْرَحُوا۟ هُوَ خَيْرٌۭ مِّمَّا يَجْمَعُونَ

O men, there has come to you an advice from your Lord, and a cure for the ailments of your hearts, and guidance and mercy for the believers.

Say, “With the grace of Allah and with His mercy (this book has been revealed). So they should rejoice in it. It is much better than that (wealth) which they accumulate. [9:57-58]

Four functions of the Quran

Here, Allah Almighty is highlighting four things which He has sent down to people: advice, cure, guidance, and mercy. Think of the analogy of a sick person who is suffering from an ailment. Allah has sent messengers and prophets like physicians to diagnose people’s condition and prescribe them medicine to avoid coming back with the same problem.

Everyone will receive the advice and guidance, but it is your choice whether to use it or not, the same way it is your choice to take the medicine a doctor gives you, or ignore it. If you follow the guidance, that’s when you will also receive the mercy.

Allah describes the messengers as people who give advice. They do not force anyone to do anything:

لَآ إِكْرَاهَ فِى ٱلدِّينِ ۖ

There is no compulsion in religion. [2:256]

Their mission was only to deliver the message, and it is up to the people whether to take it and apply it, or reject it. The consequences of choosing either option are clear from the revelation.

فَهَلۡ عَلَى ٱلرُّسُلِ إِلَّا ٱلۡبَلَـٰغُ ٱلۡمُبِینُ

‬ So are the messengers responsible for anything but evident proclamation? [16:35]

The Quran as a cure (shifa)

The fourth thing Allah mentions His message being is a cure, shifa – and this is both in a physical and spiritual sense. There is a story that appears in Sahih Bukhari, narrated by Abu Sa’eed al-Khudri, that a group of the early Muslims were once travelling and came across a tribe of Bedouins. When they found out the group were Muslims, the tribe refused to host them, even though this was totally against the culture at the time.

Later, the chief of the Bedouins was stung by a scorpion or snake, and the people from the tribe approached the group of Muslims to ask if anyone among them knew ruqya. Even before Islam, the Arabs knew of ruqya as a concept of reciting something to bring cure to people.

Abu Sa’eed al-Khudri said he could do it, but he wouldn’t do it for free because the tribe had refused to host their group. They agreed to give him a flock of sheep in return for curing their chief. He recited Surat al-Fatihah on the chief, and as soon as the recitation finished, he was cured.

The group took the sheep as payment and went back to Prophet Muhammad (peace be on him) to ask him if they were halal. He smiled and asked how Abu Sa’eed al-Khudri had known to recite Surat al-Fatihah, to which he responded that he was inspired in his heart. The Prophet (peace be on him) smiled and said the sheep were halal. This is why one of the names of Surat al-Fatiha is ash-Shifa.

Ruqya (healing and protection from the Quran)

Any part of the Quran can be shifa if recited with a pure intention. In the hadith, Prophet Muhammad (peace be on him) said:

Make use of the two remedies: honey and the Quran. [Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah and Bayhaqi]

There are six ayahs in the Quran which mention shifa, and scholars have collected these into a group called ayat ash-shifa and added them to the ruqya. (These ayahs were not collected like this during the Prophet (peace be on him)’s time, but there is nothing wrong with collecting and reciting a specific selection of ayahs).

The full ruqya therefore consists of: Surat al-Fatihah and Ayat al-Kursi, both recited an odd number of times. Then the three Quls, followed by the six ayat as-shifa.

The Quran is a cure for the heart, body, and mind, and the more we are connected to it, the more we will experience that cure. The most important aspect is to be cured from shirk and anything that displeases Allah – especially curing the heart to be purified from envy, hatred, etc.

We ask Allah to make the Quran shifa for our hearts, and for our lives and families.

Delivered by Shaykh Haytham Tamim on 23rd Ramadan 2025. Transcribed by H Khan.

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