[3] The Quran and Dua: Ibn Qayyim's Teachings on the Greatest Cures for the Heart and Body

The Quran — A Cure Sent Down From the Heavens

After addressing despair, Imam Ibn Qayyim turns to what he describes as the greatest of all remedies: the Noble Quran. Allah Himself describes the Quran as a guidance, a healing, and a mercy for the believers  and according to Ibn Qayyim, no medicine sent down from the sky is more beneficial, more powerful, or more effective at removing illness than the Quran. This applies not only to physical ailments but, perhaps more importantly, to the diseases of the heart: ignorance, doubt, and suspicion.

The Story of the Snake-Bitten Chief

فنذكر له الذي كان، فننظر ما يأمرنا، فقدموا على رسول الله - صلى الله عليه وسلم - فذكروا له ذلك، فقال: وما يدريك أنها رقية؟ ثم قال: قد أصبتم، اقتسموا واضربوا لي معكم سهما.» To root this claim in the Sunnah, Ibn Qayyim brings forward a well-known narration recorded in the Sahihayn (the collections of Bukhari and Muslim). A group of Companions, traveling on a journey, arrived at a village and asked for hospitality for the night. The villagers turned them away. Shortly afterward,  by coincidence, the chief of that very village was bitten by a snake or scorpion. The villagers tried every remedy they knew, but nothing worked. In desperation, they turned back to the travelers they had just refused and asked if any of them knew a cure. One of the Companions stepped forward and agreed to perform Ruqyah, a spiritual recitation for healing  but on one condition: since the village had refused them hospitality, he would do it only in exchange for a flock of sheep. The villagers agreed. The Companion then recited Surah Al-Fatihah over the chief. The result was immediate. The chief stood up and began walking as though nothing had ever happened to him as if a tightly tied knot had simply been undone. The restlessness and pain inside him vanished completely. The Companions took the agreed-upon sheep, but being cautious people, they didn’t simply enjoy their reward, they went straight to the Prophet (peace be upon him) to ask whether what they had done, and the payment they had received, was permissible. The Prophet was pleased with what had happened. He asked how the Companion had known that Surah Al-Fatihah could be used as Ruqyah, and he approved of the entire incident  both the recitation and the compensation. فقد أثر (هذا) الدواء في هذا الداء، وأزاله حتى كأن لم يكن، وهو أسهل دواء وأيسره، ولو أحسن العبد التداوي بالفاتحة، لرأى لها تأثيرا عجيبا في الشفاء Ibn Qayyim highlights the miraculous nature of this cure: the sickness didn’t fade gradually, it was removed instantly, completely, as though the man had never been bitten at all. Not even a trace of it remained. From this, Ibn Qayyim draws a powerful conclusion: Surah Al-Fatihah is perhaps the easiest and most accessible medicine available to any believer. For someone who learns to engage with it properly, with the right understanding and the right heart, its healing effect can be nothing short of astonishing.

Ibn Qayyim’s Personal Testimony

ومكثت بمكة مدة يعتريني أدواء ولا أجد طبيبا ولا دواء، فكنت أعالج نفسي بالفاتحة، فأرى لها تأثيرا عجيبا، فكنت أصف ذلك لمن يشتكي ألما، وكان كثير منهم يبرأ سريعا Ibn Qayyim doesn’t leave this as a story from the distant past. He shares his own lived experience from his time in Makkah. There were periods when he fell seriously ill, and no doctor or medicine was available to him. In those moments, he relied entirely on Surah Al-Fatihah as his treatment  and he says he witnessed, again and again, its astonishing and miraculous healing power. He didn’t keep this to himself either. When people came to him suffering from illness or pain, he would instruct them to treat themselves using Surah Al-Fatihah, and many of them recovered quickly.

So Why Doesn’t It Always Work That Way?

ولكن هاهنا أمر ينبغي التفطن له، وهو أن الأذكار والآيات والأدعية التي يستشفى بها ويرقى بها، هي في نفسها نافعة شافية، ولكن تستدعي قبول المحل، وقوة همة الفاعل وتأثيره، فمتى تخلف الشفاء كان لضعف تأثير الفاعل، أو لعدم قبول المنفعل، أو لمانع قوي فيه يمنع أن ينجع فيه الدواء، كما يكون ذلك في الأدوية والأدواء الحسية، فإن عدم تأثيرها قد يكون لعدم قبول الطبيعة لذلك الدواء، وقد يكون لمانع قوي يمنع من اقتضائه أثره، فإن الطبيعة إذا أخذت الدواء بقبول تام كان انتفاع البدن به بحسب ذلك القبول، فكذلك القلب إذا أخذ الرقى والتعاويذ بقبول تام، وكان للراقي نفس فعالة وهمة مؤثرة في إزالة الداء. This naturally raises a question that many people quietly struggle with: if the Quran  and specifically Surah Al-Fatihah  has this kind of healing power, why don’t all of us experience the same dramatic results when we recite it over ourselves or others? Ibn Qayyim’s answer is both reassuring and challenging at the same time. He explains that the verses, the supplications, and the act of Ruqyah itself are inherently healing, there is nothing deficient about them. The Quran does not lose its power. The problem, when there is one, lies elsewhere. For the cure to take effect, two conditions generally need to be met:

1. The recipient must be capable of accepting the cure. This relates to the strength of their faith and the certainty (yaqin) in their heart that healing can genuinely come through these words.
2. The person performing the Ruqyah must carry spiritual impact. Not everyone who recites the same words produces the same effect,  the state of the reciter’s heart, their connection to Allah, and their sincerity all matter. If healing doesn’t occur, Ibn Qayyim says it is never because the verses themselves are weak. Instead, it may be because:

• The recipient’s soul rejects the cure  often due to weak faith or a lack of full conviction.
• The reciter’s spiritual impact is insufficient.
• There are specific barriers in the way  most notably, sins  that block the cure from working as it should. In other words, the medicine is always perfect. The variable is us.

Dua: The Second Great Cure

وكذلك الدعاء، فإنه من أقوى الأسباب في دفع المكروه، وحصول المطلوب، ولكن قد يتخلف أثره عنه، إما لضعفه في نفسه - بأن يكون دعاء لا يحبه الله، لما فيه من العدوان - وإما لضعف القلب وعدم إقباله على الله وجمعيته عليه وقت الدعاء، فيكون بمنزلة القوس الرخو جدا، فإن السهم يخرج منه خروجا ضعيفا، وإما لحصول المانع من الإجابة: من أكل الحرام، والظلم، ورين الذنوب على القلوب، واستيلاء الغفلة والشهوة واللهو، وغلبتها عليها.

Just as Allah placed healing within the Quran, He placed healing within Dua (supplication),  for both physical and spiritual diseases alike. Here, Ibn Qayyim makes a point that cuts deep: we are remarkably good at ignoring our spiritual illnesses while being hyper-aware of our physical ones. A person can carry mountains of jealousy in their heart for years and never once think of themselves as “sick.” Yet the moment they get a mild headache, they immediately consider themselves a patient in need of treatment. Dua, he explains, is the single strongest tool a believer has both to repel what they dislike (such as illness, hardship, or harm) and to attain what they desire (such as health, ease, and good outcomes).

Three Reasons Dua Might Seem to “Not Work”

Just as with the Quran, Ibn Qayyim acknowledges that Dua doesn’t always appear to produce results  and he gives three specific reasons why.

1. The Dua itself is flawed. If a supplication contains transgression, injustice, or an unwarranted curse directed at someone else, Allah simply does not accept it. The content of the prayer matters, a Dua built on wrongdoing toward others cannot be a vehicle for blessing.
2. The heart is absent. This is perhaps the most common issue. The person’s tongue is moving, the words are technically correct, but the heart is heedless and disconnected from Allah, lacking love, fear, and hope in Him during the moment of prayer. Ibn Qayyim illustrates this with a vivid image: it’s like shooting an arrow from a bow whose string is far too loose. No matter how good the arrow is, it simply won’t travel any real distance. The “string” here is the heart’s connection  and without tension, without presence, the Dua doesn’t reach where it needs to go.
3. There are major barriers blocking the prayer. Even when the words are fine and the heart is somewhat present, there can be structural obstacles standing in the way of an answered prayer. Ibn Qayyim lists several:

• Consuming haram (forbidden) wealth
• Oppressing other people
• The “rust” of accumulated sins covering the heart
• A heart overwhelmed by heedlessness, negligence, and worldly distractions Each of these, in its own way, creates a barrier between the supplicant and the One they’re calling upon.

Q&A: Ruqyah and the 70,000 Who Enter Paradise Without Reckoning

During the question-and-answer portion, a particularly relevant question came up: how does the permissibility of seeking Ruqyah from others relate to the famous Hadith about the 70,000 people who will enter Paradise without any reckoning? The speaker clarified the matter directly:

• Performing Ruqyah on someone else, or asking someone to perform it on you, is entirely permissible. There is nothing wrong with it.
• That said, the most virtuous path is not to ask others for it at all (referred to here as “Istarqa”) but instead to rely completely on Allah and perform Ruqyah upon oneself.
• Performing Ruqyah on yourself, or proactively performing it on others  for example, on your own children, without them having to ask  is perfectly fine and does not exclude you from being among the 70,000.
• The exclusion from the 70,000 applies specifically to those who actively request someone else to perform Ruqyah for them. It is the act of asking that is the distinguishing factor, not the act of receiving or performing Ruqyah itself.

Benefit: Sheikh Abdur Razzaq Al-Badr said  that they saw many scholars who would always keep this book with them during travel and at home.They would keep it at their bedside, and whenever they wanted to sleep, they would read a few pages from it.