Healing through Charity
by Abu Bakr Stark
It sounds incredible, but giving charity (sadaqah) has a healing effect. According to Imam al-Jurjani, one gives charity in the hope of Allah's (swt) reward from it1. We all know that giving charity brings many rewards, and this is mentioned by Allah in several places in the Qur'an:
"Take alms from their wealth, that you may thereby purify and cleanse them..."
"Say to My servants who believe that they should perform the prayer and give from what We have provided them, secretly and openly, before a day comes on which there will be neither trade nor friendship."
"O you who believe! Give from what We have bestowed upon you (of good), before a day comes on which there will be no (more) bargaining, no friendship, and no intercession. The unbelievers are the ones who do wrong."
"And give from what We have provided you, before death comes to one of you and he says: 'My Lord! If only You would grant me a short respite, then I would give alms and be one of the righteous.'"
(Qur'an 9:103, 14:31, 2:254, 63:10)
These verses should be reason enough to give charity.
The Concept of Illness
One must distinguish between two kinds of illness:
- • The illness of the heart
- • The illness of the body
The illness of the heart is described by many scholars as the more dangerous kind. On the Day of Resurrection, only the one who has a pure heart will be saved:
"...on the day when neither wealth nor sons will avail, but only he (will be saved) who comes to Allah with a pure heart."
(Qur'an 26:88-89)
One sees that the illness of the heart has consequences even after death. If, for example, someone suffers from a threatening physical illness, but the heart is pure, then the suffering will end with death. It must be emphasized here that by the term 'heart' we do not mean the biological heart. Imam al-Ghazali gives us a detailed description:
"If you would know yourself, then know that you are created from two things. The one is the outer shell, which is called the body and can be seen with the outer eye. The other is that inner thing, which is sometimes called the soul, sometimes the spirit, and sometimes the heart, and which can only be recognized by the inner eye. This inner thing is your true essence; everything else is only its retinue, its army, and its service. So when we speak of the heart, know that we mean by it the true essence of man, which is otherwise sometimes called spirit, sometimes soul — but not that piece of flesh that sits in the left side of your breast; for that is of no value..."
— Imam al-Ghazali, "The Alchemy of Happiness"2
There are various diseases of the heart: envy, anger, miserliness, vindictiveness, pride, arrogance, etc.
Sadaqah, voluntary charity, helps us, for example, against miserliness. Think only of the story in Surah al-Qalam, in which people are described who did not want to share:
"We test them, as We tested the owners of the garden, when they swore that they would surely pick all its fruits in the morning. And they made no reservation. Then a visitation from your Lord came upon it while they slept. And in the morning (the garden) was already laid waste. Then they called out to one another in the morning: 'Go early to your field, if you want to harvest.' And they set out and whispered to one another: 'No poor person may enter it today.' And they went early with the firm resolve to be miserly."
(Qur'an 68:17-25)
This is only one example of greedy people. Many more could be written, but here it should suffice to show that withholding property can be devastating. Allah encourages us to give charity, to help the poor and to purify our hearts from miserliness and greed. It is important to point out here that in a well-known hadith (in Sahih Muslim) it is emphasized that the dead will benefit from three things even after their passing:
- Sadaqah jariah
- Knowledge from which one benefits
- Pious children who make dua (prayer) for one
One should really seriously consider how great the reward for sadaqah is. The money that we save and do not spend on something useful will bring us nothing after our death.
When we give charity, it will help us to slowly purify our heart. Giving alms is a good deed, and this will "erase" the bad deeds. Gradually our heart will learn that it is good to give charity, and miserliness will disappear.
Sadaqah helps not only to heal our heart, but also our body. There are very beautiful reports in which we can read that giving charity also helps with physical suffering. A man came to Ibn al-Mubarak and reported that he had had a boil on his knee for 7 years and all kinds of consultations with doctors had not helped. Then Ibn al-Mubarak advised him to establish a water source for the people, for many people would need water on account of drought, and with the will of Allah the illness would then disappear. The man built a spring and he was healed3. The report mentioned here is not an isolated case. In the book by Hasan bin Ahmad named in the bibliography, further reports are described (e.g. by al-Baihaqi) that concern the healing of boils. It must be expressly emphasized that there are also reports in which the healing of other illnesses is described. Hasan bin Ahmad reports that a rich merchant one day fell ill and the doctors told him that he had cancer at an advanced stage. He travelled to Europe, where he was advised to have an operation. The merchant agreed, but wanted to see his family once more. When he was in his homeland, one day he saw an old woman who was searching for bones in a butcher's garbage. She said that she had responsibility for orphans and the bones would help to give flavour to the food. She could not afford meat. The merchant bought a lot of meat for her, and not only that — he told the butcher that he should give meat to the old lady every week. He would pay for it. Shortly afterwards the merchant travelled to Europe and wanted to have the operation. The illness had however disappeared. Allah had healed him on account of the old woman's prayer4. Whatever one may think of this report, there will always be critical people who doubt such reports. We Muslims should however know that Allah can protect us. Let us think only of the story when Ibrahim (a.s.) was thrown into the fire and nothing happened to him, or let us think of Ayyub (a.s.) who was finally healed. Therefore the following hadith should stand at the end of this:
Abu Umamah reported: The Messenger of God said: "And treat your sick by giving sadaqah."
(Abu Dawud in Kitab al-Marasil 210, classified as hasan by al-Albani in Saheh al-Jami 3358)
Bibliography
- • Qur'an in German translation by Muhammad Ibn Ahmad Ibn Rassoul.
- • Abu Mazaaya al Hafiz: Penawar Hati & Penenang Jiwa Jilid 2. (no place) 2008
- • Al Ghazali, Abu Hamid Muhammad ibn Muhammad: The Alchemy of Happiness. Frankfurt 1996.
- • Hasan bin Ahmad Hasan Humam: Berubat dengan Sedekah. Kuala Lumpur 2009.
Footnotes
1 See Hasan bin Ahmad Hasan Humam: Berubat dengan Sedekah p. 1.
2 Al Ghazali: The Alchemy of Happiness, p. 37.
3 This report is in the book Hasan bin Ahmad Hasan Humam: Berubat dengan Sedekah, pp. 38-39. He refers here to al-Albani: Sahih al-Targib no. 953, 954.
4 Hasan bin Ahmad Hasan Humam: Berubat dengan Sedekah, pp. 42-45.
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