Fever wipes out one’s sins and rids his body from dead substances and germs. It is a blessing in disguise.

The Prophet  said: “When a believer gets sick or feverish, it is like metal when put on fire, the bad is gone and the good remains.” [Al-Bayhaqi]

He  also describes the intensity of fever by saying: “Fever is coal from hell, get rid of it by using cold water.” [Ibn Majah]

The Prophet  forbade the cursing of fever by saying: “Do not curse a fever because it abolishes sins like fire abolishes dirt from iron.” [Ibn Majah]

What is fever?

The increase of body temperature caused by bacterial or viral infection is called fever. A bacterial or viral infection usually raises the temperature of a person, antibiotics are useless with viral infections, such as the influenza and the common cold, although the patient might sweat and have a very high fever.

Fever occurs when the body temperature level rises above the normal level of 37oC (98oF). There is an area in the brain (an area that lies over the pituitary gland in the front of the head) which is a temperature regulator.

When a germ enters the body, it starts secreting toxins. Toxins affect the temperature regulator causing its temperature to rise. The substances that cause this rise in temperature are called pyrogens. Pyrogens are caused not only by germs but also by the ruined tissues in the body after being affected with germs.

When the temperature rises in the temperature regulator, the rest of the body has to comply. It increases its temperature in response. Soon, the whole body feels feverish and the patient’s temperature rises. This explains the saying of the Prophet  when he described the believers in their kindness and affections like the body. If a part of it suffers from a germ or a virus, like inflammation in the respiratory pathways or inflammation of the urinary tracts and others, all of the body suffers from fever and restlessness.

Yes the whole body suffers. The whole body has a rise in temperature and not only where it is affected. When the inflammation worsens, the germs increase and consequently ruin the tissues. The germs and the pyrogens will find the body’s defense system ready to attack and eat the by-products of the germs and rid the body of them. While doing this, it releases to the body fluids a substance called leukocyte pyrogens or endogenous. Therefore the fever remains while the body is cleansing itself from the by-products.

Didn’t the Prophet  say, when a man cursed the fever: “Don’t curse it because it abolishes sins like fire abolishes dirt from iron.”

It is a cleansing of our sins, a cleansing of dead substances such as dead tissue and the by-products of the germs, like fire cleans the dirt from iron.

The famous book on physiology by Guyton, 1992 edition, stated that an amount equal to one over 10 billionth of a gram of endogenous is enough for a fever to occur.

Such a small amount of a substance secreted in the body due to a very small germ or a virus is enough to transfer a person form being healthy, to becoming sick, feverish and bed ridden.

Recent scientific studies have shown that this leukocyte pyrogens cause fever by making a substance called prostaglandin in the local glands in the area of the hypothalamus. When the growth of this kind of prostaglandin is inhibited, by using medicines, the fever is reduced. This explains how aspirin reduces fever. It inhibits the growth of prostaglandin and prevents its making.

The Prophet, sallallaahu alayhe wa sallam, said: “For every ailment, there is a cure. If the cure reaches the ailment, it is cured by the will of Allah.” [Muslim]

That explains the known phenomena that aspirin does not reduce the temperature of a normal person who is not feverish. That is because he does not have these endogenous in his body to work on the hypothalamus.

How do chills occur and why?

The temperature level in the temperature regulator rises suddenly form its normal level to a higher level, due to damage in the tissues, due to the release of temperature generating substances or due to dehydration. When this happens, the body temperature rises within a few hours to attain the new temperature.

During this period, the patient shivers and feels cold, even though the body temperature is high, because blood vessels in the skin contract. The chills remain until the body temperature reaches the new level set by the temperature regulator.

When the body temperature reaches that level, the chills stop and the patient feels neither warm nor cold. As long as the infection continues and the reason for the rise in temperature continues, the body temperature remains at this new level until Allah permits recovery.

What is the cure for fever?

The Prophet  tells us to reduce the fever with water. The same is still applied today. Putting cold pads on a patient’s forehead is still used in a lot of hospitals and by doctors even though fever reducing medicines are abundant, like aspirin, paracetamol (or acetaminophen, which is the active ingredient in Tylenol) and others.

Using water to reduce fevers is not limited to using cold pads. Drinking a lot of fluids is also helpful. This is also understood from the wordings of the Prophetic narration: “cool it with water.” Water is either what the patient drinks, what is given intravenously or what the patient puts on his face or body to cool the fever.

We have seen a lot of patients where fever reducing medicines (antipyretics) were not effective with their rising fever. At the same time, cold water had an immediate effect. That’s why pediatricians advise parents to take a child’s clothes off and give a lot of fluids if a fever occurs. An antipyretic might also be give like paracetamol. Aspirin has been banned for children under 12 years of age.

[Imam Ibn Al-Qayyim  said: “I remember once, when I was feverish, a poet cursing the fever, saying:

The sin purifier has visited and left.

How evil it is when visiting and when leaving

She asked while getting ready to leave What do you want?

I replied, to never come again.

I said, shame on him, he cursed what the Prophet  forbade to be cursed. If he had said:

The severe-sin cleanser has visited.

Greetings to it while visiting and while leaving

She asked while getting ready to leave What do you want?

I replied, to not leave.

It would have been better for him and it still would have left.”]

In the books of Imaams Al-Bukhari and Muslim  it is narrated that Sahl Ibn Sa'd, may Allah be pleased with him, was asked about how the Messenger's  injuries in the battle of Uhud were treated. Sahl, may Allah be pleased with him, said: "The Prophet's  face was injured, his tooth was broken and the helmet he was wearing was smashed on his head. Faatimah, may Allah be pleased with her, the daughter of the Messenger of Allah  was washing the blood off while 'Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, was pouring water on her hands with his shield. When Faatimah, may Allah be pleased with her, realized that the bleeding did not stop, she took a burned mat (of palm leaves) and inserted the ash in the wound of Allah's Messenger  and the bleeding stopped."

The ashes of burnt palm leaves are very effective in stopping bleeding, because it is a strong drying agent and because it has the least burning effect (on the exposed skin). Other strong drying remedies have a burning effect on the skin and cause the blood to be irritated and the bleeding to intensify. Further, when the ashes of palm leaves are applied alone or mixed with vinegar in a bleeding nose, it will stop the bleeding.

The author of Al-Qanoon  said: "Al-Bardi (papyrus) is effective in stopping bleeding and coating exposed flesh when it is placed on a wound. In old Egypt, paper was made of the Bardi which had a cold, dry condition. Bardi ash is effective in treating oral fungus and infection, hemoptysis (spitting up blood) and also prevents malignant infections from spreading.”

The Prophet’s guidance using honey, cupping and cauterizing as remedies

The Prophet  said: “There is cure in three substances, a drink of honey, a slash with a knife used for cupping and cauterizing by fire. I forbid my Nation from cauterizing by fire.” [Al-Bukhari]

Abu ‘Abdullaah Al-Maziri said plethoric (excessive substances) conditions are either sanguineous (bloody), bilious, phlegmy, or melancholic. Curing sanguineous plethora entails extracting the blood. If plethora was from the other three types, its cure is in softening the stool as warranted for each disease. The Prophet  has indicated that honey is used as a laxative and that cupping is used to extract [septic] blood. Some people said that when the slash by a cupping knife does not work, the last resort is branding by fire (cauterizing). The Prophet  mentioned branding by fire as a last resort when the body has a strong resistance against medicine, rendering it ineffective. The Prophet  then said: "I forbid my nation from branding by fire (cauterizing)," and in another narration: "I do not like to be branded by fire."

Cauterizing by fire should be the last resort and only used when warranted. The fire should not be the first choice because of the intense pain it causes and which will be used to remove a lesser pain!

Some doctors said that diseases related to the temperament are either material or non-material. The material types are either cold, hot, wet or dry or a combination of these conditions. The four conditions, hotness and coldness are effected, while the other two, wetness and dryness, are usually affected. When one of the two effective temperaments is stronger than the other, it is usually accompanied by one of the affected temperaments. Every type of temperament in the body has two parts, effective and affected.

Temperamental ailments are usually caused by whichever effective condition is stronger, hotness or coldness. The Prophet's  statement directs us to the origin of ailments, hotness and coldness. If the ailment was hot, the cure entails extracting the blood by cupping or puncturing the veins, both of which help extract the septic matter, cooling the temperament. If the ailment is cold, we treat it with heat, such as by taking honey. If we also need to extract the cold material that has caused the ailment, honey also helps in this case because it leads the various substances to maturity along with its other qualities of cleansing, softening, soothing and purging the affected organs. In this case, the septic material will be gently extracted while saving the body the annoyance of using strong laxatives.

Physical ailments are either acute, not needing cauterization because they would soon be neutralized, or chronic ailments, for which cauterizing the proper organ is the best remedy after extracting the septic substances. Chronic diseases usually result from thick, cold septic substances residing in the affected organ, ailing it, spoiling its constitution and, thereby, inflaming the parts of the body that are directly connected to the affected organ. Therefore, cauterizing should be used to dissipate and extract the septic substances in the affected organ with fire.

The narration explains treatments for all types of physical ailments, just as we learned the treatment method for all simple ailments (accompanied by fever) from the narration: "The heat of the fever is a breath of the Hell Fire: cool it with water.”