Healing with Prayers: Prophet Mohammed’s Advice
Physicians accept that healing is from God, and they are just an instrument of the Healer. In the first part of this article, we offered guidance from the Qur’an that if followed will promote good health and healing.
In this second part, we shed light on how to seek help in prayer, meditation, making use of the sayings of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).
📚 Check Part I: Prayers and Healing
Use of Meditation in Prayer & Healing
Muslim children
Prophet Muhammad advised us to say prayers from Qur’an (Surah Ikhlas, Al Falaq, Annas and/or last verse of Al Baqra (2:286) before going to sleep.
In fact, meditation includes acts of remembrance and communications with God as ordained to us.
1. “When my servant asks you (O Muhammad) about me, (tell them) I am close to them: I listen to the prayer of each supplicant when he asks Me. Let them listen to My call and believe in Me, that they may walk in the right way” (Surat Al-Baqarah: 2:186).
2. “Your Lord says: “Call on Me and I will answer your call” (Surat Ghafir: 40:60).
3. “Those who believe and whose hearts find rest in the remembrance of God, for in the remembrance of God do hearts find rest” (Surat Ar-Ra`d: 13:28).
4. “Remember Me, I will remember you; thank Me and reject Me not” (Surat Al-Baqarah: 2:152).
5. “Remember thy Lord much and praise Him in the evening and morning” (Surat Ali ‘Imran: 3:41).
6. “Such as those who remember God standing, sitting and reclining” (Surat Ali ‘Imran: 3:191).
7. “and men who remember God much and women who remember God, God has prepared for them forgiveness and a vast reward” (Surat Al-Ahzab: 33:35).
8. “O you believe! Remember God with much remembrance and glorify Him in the morning and evening” (Surat Al-Ahzab:33:41-42).
Sayings of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)
Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, like all other prophets of God, remembered God most of the time. He said:
1. “There is a polish for everything that removes the rust and the polish for the rust-of- heart is the dhikr (remembrance) of God.”
2. He was asked which people are most virtuous and most highly esteemed by God on the Day of Judgement. The messenger of God (P) replied “Those who remember God often.“
3. It is narrated in a hadith Qudsi (direct revelation to Prophet Muhammad) “God Most High says:
“ I am as my Servant thinks I am. I am with him when he makes mention of Me. If he makes mention of Me by himself, I make mention of him to Myself. When he makes mention of Me in an assembly, I make mention of him in an assembly better than his. If he comes closer to Me a hand span, I come closer to him arms-length, if he comes to Me walking, I come to him running.”
Thus meditation/remembrance has been a practice of all Sufi sheikhs. In the words of Sheikh al-Mursi “dhikr (meditation) pleases God, defeats and drives evil forces, increases livelihood, makes the personality more prestigious, cleanses the heart, removes the faults and saves the tongue from lying, gossip, backbiting and hypocrisy while engaged in the remembrance of God.”
Seeking Help with Prayers
According to Imam Ghazali, illness increases faith and brings man closer to God. Knowing this nature, Qur’an tells us: “O you who believe, seek help with patience and prayers, as God is with those who patiently persevere” (Surat Al-Baqarah: 2:153).
Prophet Muhammad used to comfort the ill when he visited them and would say the following prayer: “O Allah remove the hardship, O Lord of mankind, grant cure for You are the Healer. There is no cure but from You, a cure which leaves no illness behind.”
He would also make following prayer for his own health: “O Allah cure my body, cure my heart and cure my eyesight from any illness” (repeated 3 times).
Do Prayers Work?
Yes they do. Dr. Larry Dossey in his book “The Healing Words” has documented the healing effects of prayer. Citing one example from the research conducted by Dr. Byrd at San Francisco General Hospital in 1988, 393 critically ill heart patients admitted to the intensive care units over a 10-month period were divided into two groups.
Patients of group (A) were prayed for by name until they left the hospital. On the other hand, those in group (B) weren’t prayed for. Byrd didn’t tell those giving the prayers how to pray. In fact, the results were very interesting.
Those prayed for left the hospital early, had a lower incidence of cardiac arrest, 2-1/2 times less incidence of congestive heart failure and required 1/5th less antibiotics.
The research team also observed that prayer combined with loving care worked even better. Men who had angina pectoris and a loving, caring wife, had a 50% reduction in angina than men who were single or divorced.
Prayers work for us even while we are sleeping. The Prophet Muhammad advised us to say prayers from Qur’an (Surah Ikhlas, Al Falaq, Annas and/or last verse of Al Baqarah (2:286) before going to sleep.
My Own PracticeMuslim kid
I do dhikr in all my free time. I pray for myself, my family, my friends and my patients by name, knowing that cure is only from God.
Surprisingly, one time I visited a critically ill patient who had an adrenal tumor (pheochromocytoma) and was in hypotensive shock.
I placed my hand over the site of the tumor and made the prophetic prayer and left. The next day when I came, I saw her sitting up in bed smiling.
She told me that in the evening, the radiologist x-rayed her again and found no trace of the tumor. He couldn’t explain it but thought that the arteriogram might have infarcted the tumor.