Visiting Sick

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

Visiting the ill

1 See Volume One, Chapter Sixty-Nine for this Sunnah

O Allah (The Exalted) bless our master Muhammad (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) as many times as there are leaves on an olive tree and all of its fruit.

A person living away from home was very homesick and due to that he had fallen ill. Some friends found out and came to visit him and in turn they told other friends who also came to see him. This made him feel very happy and in turn he got better very quickly. Scientist are placing emphasis on the fact that people should visit the sick as it boosts moral and helps them to get better quicker.

In America at the Kennedy Hospital a patient came to receive treatment. He said that in this hospital priests came and visited the patients twice a day. The duty of a Muslim is to visit the ill. People preferred to be admitted to this hospital because their recovery time was very good.

Visiting the sick

There are great rewards in visiting the sick. The Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) has said that, “Whosoever visits a sick person in the morning then seventy thousand angels shall invoke mercy on the visitor until the evening. And whosoever visits a sick person in the evening then seventy thousand angels shall make supplication for mercy upon that visitor until the morning and he shall also have a garden in Paradise.” i Subhanallah!

i Tirmidhi

ii Tirmidhi

We should make an effort to visit those who are sick and give them comfort, however, remember not to stay for long and do not be a burden on the ill person nor the family.

In the American ‘Readers Digest’ research came up with the conclusion that if a person visits the ill, talks to them and takes a gift to them it makes the patient happier.

The Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) has said, “When visiting a patient one should try to console him.” (By taking a gift or saying ‘Insha’Allah you will get better before you know it’.)

Abu Sa’eed (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates that, “When you enter to visit an invalid, express a hope that he will live long. That will not avert anything, but it will comfort him.” ii