“Whoever comes to me shall have a dirham.” The underlying construction is: “The one who comes to me shall have a dirham.” But because the relative pronoun resembles a conditional noun in its generality, the letter fa may occur in its predicate.

His statement, “even if he dies from it,” means that it does him no harm.

His statement, “if it is”: the pronoun refers to the illness.

His statement, “life-threatening”: this is the second category of illnesses: the life-threatening illness, namely, that to which death may reasonably be attributed. The author lists twelve types of it, saying:

“Such as barsām (pleurisy),” which is a pain occurring in the brain—may Allah grant us well-being—by which the mind becomes impaired. If a person is afflicted by it, his illness is life-threatening, since, if he dies from it, this would not be considered unusual, nor would people say, “He died suddenly.”

His statement, “and dhāt al-janb (a side infection),” refers to a pain in the side, around the ribs. They say that its cause is the lung adhering to the ribs, and that this adhesion impairs its movement, so that the heart cannot fully pump the blood or carry out its other functions. It is therefore among life-threatening illnesses.

This disease used to be extremely widespread in the past, and we ourselves lived through that, especially at the onset of winter. Yet—glory be to Allah—it is cured, by Allah’s permission, through cauterization, which is the best treatment for it. Indeed, some patients lose consciousness and remain unconscious for days and nights. Then the traditional physician comes, makes an incision at the site of pain among the ribs, marks the painful spot with a brand, and then cauterizes it. Once he has cauterized it—glory be to Allah—not even an hour passes