What Is Said in the Presence of a Sick Person
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158 / What Is Said to a Sick Person

Islam enjoins observance of the sick person’s rights: attending to him by visiting him, supplicating for his recovery and well-being, and teaching various supplications that are fitting to say when visiting him. All this care, attention, and supplication stems from the fact that the believers are like a single soul: whatever brings joy to one of them brings joy to them all, and whatever pains one of them pains them all. In the two Sahih collections, al-Nuʿmān ibn Bashīr, may Allah be pleased with him and his father, reported that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “The believers, in their mutual love, mercy, and compassion, are like a single body: when one limb suffers, the rest of the body responds with sleeplessness and fever.”1 Another narration in Muslim states: “The Muslims are like one man: if his eye suffers, his whole body suffers; and if his head suffers, his whole body suffers.”2

Visiting the sick was therefore prescribed in order to comfort them and ease their hardship, and it was made one of their rights. In Sahih Muslim, Abū Hurayra, may Allah be pleased with him, reported that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “A Muslim has six rights over another Muslim: when you meet him, greet him with peace; when he invites you, accept his invitation; when he seeks your sincere counsel, counsel him sincerely; when he sneezes and praises Allah, invoke Allah’s mercy upon him; when he falls ill, visit him; and when he dies, follow his funeral procession.”3 Many texts also describe the virtue of visiting the sick and the immense reward for it with Allah.

Muslim narrated in his Sahih from Thawbān, the freedman of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “The visitor to a sick person remains in an orchard of Paradise until he returns.” Another narration states: “Whoever