the preservation of health, and the elimination of harmful matter. Allah, Most High, has brought these together for him and his community in three passages of His Book ... These three are the principles and foundations of medicine ... and he is compassionate and merciful.” (1/ 169 - 170). He repeated this entire discussion, together with the verses he cited as evidence, in the section on Prophetic medicine in the fourth volume. Had he intended, when he began writing, to devote numerous chapters to Prophetic medicine—enough to form an independent book—he would have indicated this here. Indeed, that section was subsequently issued separately under the title Prophetic Medicine, and we have before us a copy transcribed in 788 AH, thirty-seven years after the author’s death. That is one point. The other is that what can truly be called Prophetic medicine—and would fittingly have been included in the Prophet’s guidance (peace and blessings be upon him), according to the original plan—amounts to no more than a quarter of the material he included in the section on Prophetic medicine.

In his biography of the author, Ibn Rajab mentioned another work of his entitled Zād al-Musāfirīn ilā Manāzil al-Su‘adā’ fī Hady Khātam al-Anbiyā’ (Provision for Travellers to the Abodes of the Blessed, on the Guidance of the Seal of the Prophets), listing it immediately before Zād al-Ma‘ād fī Hady Khayr al-‘Ibād (Provision for the Hereafter, on the Guidance of the Best of Mankind). As you can see, the two titles do not differ in subject matter: both concern the guidance of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). They differ, however, in size: Ibn Rajab explicitly stated that Zād al-Musāfirīn comprised one volume, whereas Zād al-Ma‘ād comprised four. Did the author himself, after the book had grown so long, realize that his work had taken a different course from the one he had initially envisaged, and therefore abridge it into a single volume? Or was this the first draft, before the sections on military campaigns, medicine and judicial decisions were added? The second possibility seems more likely. Al-Sakhāwī mentioned this shorter work in al-Jawāhir wa-l-Durar (Jewels and Pearls) (p. 1254), saying: “Ibn al-Qayyim has a book on Prophetic guidance that has no equal, and another, shorter than it.”

It seems that al-Fīrūzābādī, the author of al-Qāmūs (The Dictionary), also noticed what the author had intended