in Mecca after his return from the first migration to Abyssinia, or did he go back and return a second time? (3/ 29 - 34); and concerning the campaign of Khaybar: did it take place in the sixth or seventh year? (3/ 306); and the campaign of al-Muraysīʿ: when did it take place? (3/ 309 - 311).
As for the fourth volume, devoted to medicine, he—may Allah have mercy on him—opened it with these words:
“We follow this with useful chapters on his guidance concerning the medicine he used himself and prescribed for others. We shall explain the wisdom it contains, which most physicians cannot fathom: their medicine compares to it as the remedies of old women compare to theirs.”
He pointed out that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, was sent only as a guide, a caller to Allah, a bearer of glad tidings, and a warner. Medicine for the body served a subsidiary purpose and was to be used only when needed. Although he states that the medicine of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, is unlike that of physicians, being certain, definitive, divine medicine derived from revelation, he acknowledges that many patients derive no benefit from it. Only those who receive it with acceptance and believe in its healing benefit from it (4/ 45). He also acknowledges that the effects of a remedy vary according to bodily constitutions, times, places, and customary habits (4/ 523).
He then states that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, treated illness with three kinds of remedies: natural remedies, divine remedies, and remedies combining the two. Accordingly, he first presents more than thirty chapters on the natural remedies mentioned in hadiths. The first concerns his guidance, peace and blessings be upon him, in treating fever, followed by a chapter on his guidance in treating diarrhoea, and so forth. He begins each chapter with the relevant hadith, citing its source in the two Sahīh collections or elsewhere, and then discusses it. He next presents more than twenty chapters on treatment with divine remedies alone or in combination with natural remedies. The first concerns his guidance, peace and blessings be upon him, in treating someone afflicted by the evil eye.