Third:
The ability of medicine to ward off illness is not certain; indeed, in many illnesses it is not even thought likely to do so. Were this invariably the case, no one would die. This differs from food’s ability to relieve hunger and starvation, which is certain according to Allah’s established way with His servants and His creation.

Fourth:
An illness may have various remedies. If it is not dispelled by a prohibited remedy, one turns to a lawful one. It is impossible that no cure or remedy for it should exist among lawful things. He who sent down disease sent down a remedy for every disease except death. It cannot be that the remedies for illnesses lie within the category of forbidden things, for He, glory be to Him, is Most Kind, Most Merciful.

This is what the reported hadith indicates:

“Allah has not placed the cure for my community in what He has forbidden them.”

Hunger is different. Although it may be relieved by whatever food happens to be available, prohibited food becomes permissible only when nothing else is available. If you envisage a comparable case involving medicine, that is a rare situation: illness is far less frequent than hunger, and it is rare for a particular medicine to be indispensable with no alternative available. Thus, this does not invalidate the argument. In any event, the preceding arguments suffice.

Fifth—and herein lies the essential understanding of this issue:
Allah Most High has made His creatures dependent upon food and nourishment. Their hunger and starvation can be relieved only by something belonging to the category of food. He has thus guided us to, and taught us about, the category of things that dispels hunger and relieves starvation.

As for illness, He removes it through many kinds of means: outward and inward, spiritual and bodily. Medicine is therefore not the sole means of removing it. Moreover, no particular kind of medicine is indispensable for a particular type of