Your cure—a cure that leaves no illness behind. He would then pass his right hand over the patient, reciting this supplication: “O Allah, Lord of mankind….” In it he beseeches Allah by His all-encompassing lordship, for He is the Lord—Creator, Owner, and Disposer of every affair. Accordingly, O patient, you say: “Allah created me sound; then He decreed sickness for me, and He who decreed illness after health is fully able to heal me. Remove the hardship,” meaning the malady that has befallen this sick person.

“Heal, for You are the Healer.” Healing is the removal of disease and the recovery of the sufferer. One should say ishfi (heal) and not ashfi, for the latter—ashfi—means “destroy,” whereas the former—ishfi—means “cure from sickness.” Thus we say, “O Allah, heal so-and-so,” and we do not say, “ashfih.” The general public imagines the two words to be identical, yet between them lies this great difference: ishfih means “cure him,” whereas ashfih means “destroy him.”

The Healer is Allah, for He alone grants recovery. Whatever medicines are prepared or incantations recited are but means that may benefit or may not; Allah is the One who gives them efficacy. For this reason it may occur that two men contract the same illness, are treated with the same medicine, and with the same regimen