Umm al-Sāʾib—who was trembling with fever, her whole body shaking from its heat. He said, “What is making you tremble?” She answered, “It is the fever; may Allah not bless it!” Thereupon the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) prohibited reviling it. When a person is afflicted, he must be patient and hope for reward from Allah, for the Prophet declared that fever wipes away sins just as the bellows purge the dross from iron: once iron is smelted in the fire its impurities disappear and only the pure metal remains; fever acts upon a human being in the same way.

Fever also has medicinal treatments, among them cold water, for the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) informed us that fever is a blast from Hellfire and instructed us to extinguish it with cold water. Hence physicians today acknowledge that one of the best therapies for fever is cooling: they place the patient near harmless air-conditioning, or cover him with a cloth soaked in water. Fever, by Allah’s permission, is nothing but intense heat, as is well-known, and water cools it and drives it away—exactly as the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) told us, and whatever the Messenger tells us is true. The essential point is that a person must remain patient, seek his reward with Allah for every illness, and never curse it.