Heal Your Sickness With Alms Giving

Dr Adekunle Mikail

Prophet Muhammad salawatu-llah alehi, is no doubt given with many uncountable miracles by the Lord of all universes and what abound therein, Allah! It is not an exaggeration however, if one says, the secrets of the seven heavens and earths, are at his fingertips courtesy of the one, most high and exalted in names, that sent him as the final of all prophets!

The blessings and miracles of all the apostles of God before him; from Adam to Jesus, had been made available to him and the more , as he is the seal of the messengers and prophets! Among these loads of miracles, three will suffice here! They are :
1. Splitting Of The Moon : In the early period of Muhammad’s messenger ship , the Meccan’s unbelievers demanded for miracles from him as a confirmation of his prophethood! Among their demands was that Muhammad salla-llahu alehi wasalam, should tell the moon to split into two separate halves and to still rejoin them into one again!

Allah heard the prophet’s palpitating heart and caused the moon to split into two separate halves and then rejoined them. The Qur’an recorded the event as follows:
” The Last Hour draws near, and the moon is split into assunder!” Q54:1

2. Night Journey And Ascent To Heaven : A few months before the migration from Mecca to Medina, Allah took Muhammad in one Night from the Grand Mosque in Mecca to Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem ; a month’s journey of 1230 km for a caravan. From Jerusalem he ascended to the heavens, passing the boundaries of the physical universe to be in divine presence, meet Allah, and witness the Great signs (al-Ayatul-Kubra).

The truth of his journey to Jerusalem and heaven became apparent in two ways . First, the prophet described the caravans he had overtaken on the way home and said where they were and about when they might be expected to arrive in Mecca and each arrived as predicted , and the details were as he had described !

Second, he was never known to have been to Jerusalem, yet he described al-Aqsa Mosque to skeptics like an eyewitness . The mystical journey is mentioned in the Qur’an:

” Exalted is He who took His servant (prophet Muhammad) by night from al-Masjid al-Haram to al-masjid al-Aqsa which surroundings we blessed, to show him of our signs. Indeed, He is the oft- Hearing ,the oft-seeing ” Q17:1

3. The Tree Trunk: In Medina, Muhammad salawatu-llah alehi, used to deliver sermons leaning on a tree stump. When the number of worshippers increased, someone suggested a pulpit be built so he can use it to deliver the sermon.

When the pulpit was built he abandoned the tree trunk. Abdullah ibn Umar, one of the companions , gave an eyewitness testimony of what . The trunk was heard weeping, the prophet of mercy went towards it and comforted it with his hand.

The event is also confirmed through eye witness testimony transmitted through the ages with an unbroken chain of reliable scholars (hadith mutawatir)

In the meantime, among the miracles endowed this righteous and noble in – character prophet, is encyclopedia statements of prayer and wisdom! These encyclopedic statements of his in forms of prayer and wisdom aggregate and fused many benefits in simple coded language!

The prophet himself had acknowledged this when he said : ” I was bestowed with encyclopedic statements”! Among his encyclopedic statements in forms of wisdom are his commands to ”save oneself from the torments of Hellfire even if it it is by giving half of a date in alms giving and heal your sick with alms giving!”

Imagine the acts and arts of alms giving in our society today! In simple terms, it has been eroded , corroded and bastardized by the givers, the scholars and the receivers, altogether!

The givers have abandoned the acts and arts of alms giving for fear of poverty whereas alms giving according to prophet Muhammad salla-llahu alehi wasalam, does not decrease wealth nor predispose its giver to poverty, rather, it is an enabler of wealth and prosperity!

Some givers of alms too, who have not altogether abandoned alms giving, have been denting their alms with showoff, dissimulation and hypocrisy! They give the poverty -ridden and the downtrodden alms, with the aims of being called the alms-givers, the philanthropists and the good-doers! They don’t give for Allah’s sake, His remembrance and for righteousness!

Most of them will not even give alms or devote themselves to doing it, except when a dibia , a scholar-consult or a seer command them to do it! And when doing it, the ingredients for doing it, will be prescribed for them by those practitioners forgetting that in Islam every good item or ingredient can be used to give alms!

And today’s Muslims are like their forbears in thinking concerning charity! They ask about what they should spend in charity in terms of ingredients and amount. And thank God, Allah Has answered them over two thousands years ago as follows :
” They ask you ( o Muhammad) what they should spend (in charity). Say : Whatever wealth you spend that is good , is for parents and kindred, and orphans, and those in want and for wayfarers. And whatever you do that is good, -Allah knows it well!” Quran 2 vs 215.

Three questions arise in charity according to Allama Yusuf Aliy in his commentary of the above verse. (1). What shall we give ? (2) to whom shall we give? (3) how shall we give? The answer is here : give anything that is good, useful , helpful and valuable. It may be property or money; it may be a helping hand: it may be advice; it may be kind word; ”whatever you do that is good” is charity.

On the other hand, if you throw away what is useless, there is no charity in it. Or if you give something with harmful intent ,e.g , a sword to a madman, or a drug or sweets or even money to some one whom you want to entrap or corrupt, it is no charity but a gift of damnation!”

Now we have come to the sides of those alms’ receivers who receive alms in form of paper money and who resell it to ritualists for all kinds of diabolic end! These people are the one who are discouraging the Faithfuls from giving alms in our clime today! It is a strange occurrence in our society today but there is no qualms!

The one who wants to give charity, I will say, should continue to give it to their neighbours , kindred and friends that want it rather than the unknown beggars that come to our streets and beg for alms! And if they must give to these beggars, for all of them are not into selling alms’ money to ritualists; that is certain, they should do so by seeking refuge with Allah from the evils of all things and with good intention!

In addition, about the one that you should give your alms, Yusuf Aliy continued in his commentary of Qur’an 2 vs 125 above, he said :
” To whom should you give ?. It may be tempting to earn the world’s praise by a gift that will be talked about, but are you meeting the needs of those who have the first claim on you? If you are not, you are like a person who defrauds creditors. :it is no charity. Every gift is judged by its unselfish character:the degree of need or claim is a factor which you should consider: if you disregard it, there is something selfish behind it. How should it be given? As in the sight of Allah; this shuts out all pretence , show , and insincerity!”

Indeed, the glorious Qur’an has deemed ‘good words or speeches’ , ‘good behaviour’, sound advise and consultation ‘ as ingredients to give alms! In fact, Allah Has placed more value on good speech and forgiveness of others higher above charity, which is coloured with injury (show off). He says : ”Kind speech and forgiveness is better than charity followed by injury ; and Allah is self a sufficient, forbearing”

The scholars too, who are responsible for explaining alms- giving , its forms, and all other issues surrounding it, have stopped in discharging what is keeping in their custody for fear of naysayers and so that the givers of alms will not say that they are campaign for alms-giving so that the bulks of it may come in their ways!

Reflect readers on the goodness in the two encyclopedic statements of our noble prophet salla-llahu alehi wasalam, concerning almsgiving, I.e ” save yourself from hellfire if it is with half of a date and heal your sick with almsgiving”. Imagine the power underneath charity for it to be able to douse the potency of the fire of Jahim and every illness!

Imagine the mercy of Allah on the Givers of alms and charity to the extent that the value and power ingrained in what they give is so effective and affective that it heals the responsibility of the receiver and the sickness of the givers!

Two practical instances were given in our mosques yesterday when the Imam of our mosques was discussing the strength and power ingrained in charity! One of the Faithful brothers told a story as follows :

A Muslim brother was diagnosed of a serious ailment of the ear but he lacked financial wherewithal to do its operation medically in a teaching operation in the south west Nigeria! Occasionally, he would visit a community hospital for medical checkups to appraise his condition and for drugs which could reduce the pain of his ailments.

On one of his visits to the community hospital, he witnessed a case of another patient who needed rounds of blood for his well-being but whose parents couldn’t afford it! Out of the mercy of Allah imbued in his character by Islam, the said brother offered a big chunk out of the money he has been saved for his operation to the patient who needed blood when the hospital management would not take care of him despite his deteriorating condition!

On the night the man with the ear sickness offered part of the Money he was saving for his operation to another man in the community hospital, he said that , he was about to sleep when he laid down his head on the mattress when he heard a deafening sound coming from his sicked ear, and alas, the tumor therein was put asunder and pulses started oozing out of it and after sometimes, he was completely healed of his ailments!

The Imam himself recant another story so as to buttress the power inherent in charity! He said, thrice on a night, he had a nightmare that his sister died! He did everything the prophet had recommended for who had such a nightmare but he kept having the dreams until the third time!

When he woke up in the morning, he called the sister and asked her to pray to God vehemently and to offer what she might have in forms of money and clothes in charity, but did not tell her the exact things he had found about her in his dreams ( we are not to tell people the bad dream we may have about them . it is the prophet’s warning)

On the second day he had the nightmare, he said that his sister called her to come to her shop in the former Akesan market and when reaching there, he was showed a fire-eating bag contained burnt money and a mobile phone! The sister said that, a fire just come out from no where and struck her push in which she had saved the weekly sales money and her mobile phone!

Now, it is clear to the Imam that Allah had averted the death that would have affected her sister with her money and mobile phone with the power of charity she had done with money and clothes as suggested by Imam!

My readers, there is untold power in charity and alms giving to the extent that the prophet has integrated longetivity of life with giving alms and good prayer when he said, “nothing changes a bad fate except sincere prayer and alms giving”