Sunan Ibn Majah
Sunan Ibn Majah 3461
حَدَّثَنَا أَبُو بَكْرِ بْنُ أَبِي شَيْبَةَ، حَدَّثَنَا أَبُو أُسَامَةَ، عَنْ عَبْدِ الْحَمِيدِ بْنِ جَعْفَرٍ، عَنْ زُرْعَةَ بْنِ عَبْدِ الرَّحْمَنِ، عَنْ مَوْلًى، لِمَعْمَرٍ التَّيْمِيِّ عَنْ مَعْمَرٍ التَّيْمِيِّ، عَنْ أَسْمَاءَ بِنْتِ عُمَيْسٍ، قَالَتْ قَالَ لِي رَسُولُ اللَّهِ ـ صلى الله عليه وسلم ـ " بِمَاذَا كُنْتِ تَسْتَمْشِينَ " . قُلْتُ بِالشُّبْرُمِ قَالَ " حَارٌّ جَارٌّ " . ثُمَّ اسْتَمْشَيْتُ بِالسَّنَى . فَقَالَ " لَوْ كَانَ شَىْءٌ يَشْفِي مِنَ الْمَوْتِ كَانَ السَّنَى وَالسَّنَى شِفَاءٌ مِنَ الْمَوْتِ " .
Unreviewed translation. All hadiths in this collection are available in five languages. Titles and introductions may remain in Arabic.
Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shaybah narrated to us: Abū Usāmah narrated to us, from ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ibn Jaʿfar, from Zurʿah ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, from a client of Maʿmar al-Taymī, from Maʿmar al-Taymī, from Asmāʾ bint ʿUmays, who said: The Messenger of Allah asked me, ‘What had you been taking to induce a bowel movement?’ I said, ‘Shubrum.’ He said, ‘It is hot and harsh.’ Then I used senna, and he said, ‘If anything could cure death, it would be senna; senna is a cure for death.’
Notes and open questions — unreviewed
Shubrum and senna are retained as plant names. The text gives no botanical identification for shubrum. The phrase حَارٌّ جَارٌّ is a rhyming description, literally hot and intense/harsh.
قُلْتُ بِالشُّبْرُمِ قَالَ " حَارٌّ جَارٌّ " .
الشُّبْرُم is a named medicinal plant, but this passage does not identify its botanical species; the transliteration avoids an unsupported identification.
Which plant is intended by shubrum in this report?
فَقَالَ " لَوْ كَانَ شَىْءٌ يَشْفِي مِنَ الْمَوْتِ كَانَ السَّنَى وَالسَّنَى شِفَاءٌ مِنَ الْمَوْتِ " .
The report repeats that senna would cure death and is a cure for death, a formulation that may be proverbial or emphatic; the Arabic itself contains both clauses.
Is the repeated claim intended literally or as emphatic praise of senna?