Sunan Ibn Majah
Chapters on Medicine
كتاب الطب
Chapter 43
مَنْ كَانَ يُعْجِبُهُ الْفَأْلُ وَيَكْرَهُ الطِّيَرَةَ
Unreviewed translation. All hadiths in this collection are available in five languages. Titles and introductions may remain in Arabic.
Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Numayr narrated to us: ʿAbdah ibn Sulaymān narrated to us, from Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr, from Abū Salamah, from Abū Hurayrah, who said: The Prophet liked favorable omens and disliked bird omens.
Notes and open questions — unreviewed
الفَأْل الحَسَن is a favorable/good omen; الطِّيَرَة refers to ill omens traditionally drawn from birds or similar signs. The short text does not explain the underlying practice.
قَالَ كَانَ النَّبِيُّ ـ صلى الله عليه وسلم ـ يُعْجِبُهُ الْفَأْلُ الْحَسَنُ وَيَكْرَهُ الطِّيَرَةَ .
الفأل الحسَن and الطِّيَرَة are paired concepts for favorable omens and superstitious ill omens; الطيرة is literally associated with birds but can denote broader omen-taking.
Should الطيرة be rendered as ‘bird omens’ or more generally as ‘ill omens’?
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: Yazīd ibn Hārūn narrated to us: Shuʿbah informed us, from Qatādah, from Anas, who said: The Prophet said, ‘There is no contagion and no ill omen, and I like a good omen.’
Notes and open questions — unreviewed
The Arabic states لا عَدْوَى directly as ‘there is no contagion’; the report does not expand on its intended scope. الطِّيَرَة is rendered as ill omen, and الفأل الصالح as a good omen.
قَالَ قَالَ النَّبِيُّ ـ صلى الله عليه وسلم ـ " لاَ عَدْوَى وَلاَ طِيَرَةَ وَأُحِبُّ الْفَأْلَ الصَّالِحَ " .
لا عَدْوَى is literally ‘there is no contagion’; the brief report does not qualify the statement or explain its scope, while later discussions may interpret it in different ways.
Should the direct wording ‘There is no contagion’ be retained without supplying an interpretation?
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: Wakīʿ narrated to us, from Sufyān, from Salamah, from ʿĪsā ibn ʿĀṣim, from Zirr, from ʿAbd Allāh, who said: The Messenger of Allah said: ‘Taking omens is shirk. None of us is wholly free of it, but Allah removes it through reliance on Him.’
Notes and open questions — unreviewed
The clause وَمَا مِنَّا إِلَّا is elliptical: it literally says ‘there is none of us except…’ without repeating what the person has. The translation supplies ‘is wholly free of it’ to make the implied sense readable; the final word is reliance/trust in Allah (tawakkul).
قَالَ قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ ـ صلى الله عليه وسلم ـ " الطِّيَرَةُ شِرْكٌ وَمَا مِنَّا إِلاَّ وَلَكِنَّ اللَّهَ يُذْهِبُهُ بِالتَّوَكُّلِ " .
وَمَا مِنَّا إِلَّا omits the proposition after ‘none of us except’; the English witness supplies the idea that anyone may experience or perceive an omen.
What implied phrase should be supplied after ‘none of us except’ while preserving the source’s ellipsis?
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 al-Aḥwaṣ narrated to us, from Simāk, from ʿIkrimah, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: The Messenger of Allah said: ‘There is no contagion, no omen-taking, no hāmah, and no Ṣafar.’
Notes and open questions — unreviewed
العدوى is rendered ‘contagion’; الطيرة as omen-taking. هامة (hāmah) and صفر (Ṣafar) are retained in transliteration because the report does not define their intended superstitions or references.
قَالَ قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ ـ صلى الله عليه وسلم ـ " لاَ عَدْوَى وَلاَ طِيَرَةَ وَلاَ هَامَةَ وَلاَ صَفَرَ " .
هَامَةٌ and صَفَرٌ are terse named beliefs/terms whose intended scope is not explained in this report; the English witness also leaves them untranslated.
Should hāmah and Ṣafar remain transliterated, or be glossed as specific pre-Islamic beliefs?
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: Wakīʿ narrated to us, from Abū Janāb, from his father, from Ibn ʿUmar, who said: The Messenger of Allah said, ‘There is no contagion, no omen-taking, and no hāmah.’ A man stood up and said, ‘Messenger of Allah, a camel may have mange, and then other camels contract mange from it.’ He said, ‘That is the divine decree. Who caused the first one to become mangy?’
Notes and open questions — unreviewed
The camel and mange example is retained as the man’s question; the Prophet’s reply calls it decree and asks rhetorically who caused the first camel’s mange. هَامَة is left transliterated as in the adjacent report because this brief wording does not define it.
قَالَ " ذَلِكَ الْقَدَرُ فَمَنْ أَجْرَبَ الأَوَّلَ " .
فَمَنْ أَجْرَبَ الأَوَّلَ (‘who caused the first one to become mangy?’) is a rhetorical reply pointing to divine decree; the text does not explain further how this relates to the preceding observation about mange spreading.
Should the rhetorical question be kept literally without adding an explanation of transmission?
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: ʿAlī ibn Mushir narrated to us, from Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr, from Abū Salamah, from Abū Hurayrah, who said: The Messenger of Allah said: ‘The owner of sick animals should not bring them to the owner of healthy animals.’
Notes and open questions — unreviewed
The Arabic uses descriptive forms for a person with diseased stock and a person with healthy stock; it does not specify grazing or watering alongside one another, which the English witness adds.
قَالَ قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ ـ صلى الله عليه وسلم ـ " لاَ يُورِدُ الْمُمْرِضُ عَلَى الْمُصِحِّ " .
الْمُمْرِضُ and الْمُصِحِّ are persons associated with diseased and healthy animals; the Arabic does not explicitly repeat ‘animals’ or state grazing/drinking together.
Should the implied livestock be made explicit while omitting the English witness’s added grazing/drinking detail?
Chapter 44
الْجُذَامِ
Unreviewed translation. All hadiths in this collection are available in five languages. Titles and introductions may remain in Arabic.
Abū Bakr, Mujāhid ibn Mūsā, and Muḥammad ibn Khalaf al-ʿAsqalānī narrated to us: They said: Yūnus ibn Muḥammad narrated to us: Mufaḍḍal ibn Faḍālah narrated to us, from Ḥabīb ibn al-Shahīd, from Muḥammad ibn al-Munkadir, from Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh: The Messenger of Allah took the hand of a man with leprosy and placed it with his own in the bowl. Then he said, ‘Eat with trust in Allah and reliance upon Allah.’
Notes and open questions — unreviewed
The Arabic says that the Prophet placed the man’s hand together with his own in the bowl; it does not say merely that he ate alongside him.
Unreviewed translation. All hadiths in this collection are available in five languages. Titles and introductions may remain in Arabic.
ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ibrāhīm narrated to us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Nāfiʿ narrated to us, from Ibn Abī al-Zinād. [Another chain:] ʿAlī ibn Abī al-Khaṣīb narrated to us: Wakīʿ narrated to us, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Saʿīd ibn Abī Hind. Both routes lead from Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr ibn ʿUthmān, from his mother Fāṭimah bint al-Ḥusayn, from Ibn ʿAbbās, that the Prophet said: ‘Do not keep looking at people with leprosy.’
Notes and open questions — unreviewed
تُدِيمُوا النَّظَرَ means to prolong/continue looking; it is translated as ‘keep looking’ rather than a blanket command never to see them.
Unreviewed translation. All hadiths in this collection are available in five languages. Titles and introductions may remain in Arabic.
ʿAmr ibn Rāfiʿ narrated to us: Hushaym narrated to us, from Yaʿlā ibn ʿAṭāʾ, from a man of the family of al-Sharīd named ʿAmr, from his father, who said: There was a man with leprosy among the delegation of Thaqīf. The Prophet sent word to him: ‘Go back, for we have already accepted your pledge of allegiance.’
Notes and open questions — unreviewed
The report says the Prophet sent a message to the man (فَأَرْسَلَ إِلَيْهِ), rather than describing him as meeting the delegation in person.
Chapter 45
السِّحْرِ
Unreviewed translation. All hadiths in this collection are available in five languages. Titles and introductions may remain in Arabic.
A Jew from among the Jews of Banū Zurayq, called Labīd ibn al-Aʿṣam, bewitched the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, so that the Prophet would imagine that he had done something when he had not. She said: One day—or one night—when this had happened, the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, supplicated, then supplicated, then supplicated. Then he said: “ʿĀʾishah, do you know that Allah has given me an answer concerning that about which I asked Him? Two men came to me. One sat by my head and the other by my feet. The one by my head said to the one by my feet—or the one by my feet said to the one by my head: ‘What is ailing this man?’ He replied: ‘He has been bewitched.’ He asked: ‘Who bewitched him?’ He replied: ‘Labīd ibn al-Aʿṣam.’ He asked: ‘With what?’ He replied: ‘With a comb, combings, and the dried spathe of a male date palm.’ He asked: ‘Where is it?’ He replied: ‘In the well of Dhū Arwān.’”
She said: The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, went to it with some of his Companions, then returned and said: “By Allah, ʿĀʾishah, its water was as though it were an infusion of henna, and its palm trees as though they were the heads of devils.” She said: I asked, “Messenger of Allah, will you not burn it?” He replied: “No. As for me, Allah has healed me, and I disliked stirring up evil among the people because of it.” Then he ordered it to be buried.
Notes and open questions — unreviewed
The two men in the report are not identified here. The Arabic also leaves the direction of their question and answer exchange open, and that alternative is retained.
The Arabic says that he ordered the feminine-referenced matter to be buried; it does not explicitly say that the well itself was filled in. The referent is left unspecified in the translation.
‘Combings’ renders al-mushāṭah, the hair or material gathered in combing; the report separately names a comb and the dried spathe of a male date-palm cluster.
قَالَ فِي أَىِّ شَىْءٍ قَالَ فِي مُشْطٍ وَمُشَاطَةٍ وَجُفِّ طَلْعَةِ ذَكَرٍ .
The noun al-mushāṭah refers to hair or material from combing; the exact material is not specified more narrowly here.
Is ‘combings’ sufficiently clear for al-mushāṭah in this list of items associated with the spell?
فَأَمَرَ بِهَا فَدُفِنَتْ .
The feminine pronoun in ‘then he ordered it to be buried’ does not explicitly identify its referent in this sentence.
Should the referent remain unspecified rather than be made explicit as the well or the spell’s objects?
Unreviewed translation. All hadiths in this collection are available in five languages. Titles and introductions may remain in Arabic.
Yaḥyā ibn ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd ibn Kathīr ibn Dīnār al-Ḥimṣī narrated to us; Baqiyyah narrated to us; Abū Bakr al-ʿAnsī narrated to us, from Yazīd ibn Abī Ḥabīb and Muḥammad ibn Yazīd, the two Egyptians. They both said: Nāfiʿ narrated to us, from Ibn ʿUmar, who said: Umm Salamah said, “Messenger of Allah, every year you continue to suffer pain from the poisoned sheep that you ate.” He said, “Nothing from it has afflicted me except that it was decreed for me while Adam was still in his clay.”
Notes and open questions — unreviewed
The closing phrase links what befell the Prophet from the poisoned sheep to what had been written for him while Adam was still in his clay; the translation preserves the concise wording without specifying a theological interpretation.
قَالَ " مَا أَصَابَنِي شَىْءٌ مِنْهَا إِلاَّ وَهُوَ مَكْتُوبٌ عَلَىَّ وَآدَمُ فِي طِينَتِهِ " .
The phrase ‘while Adam was in his clay’ is a compact statement about prior decree, whose doctrinal implications are not elaborated in the report.
Does ‘while Adam was still in his clay’ preserve the wording without adding an interpretation?
Chapter 46
الْفَزَعِ وَالأَرَقِ وَمَا يُتَعَوَّذُ مِنْهُ
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; ʿAffān narrated to us; Wuhayb narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn ʿAjlān narrated to us, from Yaʿqūb ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ashajj, from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab, from Saʿd ibn Mālik, from Khawlah bint Ḥakīm, that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: “If one of you, when he alights at a place, says, ‘I seek refuge in the perfect words of Allah from the evil of what He has created,’ nothing will harm him at that place until he departs from it.”
Unreviewed translation. All hadiths in this collection are available in five languages. Titles and introductions may remain in Arabic.
Muḥammad ibn Bashshār narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Anṣārī narrated to us; ʿUyaynah ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān narrated to me; my father narrated to me, from ʿUthmān ibn Abī al-ʿĀṣ, who said: When the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, appointed me over al-Ṭāʾif, something began to intrude upon me in my prayer, until I no longer knew what I was praying. When I saw that, I traveled to the Messenger of Allah. He said, “Ibn Abī al-ʿĀṣ?” I replied, “Yes, Messenger of Allah.” He said, “What brings you here?” I said, “Messenger of Allah, something intrudes upon me in my prayer, until I no longer know what I am praying.” He said, “That is Satan. Come closer.”
So I came close to him and sat on the fronts of my feet. He struck my chest with his hand, spat into my mouth, and said, “Come out, enemy of Allah!” He did that three times, then said, “Go back to your work.” ʿUthmān said: By my life, I do not think it troubled me again after that.
Notes and open questions — unreviewed
The final verb literally describes something having mixed or become involved with ʿUthmān; ‘troubled me again’ conveys the reported return of the prayer disturbance without specifying more than the report does.
قَالَ فَقَالَ عُثْمَانُ فَلَعَمْرِي مَا أَحْسِبُهُ خَالَطَنِي بَعْدُ .
The closing expression says that he did not think it had mixed with or affected him again; its precise implication is compact in Arabic.
Does ‘I do not think it troubled me again after that’ adequately preserve the idiom in context?
Unreviewed translation. All hadiths in this collection are available in five languages. Titles and introductions may remain in Arabic.
Hārūn ibn Ḥayyān narrated to us; Ibrāhīm ibn Mūsā narrated to us; ʿAbdah ibn Sulaymān informed us; Abū Janāb narrated to us, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Laylā, from his father Abū Laylā, who said: I was sitting with the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, when a Bedouin came to him and said, “My brother is ill.” He asked, “What is wrong with your brother?” He replied, “He is afflicted by lamm.” He said, “Go and bring him to me.”
The man went and brought him, and the Prophet seated him in front of himself. I heard him reciting a protective invocation over him with the Opening of the Book, four verses from the beginning of al-Baqarah, two verses from its middle, “Your God is One God,” the Verse of the Throne, and three verses from its end; a verse from Āl ʿImrān—I think he said, “Allah bears witness that there is no god but Him”; a verse from al-Aʿrāf, “Indeed, your Lord is Allah, who created…”—the verse; a verse from al-Muʾminūn, “Whoever invokes another god alongside Allah, having no proof for it”; a verse from al-Jinn, “Exalted is the majesty of our Lord; He has taken neither wife nor child”; ten verses from the beginning of al-Ṣāffāt; three verses from the end of al-Ḥashr; “Say: He is Allah, One”; and the two chapters of seeking refuge. The Bedouin stood up, healed, with nothing wrong with him.
Notes and open questions — unreviewed
Lamm is an uncommon term for an affliction; the report does not further define it. The Arabic also marks the identification of the Āl ʿImrān verse as the narrator’s recollection (‘I think he said’), which is retained.
The two chapters of seeking refuge are al-Falaq and al-Nās. The verse quotations are brief excerpts; where the Arabic says ‘the verse,’ it indicates continuation to the end of that verse.
قَالَ بِهِ لَمَمٌ .
Lamm is an uncommon word indicating an affliction, with a possible association with spirit-related disturbance; the report does not explain it.
Should lamm remain transliterated, or should it be rendered with a broader gloss such as ‘affliction’?
قَالَ فَذَهَبَ فَجَاءَ بِهِ فَأَجْلَسَهُ بَيْنَ يَدَيْهِ فَسَمِعْتُهُ عَوَّذَهُ بِفَاتِحَةِ الْكِتَابِ وَأَرْبَعِ آيَاتٍ مِنْ أَوَّلِ الْبَقَرَةِ وَآيَتَيْنِ مِنْ وَسَطِهَا وَإِلَهُكُمْ إِلَهٌ وَاحِدٌ وَآيَةِ الْكُرْسِيِّ وَثَلاَثِ آيَاتٍ مِنْ خَاتِمَتِهَا وَآيَةٍ مِنْ آلِ عِمْرَانَ - أَحْسِبُهُ قَالَ {شَهِدَ اللَّهُ أَنَّهُ لاَ إِلَهَ إِلاَّ هُوَ} - وَآيَةٍ مِنَ الأَعْرَافِ {إِنَّ رَبَّكُمُ اللَّهُ الَّذِي خَلَقَ} الآيَةَ وَآيَةٍ مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ {وَمَنْ يَدْعُ مَعَ اللَّهِ إِلهًا آخَرَ لاَ بُرْهَانَ لَهُ بِهِ } وَآيَةٍ مِنَ الْجِنِّ {وَأَنَّهُ تَعَالَى جَدُّ رِبِّنَا مَا اتَّخَذَ صَاحِبَةً وَلاَ وَلَدًا} وَعَشْرِ آيَاتٍ مِنْ أَوَّلِ الصَّافَّاتِ وَثَلاَثِ آيَاتٍ مِنْ آخِرِ الْحَشْرِ وَ {قُلْ هُوَ اللَّهُ أَحَدٌ } وَالْمُعَوِّذَتَيْنِ .
The report enumerates passages by verse count and contains a narrator’s hesitation in identifying one verse; the translation preserves those counts and the stated uncertainty.
Are the passage descriptions and short quotations aligned with the Arabic enumeration without silently correcting it?