Mishkat al-Masabih
Funerals
كتاب الجنائز
Chapter 1
عيادة المريض وثواب المرض - الفصل الأول
Abu Musa said: The Messenger of God said: Feed the hungry, visit the sick, and free the captive.
Al-Bukhari transmitted it.
Abu Hurayra, may God be pleased with him, said: The Messenger of God said: A Muslim owes another Muslim five duties: returning the greeting, visiting the sick, following funeral processions, accepting invitations, and invoking mercy for the sneezer.
Translation notes
The Arabic names the practice of tashmit for someone who sneezes; the English witness gives the customary formula, which is not spelled out in this Arabic text.
Abu Hurayra, may God be pleased with him, said: The Messenger of God said: A Muslim owes another Muslim six duties. He was asked: What are they, Messenger of God? He replied: When you meet him, greet him. When he invites you, accept. When he asks your advice, advise him. When he sneezes and praises God, invoke mercy for him. When he is ill, visit him. When he dies, follow his funeral.
Muslim transmitted it.
Al-Bara ibn Azib said: The Prophet commanded us to do seven things and forbade us seven things. He commanded us to visit the sick, follow funeral processions, invoke mercy for the sneezer, return greetings, accept invitations, help a person fulfill an oath, and support the wronged. He forbade us gold rings, silk, istabraq, dibaj, red saddle cushions, qassiy garments, and silver vessels. In one version he also forbade drinking from silver vessels, for whoever drinks from them in this world will not drink from them in the next.
Translation notes
The English witness adds explanations of qassiy fabric not included in this Arabic block; qassiy and the other specialized textile names are kept concise here.
وَعَنِ الْحَرِيرِ والْإِسْتَبْرَقِ وَالدِّيبَاجِ وَالْمِيثَرَةِ الْحَمْرَاءِ وَالْقَسِّيِّ
The Arabic lists several technical textile and saddle-cover terms. The exact distinctions between istabraq, dibaj, and qassiy are not established by this wording alone.
Which concise English glosses best preserve the distinctions among these textile terms without importing the witness footnote?
Thawban said: The Messenger of God said: When a Muslim visits his Muslim brother, he continues to reap the fruits of Paradise until he returns.
Muslim transmitted it.
Abu Hurayra, may God be pleased with him, said: The Messenger of God said: On the Day of Resurrection, God, Mighty and Majestic, will say: Son of Adam, I was sick and you did not visit Me. He will say: My Lord, how could I visit You when You are Lord of all worlds? He will say: Did you not know that My servant so-and-so was sick and you did not visit him? Did you not know that if you had visited him, you would have found Me with him?
Son of Adam, I asked you for food and you did not feed Me. He will say: My Lord, how could I feed You when You are Lord of all worlds? He will say: Did you not know that My servant so-and-so asked you for food and you did not feed him? Did you not know that if you had fed him, you would have found that with Me?
Son of Adam, I asked you for drink and you did not give Me drink. He will say: My Lord, how could I give You drink when You are Lord of all worlds? He will say: My servant so-and-so asked you for drink and you did not give him drink. Indeed, had you given him drink, you would have found that with Me.
Muslim transmitted it.
Ibn Abbas said: The Prophet went in to visit a Bedouin. Whenever he visited a sick person, he would say: No harm; a purification, if God wills. He said this to the man, who replied: No indeed. Rather, it is a fever boiling in an old man that will take him to the graves. The Prophet said: Then so be it.
Al-Bukhari transmitted it.
Aisha, may God be pleased with her, said: When one of us was ill, the Messenger of God would wipe him with his right hand and say: Remove the harm, Lord of humankind, and heal. You are the Healer. There is no healing except Your healing, a healing that leaves no illness behind.
Aisha said: When someone complained of a pain in his body, or had a sore or wound, the Prophet would say with his finger: In the name of God. The soil of our land, with the saliva of some of us, so that our sick may be healed by the permission of our Lord.
Translation notes
The English witness suggests that soil was placed on the finger and then moistened with saliva; that physical sequence is not explicit in this Arabic block.
Aisha, may God be pleased with her, said: When the Prophet was ill, he would blow over himself with the protective surahs and wipe himself with his hand. When he suffered from the illness in which he died, I would blow over him with the protective surahs that he used to recite, and wipe him with the hand of the Prophet.
In a version from Muslim, Aisha said: When anyone in his household was ill, he would blow over that person with the protective surahs.
Translation notes
The source calls these recitations al-Muawwidhat, the protective surahs; it does not spell out their names here.
وَأَمْسَحُ بِيَدِ النَّبِيِّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ
The Arabic says that Aisha wiped him with the Prophet hand; the English witness interprets this as taking his hand to wipe him.
Does the Arabic wording indicate that she used his hand to wipe him, or that she wiped him with her own hand while he was holding hers?
Uthman ibn Abi al-As said: He complained to the Messenger of God of a pain he felt in his body. The Messenger of God said: Place your hand on the part of your body that hurts and say three times, In the name of God. Then say seven times, I seek refuge in the might and power of God from the evil of what I feel and fear. He said: I did so, and God removed what I was suffering.
Muslim transmitted it.
Abu Said al-Khudri said: Gabriel came to the Prophet and said: Muhammad, are you suffering? He replied: Yes. Gabriel said: In the name of God, I recite healing over you against everything that harms you, from the evil of every soul or envious eye. May God heal you. In the name of God, I recite healing over you.
Muslim transmitted it.
Translation notes
The verb أَرْقِيكَ refers to reciting or invoking a healing charm; the translation renders it as reciting healing over you without adding a protective action absent from the wording.
Ibn Abbas said: The Messenger of God used to seek protection for al-Hasan and al-Hasan, saying: I seek refuge for you both in the perfect words of God from every devil, every poisonous creature, and every eye that harms. He would say: Your father used to seek protection for Ismail and Ishaq by means of them.
Al-Bukhari transmitted it. In most copies of al-Masabih, the wording is bihima, in the dual form.
Translation notes
The supplied Arabic repeats al-Hasan, whereas the English witness reads al-Hasan and al-Husayn. The translation preserves the Arabic repetition. The witness also identifies the father as Abraham in an explanatory parenthesis not present in this Arabic block.
الْحسن وَالْحسن
The supplied Arabic repeats al-Hasan, while the English witness has al-Hasan and al-Husayn. This may be a source transcription error, but it cannot be silently corrected from the witness.
Can the name be checked against a reliable Arabic edition?
Abu Hurayra, may God be pleased with him, said: The Messenger of God said: Whoever God wills good for, He afflicts with hardship.
Al-Bukhari transmitted it.
Abu Hurayra and Abu Said reported that the Prophet said: No fatigue, illness, worry, sadness, harm, or distress befalls a Muslim—not even a thorn that pricks him—without God expiating some of his sins through it.
Abd Allah ibn Masud said: I went in to see the Prophet when he was suffering from a fever. I touched him with my hand and said: Messenger of God, you are suffering from a severe fever. The Prophet said: Yes, I suffer as two men among you do. I said: Is that because you have two rewards? He replied: Yes. Then he said: No Muslim is afflicted by harm from illness or anything else without God, Exalted, removing his sins through it, just as a tree sheds its leaves.
Aisha, may God be pleased with her, said: I have never seen anyone in more severe pain than the Messenger of God.
Aisha, may God be pleased with her, said: The Prophet died between my hāqinati and dhāqinati. After the Prophet, I would never resent anyone suffering the agony of death.
Al-Bukhari transmitted it.
Translation notes
The Arabic uses the bodily terms حاقنة and ذاقنة. They are retained in transliteration because their precise anatomical reference is uncertain here; the English witness interprets them as breast and collarbone.
بَيْنَ حَاقِنَتِي وَذَاقِنَتِي
The two anatomical terms are obscure and the English witness supplies an interpretation as breast and collarbone.
What anatomical locations do حاقنة and ذاقنة denote in this report, and what English wording is best supported?
Kab ibn Malik said: The Messenger of God said: The believer is like a tender shoot among plants, swayed by the winds, which knock it down at times and set it upright at others, until its appointed time comes. The hypocrite is like a cedar standing firm, untouched by anything, until it is uprooted all at once.
Translation notes
The English witness adds an explanatory statement that believers face many troubles while hypocrites escape them. That interpretation is not part of this Arabic block.
Abu Hurayra, may God be pleased with him, said: The Messenger of God said: The believer is like a crop, continually swayed by the wind, and the believer is continually struck by trials. The hypocrite is like a cedar tree that does not sway until it is cut down.