Black seed (al-habba al-sawda)

The black seed is the subject of a report in both Sahih collections in which the Prophet says 'in the black seed is a cure for every disease except al-sam', and al-sam is death ^{1 2}. Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya says it is the shuniz and counts the views that make it mustard or the fruit of the terebinth a mistake ³; he reads 'every disease' as a general expression meant in a particular sense, every disease that admits it, and holds it beneficial for the cold diseases ³.

In the entry on the letter ha among the simple drugs, Ibn al-Qayyim cites Abu Hurayra (may God be pleased with him)'s report in the two Sahih collections: 'use this black seed, for in it is a cure for every disease except al-sam' ³. In al-Bukhari it appears as 'in the black seed is a cure for every disease except al-sam', with Ibn Shihab's gloss that al-sam is death and the black seed is the shuniz ¹ al-Bukhari 5688; in Muslim with the same sense ² Muslim 5766; and in al-Tirmidhi ⁴ al-Tirmidhi 2041. Another report in al-Bukhari gives a prescription for a sick man: five or seven seeds, crushed and dripped into his nose with drops of oil, with the narrator citing 'A'isha for the saying ⁵ al-Bukhari 5687.

Ibn al-Qayyim says the black seed is the shuniz in Persian, the black cumin, also called Indian cumin. He relays that al-Harbi reported from al-Hasan that it is mustard and that al-Harawi reported it to be the green seed, the fruit of the terebinth, and he calls both views a mistake, the right one being that it is the shuniz ³. This agrees with Ibn Shihab's gloss in the al-Bukhari report ¹.

Ibn al-Qayyim holds that 'a cure for every disease' is like the wording used of the wind in the Qur'an al-Ahqaf 25, 'everything' that is able to be destroyed; it is a general expression meant in a particular sense, every disease that responds to it ³. He says it helps in all the cold diseases and enters the hot, dry ones incidentally, carrying the force of cooling, moist drugs to them quickly because it penetrates fast when a little is taken ³. He cites the author of the Canon and others for adding saffron to camphor tablets for its quick penetration, and says that the benefit of a hot substance in certain hot diseases by a special property is familiar to those of the craft ³. For the wider question of 'every disease has a remedy' see prophetic medicine.

Ibn al-Qayyim says it is hot and dry in the third degree, dispels bloating, drives out the worms called gourd-seeds (hubb al-qar'), helps against vitiligo, quartan fever and phlegmatic diseases, opens obstructions and dissolves winds ³. Pounded and kneaded with honey and taken with hot water it helps against stones of the kidney and bladder and promotes urine, menstruation and milk if taken for some days honey ³. He lists benefits of its oil, including as a nasal drop for palsy and tetanic spasm, and says its smoke drives off vermin ⁶. He gives the dose as two dirhams and notes that some claimed that taking much of it is deadly ⁶. These are Ibn al-Qayyim's statements of the medicine of his age; the museum reports them and recommends none of them.