Fever (al-humma)

In the two Sahih collections the Prophet says 'fever is from the heat of Hell; cool it with water' ¹, and in Ibn Abbas's version there is doubt whether the words were 'with the water of Zamzam' ². Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya understands this address as specific to the people of the Hijaz and their neighbours, since most of their fevers are accidental, caused by the sun's heat, and cold water helps them ³; he gives two readings of 'the heat of Hell' ⁴. In Ibn Majah a man cursed the fever and the Prophet said 'do not curse it, for it removes sins as fire removes the dross of iron' ⁵.

Ibn al-Qayyim opens the chapter with the report established in the two Sahih collections from Ibn Umar: 'fever, or the severity of fever, is from the heat of Hell; cool it with water' ³. In al-Bukhari it is reported 'fever is from the heat of Hell, so cool it with water' from Ibn Umar and from 'A'isha ^{1 6} al-Bukhari 3264 al-Bukhari 3263, and from Rafi' ibn Khadij 'fever is from the boiling of Hell, so cool it from you with water' ⁷ al-Bukhari 3262. Abu Jamra says he was sitting with Ibn Abbas in Mecca when fever took him and Ibn Abbas said cool it with the water of Zamzam, for the Messenger of God said 'fever is from the heat of Hell, so cool it with water', or 'with the water of Zamzam', the narrator Hammam being unsure ² al-Bukhari 3261. The Muwatta has the same from Hisham ibn Urwa from his father ⁸ Muwatta 2722. In Ibn Majah, from Abu Hurayra (may God be pleased with him): 'fever is a bellows of the bellows of Hell, so drive it from you with cold water' ⁹ Ibn Majah 3475. Ibn al-Qayyim also gives the report on Rafi' ibn Khadij, in Ahmad and al-Tirmidhi, about plunging three times in running water after dawn and before sunrise for three days; the editor notes that it comes from Thawban's report and has an unknown narrator in its chain ¹⁰.

Ibn al-Qayyim says the Prophet's address is of two kinds: general for the people of the earth, like most of his speech, and specific to some; for the specific he gives the example 'do not face the qibla or turn your back to it when relieving yourselves, but face east or west', which is addressed to the people of Medina and those on its bearing, not to the people of the east and west ³. On this basis he holds that the report on cooling fever with water is specific to the people of the Hijaz and their neighbours, since most of the fevers that befell them were of the accidental one-day kind caused by the sun's intense heat, which cold water helps by drinking and washing ³. He says fever is a foreign heat that kindles in the heart and spreads from it through the whole body, and divides it into accidental, arising from a swelling, from movement, from the sun's heat or severe summer heat, and pathological, of three kinds: one-day fever, putrid fever in four types, bilious, melancholic, phlegmatic and sanguine, and hectic fever ³. He says the accidental kinds settle at once by plunging in cold water and drinking iced water, needing no other treatment ⁴. He also allows that the report may mean all kinds of fever ⁴.

Ibn al-Qayyim relays that the body can benefit greatly from fever, more than from any drug: one-day fever and putrid fever are often the cause of ripening thick matter that would not ripen without it and of opening blockages that opening drugs could not reach, and it helps against palsy, facial paralysis, plethoric spasm and many diseases from thick residues ^{3 4}. He tells of a physician of note who said that in many diseases they welcome fever as the sick welcome health, and fever helps far more than drinking a drug, since it ripens the corrupt humours and the drug finds them ready to leave ⁴. He then relays that Galen admitted that cold water helps in fever, saying in the tenth discourse of his Hila al-bur' that a young man of good flesh in summer at the peak of fever with no swelling in his viscera would benefit from bathing or swimming in cold water, and that he orders it without hesitation ⁴. He relays from al-Razi in his large book that when the strength is good, the fever very acute, the ripening plain and there is no swelling in the belly and no rupture, cold water helps by drinking, and if the sick person is of full body, the season hot and he is used to cold water from outside, it may be permitted ⁴. This presents their statements of the craft as Ibn al-Qayyim relays them; it is not guidance from the museum.

On 'the heat of Hell' Ibn al-Qayyim gives two readings: that it is a sample and a thin trace drawn from Hell by which people infer it and take warning, God having decreed its appearance through causes that bring it about, as He showed in this world the ease, joy and delight of Paradise as a sign and lesson; or that it is a comparison, likening the severity of fever and its great heat to the heat of Hell that reaches those near it ⁴. 'Fa-abridūhā' is reported two ways: with a cut-off hamza opened, from abrada, to make cold, or with a joining hamza with damma, from barada, to cool, which he judges the more eloquent in language and use and the four-letter form a poor usage ⁴. On 'with water' there are two views: any water, which he holds correct, or the water of Zamzam, whose advocates cite Ibn Abbas's version; Ibn al-Qayyim says its narrator was unsure, and had he been certain it would be an order to the people of Mecca to use Zamzam, being at hand for them, and to others to use the water they have ^{4 11}. Among those who take it as general there is a difference whether it means giving water as charity or using it, and he holds that using it is correct ¹¹.

Ibn Majah reports from Abu Hurayra that fever was mentioned in the Prophet's presence and a man cursed it, and he said 'do not curse it, for it removes sins as fire removes the dross of iron' ^{5 11}. Ibn al-Qayyim explains the comparison: fever is followed by abstention from bad foods and taking helpful foods and drugs, which helps purify the body and remove its impurities, so it does to it what fire does to iron in removing its dross and purifying its substance, which is known to physicians of the body; as for its cleansing the heart of its dirt, he says physicians of hearts know it ¹¹. He quotes Abu Hurayra: 'no illness that strikes me is dearer to me than fever, because it enters every limb of mine, and God gives each limb its share of reward' ¹¹. He cites a saying of unknown standing, 'a day's fever is an expiation of a year', with two possible readings: that fever enters all the limbs and joints, three hundred and sixty of them, and expiates for each joint a day's sins; or that it affects the body with an effect that does not wholly pass for a year ¹¹. He says fever benefits both body and heart, and that to curse what does so is wrong and aggression ¹¹ patience. For the wider topic see prophetic medicine.

This page describes the reports, Ibn al-Qayyim's explanation of them and the physicians' statements he relays; it gives no medical advice, and severe or persistent fever is a matter for a physician.