Senna and sannut (al-sana wa-l-sannut)

Senna (sana) is a Hijazi plant, the best being from Mecca, and a laxative drug according to Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya ¹. Al-Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah report from Asma' bint Umays that the Prophet asked her what she used for a purge; she said shubrum and he said 'hot and harsh', then she used senna and he said 'if anything held a cure for death, it would be senna' ^{2 3}. Ibn Majah reports 'hold to senna and sannut, for in them is a cure for every disease except death' ⁴. Of sannut Ibn al-Qayyim lists eight meanings, among them honey, the honey found in ghee skins, dill and dates ¹.

Al-Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah report from Asma' bint Umays: the Messenger of God said to me 'what do you use for a purge?' I said shubrum; he said 'hot and harsh'; then I used senna and he said 'if anything held a cure for death, it would be senna' ^{2 3} al-Tirmidhi 2081 Ibn Majah 3461. In Ibn Majah, from Abd Allah ibn Umm Haram, who heard the Prophet say: 'hold to senna and sannut, for in them is a cure for every disease except al-sam'; and when asked what al-sam was, he said 'death' ⁴ Ibn Majah 3457. Ibn al-Qayyim gives the two reports in his chapter on dryness of the bowels and the need for what moves and softens it ⁵.

Ibn al-Qayyim explains 'tastamshin' as softening the bowel so that it moves and does not stand still and harm by retaining waste, which is why a laxative drug is called a 'mashiyya', or because the purged person walks about much for need ⁵. Shubrum for him is the bark of a tree's root, hot and dry in the fourth degree, the best being reddish, light and thin like a rolled hide, and it is among the drugs physicians advised leaving out for its danger and excessive purging ¹. On 'hot and harsh' (har jarr) he gives two readings: that 'jarr' with jim means violently purging, said by Abu Hanifa al-Dinawari; and that it is an ittiba', a doubled word that strengthens the first, which he holds to be correct, like 'hasan basan', with 'yarr' written with ya either a variant of 'jarr' or a separate echo ¹.

Ibn al-Qayyim says senna has two spellings, with long and short vowel, and is a Hijazi plant, the best being from Mecca; a noble drug free of harm, near to balanced, hot and dry in the first degree, purging yellow and black bile and strengthening the body of the heart ¹. He gives as its special property benefit against melancholic obsession and against cracking of the skin, opening the muscles, and helping against scattering of the hair, lice, old headache, scab, pimples, itch and epilepsy ¹. He says drinking its decoction is better than drinking it pounded, the dose being three dirhams of the herb and five of its water, and it is better if cooked with some violet blossom and red raisins with the seeds removed ¹. He relays from al-Razi that senna and shahtaraj purge, the dose of either being four to seven dirhams ¹. These are Ibn al-Qayyim's statements of the medicine of his age; the museum reports them and recommends none of them.

Ibn al-Qayyim gives eight meanings of sannut. First, honey; second, the residue of a ghee skin that leaves black streaks on the ghee, both reported by Amr ibn Bakr al-Saksaki; third, a grain resembling cumin but not cumin, said by Ibn al-A'rabi; fourth, Kirmani cumin; fifth, fennel, both reported by Abu Hanifa al-Dinawari from some Bedouin; sixth, dill; seventh, dates, both reported by Abu Bakr ibn al-Sunni; eighth, the honey found in ghee skins, reported by Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi ¹. He says some physicians judged the last the closest to the sense and nearest to right, that is, pounded senna mixed with honey that has mingled with ghee and then licked, which is better than using senna alone, since honey and ghee correct senna and help it purge ¹. Elsewhere he gives sannut as the honey with a little ghee that corrects and balances senna, an example of countering a drug's harm with its opposite ⁶. Ibn Majah's text itself records Ibn Abi Abla's saying that sannut is dill and the view of others that it is the honey in ghee skins ⁴ honey. For the wider topic see prophetic medicine.