Talbina (barley gruel)

Talbina is a thin gruel of barley flour with its bran, named for its likeness to milk (laban) in whiteness and thinness ¹. Al-Bukhari and Muslim report from 'A'isha the Prophet's words 'talbina rests the heart of the sick and takes away some of the grief' ^{2 3}, and Ibn Majah reports from her 'hold to the hateful and beneficial, talbina' ⁴. Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya sets out three explanations of 'takes away some of the grief' ⁵.

Al-Bukhari and Muslim report from 'A'isha that when one of her family died and the women gathered and then dispersed, leaving her own people and close companions, she would order a pot of talbina cooked, a dish of tharid made and the talbina poured over it, and say: eat of it, for I heard the Messenger of God say 'talbina rests the heart of the sick and takes away some of the grief' ^{2 3} al-Bukhari 5417 Muslim 5769. In al-Bukhari she used to order talbina for the sick and for the one grieving over the dead ⁶ al-Bukhari 5689, and she called it 'the hateful and beneficial' ⁷ al-Bukhari 5690. In Ibn Majah she reports 'hold to the hateful and beneficial, talbina', meaning the gruel, and when someone of her family fell ill the pot stayed on the fire until one of two ends was reached, meaning recovery or death ⁴ Ibn Majah 3446; Ibn Majah also has that the Prophet ordered gruel when fever took one of his household ⁸ Ibn Majah 3445. Ibn al-Qayyim cites a version in Ahmad that it 'washes the belly of one of you as one of you washes dirt from her face', and notes through the editor that its chain has an unknown narrator ¹.

Ibn al-Qayyim says talbina is the thin gruel with the consistency of milk, from which its name is taken, and relays from al-Harawi that it was so named for its likeness to milk in whiteness and thinness ¹. It is a gruel made from barley flour with its bran, and he says that whoever wants to know its merit should know the merit of barley water, indeed it is barley water for them, the difference being that barley water is cooked from whole grains and talbina from ground, which he judges more beneficial because grinding brings out barley's property ¹. He says the people's custom was to make barley water from ground grain, while town physicians made it from whole grains so that it would be thinner and lighter and not weigh on the patient's nature ¹. This applies a principle he states just before, that bodies are treated with the foods and drugs they are used to ⁹ prophetic medicine; the gruel appears under his chapter on feeding the sick with the lightest of what they are used to ¹.

Ibn al-Qayyim says 'majamma' is reported in two vocalisations: with a fatha on the mim and jim, the better known, meaning that it eases and calms the heart of the sick, from ijmam, rest; and with damma on the mim and kasra on the jim ⁵. For 'takes away some of the grief' he gives three explanations. First, that worry and sorrow chill the temperament and weaken the innate heat because the spirit that carries it turns toward the heart, and the gruel strengthens that heat by adding to its matter and so removes most of what the worry brought on. Second, which he finds nearer, that it removes some grief by a property in it of the kind that some gladdening foods have. Third, that the grieving person's strength weakens as dryness takes over the limbs and especially the stomach through eating little, and the gruel moistens, strengthens and feeds it, doing the same for the sick person's heart; and in a sick person's stomach a bilious, phlegmatic or purulent humour often gathers, which the gruel cleanses away ⁵. He adds that barley was then the main food of the people of Medina and that wheat was scarce among them ⁵.

This page describes the reports and Ibn al-Qayyim's reasoning on them; it gives no dietary or medical advice.