Surah Al-Isra (The Night Journey — الإسراء) (Ayah 83)

We can now move to the last Verse Al-Isra 17:82 ^⧉ cited above: وَنُنَزِّلُ مِنَ الْقُرْ‌آنِ مَا هُوَ شِفَاءٌ (And We reveal the Qur'an which is a cure). That the Holy Qur'an cures hearts and delivers people from shirk and kufr, low morals and spiritual ailments is no secret. The entire Muslim ummah agrees with it. And according to some ` Ulama', the way the Qur’ an is a cure for spiritual ailments, it is also a cure for physical diseases. The sense is that reciting the verses of the Qur'an and blowing the breath on the body of the sick person or to write its words on an amulet and putting it around the neck is also expected to be a cure for physical diseases. Hadith narratives bear testimony to it. The Hadith of Sayyidna Abu Said al-Khudri ؓ can be seen in all books of Ahadith. It says that a party of the noble Companions ؓ was in travel. In a village on their way, a scorpion had bitten the chief. The village people asked the Companions if they could suggest some treatment for it. They recited the Surah Al-Fatiha^⧉ seven times, blew their breath on him and the ailing patient stood cured. Later, when this incident was mentioned before the Holy Prophet ﷺ ، he declared this action of the Companions to be permissible.

Similarly, there are several other Hadith reports which prove that the Holy Prophet ﷺ has done it himself. After having recited the last two verses of the Qur'an, he would blow his breath on the sick person. It is also proved that the Sahabah and the Tabi` in used to treat sick people with the recital of the last two verses of the Qur’ an as well as with the recital of other verses from it. That it was written and placed around the neck as an amulet also stands proved. Al-Qurtubi has given details about it under his commentary on this verse.

The last sentence of the verse: (And it adds nothing to the unjust but loss - ) tells us that the Holy Qur'an - when recited with faith and reverence - is certainly a cure. It is open. It is proven. Conversely, any denial of the Qur’ an, or irreverence to it, could also become a source of loss and misfortunes.