Tradition

اَلطَّبِيب اللّهُ وَ لَعَلَّكَ تَرْفِقُ بِأشْياء تُحْرِقُ بِها غَيْرَكَ

The Prophet (S) is narrated to have said: “The true physician is God and it is possible that there are some things which are beneficial for you that others see as being harmful.”1

Brief Commentary

In some cases, many of the difficulties that people face in their lives are caused by a lack of proper thinking or a lack of proper choice. In some other cases, people are faced with certain undesirable events which are not caused by their own choices and they become needful of a ‘physician’ who can cure them. This master physician is none other than Allah, who possesses powerful types of medicine which can completely cure his ill patients. In some cases, these medicines can be quite bitter and difficult to take but they have powerful and beneficial effects on the diseases which people are suffering from. In all cases, God is the master physician, and even though his medicine may initially seem difficult to take, he is the most aware of how best to cure his patients.

• 1. Nahj al-Fasahah, p. 406.