A Visit of Care (Worship Through Visiting the Sick)

The Etiquette, Secrets, Rewards, and Therapeutic, Psychological, and Clinical Dimensions of Visiting the Sick in the Illuminating School of the Ahl al-Bayt (AS)

Contents and Chapter Headings

Chapter One: Worship Through Visiting the Sick

• The purpose of creation and its connection to serving those who suffer
• Visiting the sick: an undeniable religious right every believer has over a fellow believer
• The Prophet’s unequivocal command to visit the sick
• Believers as members of a single body, sharing one another’s suffering in illness
• Visiting the sick: a radiant jewel among acts of worship, rewarded like a thousand years of obedience
• The importance of visiting the poor, the needy, and the noble descendants of the Prophet
• The absolute prohibition on retaliation or keeping score when visiting the sick

Chapter Two: Healing Through Visiting

• The visitor is medicine and healing for the person visited
• The person visited is a spiritual remedy and an elixir of salvation for the visitor
• The sick person is a powerhouse of prayer, whose supplications are answered at the Divine Court
• O suffering believer, remember us in your prayers! (Unpacking the sick person’s prayer)
• A serious warning in the narrations: beware the anguished supplication of a suffering patient!

Chapter Three: Meeting God

• Visiting the sick: a meeting place for a direct encounter with the Lord
• Interpreting the stirring sacred hadith: «O son of Adam, I fell ill and you did not visit Me»
• The Universal Healer’s clinic is the patient’s home—hasten there for healing!

Chapter Four: The Road to Paradise and the Angels’ Carpet

• The patient’s home: a thoroughfare into the gardens of the Paradise of Divine Good Pleasure
• Paradise spread beneath the feet of the visitor
• Visiting the sick: a journey toward a land of boundless blessings and goodness
• Walking to visit the sick: worship put into practice
• The visitor’s death on the way to a patient: one of the most beautiful forms of martyrdom

Chapter Five: Angels at the Visitor’s Service

• The visitor as leader and commander of seventy thousand angels
• The angels’ mission: to serve the sick and pray for their forgiveness
• The visitor inherits half of the angels’ prayers and glorifications until the Day of Resurrection
• A visit to the sick: a joyful journey, a tonic for mental well-being, and a renewal of life

Chapter Six: Sharing News of a Patient’s Condition

• Believers’ social responsibility to let others know when a fellow believer is ill
• Preventing the patient’s isolation and renewing the chain of kindness in society

Chapter Seven: The Art and Language of Visiting the Sick

• Gladdening the patient’s heart: the supreme key to having all one’s needs met
• Completing the visit by placing a hand on the patient’s arm and forehead
• Visit with care: body language, a gentle gaze, and composure
• The language of words: poisonous and healing things to say at the bedside
• Give the patient hope for life and the future
• Combine visiting the sick with financial assistance and help ease the burden of medical costs
• Bring a gift, rosewater, and fresh fruit to adorn the visit
• Timing your visit: begin regular visits three days after the illness starts
• Keep your visit brief, pleasant, and free of unnecessary lingering
• Give silent thanks for your own health, and do not draw attention to it in front of the patient
• Managing bedside visits during contagious and infectious illnesses
• Do not eat in front of the patient! (The reason the Prophet forbade eating in the presence of the ill)

Chapters Eight and Nine: When Visiting Is Discouraged or Prohibited

• When a visit is not in the patient’s psychological or physical best interests
• Three ailments that do not call for bedside visits: eye pain, toothache, and boils
• Avoid visiting those who openly commit grave sins and violate the bounds of religious law

Chapter Ten: Seeking Healing and Bedside Prayers

• Fulfilling the right of the sneezer when a patient sneezes
• Turning the visit into a gathering for remembrance, prayer, and supplication for healing
• Traditional supplications and reciting Sūrat al-Fātiḥa seven times at the patient’s bedside

Golden passages from the book

God’s clinic is the patient’s home: a direct encounter with God
“If you wish to meet God directly and lay your sorrows before Him, make your way to the bedside of the sick. The Divine Physician has opened His clinic in the patient’s home, so hasten to visit Him! The Noble Prophet (PBUH) said: On the Day of Resurrection, God will rebuke a servant, saying, ‘Son of Adam, I was ill, and you did not visit Me.’ The servant will reply, ‘My Lord, how could I have visited You when You are the Lord of all the worlds?’ The Almighty will say, ‘Did you not know that My believing servant so-and-so was ill, and you did not visit him? Did you not know that had you visited him, you would have found Me with him?’ The sickbed is where the Lord’s special mercy is made manifest.” (Page 18)

The patient is a powerhouse of prayer; the visitor’s remedy lies in the one visited
“A believing patient is a divine remedy named ‘the sick’! He is God’s own physician, who, by the Lord’s command, tends to the physical and spiritual ailments of those who visit him. Ask the patient to pray for you and for your troubles, for his broken heart and cries rising from the depths of his soul pierce the seven veils of heaven. The patient may seem to need others’ prayers, but in truth, his prayers are answered, and he is a powerhouse of supplication. Sincere visitation is the master key to untying the hardest knots in the visitor’s life.” (Page 26)

The one visited is a spiritual elixir for the visitor; the healthy need the sick all the more
“The patient is exposed to the direct radiance of the Divine’s special care. A heedless society imagines that the healthy person is doing the patient a kindness, when the truth is the opposite: healthy people need the sick far more than the sick need the healthy! Visiting the sick is spiritual medicine for souls dulled by neglect. Sitting at a patient’s bedside dispels heedlessness, humbles the pride of good health, teaches gratitude for well-being, and softens a hardened heart like wax. The one visited is a life-giving elixir for the visitor.” (Page 31)

Visiting the sick is the diamond of divine worship; the reward of a thousand years of sinless devotion
“The noble Messenger of Islam (PBUH) made this striking statement: «مَنْ عَادَ مَرِیضاً فَجَلَسَ سَاعَةً أَجْرَى اللَّهُ لَهُ عَمَلَ أَلْفِ سَنَةٍ لَا یعْصِی اللَّهَ فِیهَا طَرْفَةَ عَین»; whoever visits the sick and sits with them for an hour will receive from God the reward of a thousand years of worship, during which not even the blink of an eye was spent in sin! What spiritual transaction in this world could compare with sitting for an hour at the bedside of a suffering believer? Visiting the sick is the peerless diamond in the constellation of acts of worship.” (Page 12)

The visitor leads the angels and inherits their prayers until the Day of Resurrection
“The home of one who visits the sick becomes a sanctuary for God’s close angels. Imam Ja‘far al-Sadiq (AS) said: Whoever visits a sick Muslim will have seventy thousand angels appointed to him forever by God. They will surround his home, glorifying and sanctifying God and proclaiming His oneness and greatness until the Day of Resurrection; half of their prayers and acts of worship will be credited to the visitor’s record of deeds. Setting out to visit the sick earns the visitor command of an army of the holy.” (Page 39)

Speaking gently to the sick: nurturing hope for life and quieting the fear of death
“The Great Prophet (PBUH) said: «إِذَا دَخَلْتُمْ عَلَى الْمَرِیضِ فَنَفِّسُوا لَهُ فِی الْأَجَلِ فَإِنَّ ذَلِکَ لَا یرُدُّ شَیئاً وَ یطِیبُ نَفْسَهُ»; when you visit a sick person, give them hope of a long life and continued time in this world. Avoid recounting the bitter stories of those who have died, discouraging medical prognoses, and compassion that wounds like poison. Although offering hope cannot avert what is decreed about death, it can awaken the release of hormones associated with hope and calm in the patient’s body, easing the soul-crushing anxiety from their spirit.” (Page 54)

The finer points of visiting: keeping the visit short and refraining from eating
“The Commander of the Faithful, Ali (AS), related: «نَهَى رَسُولُ اللَّهِ أَنْ یأْكُلَ الْعَائِدُ عِنْدَ الْعَلِیلِ فَیحْبِطُ اللَّهُ أَجْرَ عِیادَتِهِ»; the Messenger of God forbade visitors from eating anything while visiting the sick, lest their reward for the visit be annulled! The patient’s family is burdened with caregiving and pressed for time; they should not be burdened with hosting visitors. The best visit is brief and light—as long as a camel rests while being milked. A lengthy visit is itself a heavy burden on the suffering patient.” (Page 62)

Secret gratitude for good health: avoid boasting and bring comfort to the brokenhearted
“When you witness the patient’s weakness and excruciating pain, give thanks to God inwardly a thousand times for your own health; but beware of voicing this gratitude openly or flaunting your physical strength! Displaying your strength before someone who is weak wounds their suffering spirit. The visitor has come to soothe the patient’s broken heart, not to deepen their sorrow. God, the Exalted, dwells beside broken hearts, and whoever brings comfort to such a heart has comforted the Divine.” (Page 70)

Frequently asked questions