The Disease and the Cure (Al-Da' wa al-Dawa') Summary

By Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya

Ibn al-Qayyim’s answer to someone struggling with a sin they could not leave: supplication, repentance and caring for the heart.

One Question Made a Book

Welcome to this summary of "The Disease and the Cure" (Al-Da' wa al-Dawa') by Imam Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, the Damascene scholar who lived in the eighth century Hijri and was one of the most prominent students of Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah. The book is also known as "The Sufficient Answer for One Who Asked About the Healing Remedy."

The story of the book is that a man sent a question to Ibn al-Qayyim about someone afflicted with a severe trial, who knew that if he continued in it, it would corrupt his worldly life and his afterlife. He had tried to get rid of it in every way but could not. So, what is the trick to repelling it? And what is the way to get rid of it?

Ibn al-Qayyim wrote his answer, and it was not a short one, but a complete book discussing sins and their effects on the heart and life, and the cure that heals from them: supplication, repentance, love of God, and guarding the heart and limbs. Although the book was written more than seven centuries ago, people still read it today because it speaks about a struggle every human being experiences: their struggle with themselves and their desires.

For Every Disease, There is a Cure

Ibn al-Qayyim begins with a principle upon which he builds the entire book, based on the prophetic hadith which states that God has not sent down a disease except that He has also sent down its cure. Just as there is a treatment for bodily ailments, there is also a treatment for diseases of the heart. The problem is not the absence of the cure, but that a person does not know it, or knows it and does not use it.

The greatest of these remedies, in his view, is supplication. Supplication, in his opinion, is one of the strongest means of repelling disliked things and achieving desired ones. It is the enemy of affliction, defending against it, treating it, preventing its descent, or alleviating it if it descends. Ibn al-Qayyim explains that supplication with affliction has three states: that the supplication is stronger than the affliction and repels it; or that it is weaker than it, so the affliction prevails but the supplication alleviates it; or that they are equally matched, and each prevents the other.

However, he warns against ailments that prevent the effect of supplication. Among them is haste, such as when a person supplicates but does not see a quick response, so he says, "I have supplicated, but I have not been answered," and thus abandons supplication. Another is to supplicate with a heedless, distracted heart that is not present in what it says. Another is consuming unlawful earnings, which weakens the power of supplication. He believes that sincere supplication combines presence of heart, humility before God, persistence, seeking out times of response, and trust in God with patience.

Between Hope and Delusion

Then Ibn al-Qayyim pauses at a subtle issue: the difference between hope and delusion. Many people commit sins and say that God is Forgiving and Merciful, relying on the vastness of His mercy, and do not repent or act. Ibn al-Qayyim believes that this is not hope, but delusion and wishful thinking.

True hope, in his view, is accompanied by action. Like one who plants the earth and waters it, then hopes for it to grow; this person has hope. But one who leaves the earth unplanted and unwatered, then waits for the harvest, is deluded. Likewise, one who thinks well of God, repents, and does good deeds, his hope is in its rightful place. But one who persists in disobedience and wishes for forgiveness without repentance has deceived himself.

This is one of the most important ideas in the book, because it addresses two extremes: despair of God's mercy, which makes a person surrender to their sins, and feeling secure from His punishment, which makes them take sins lightly. The correct path between them is: fear that prevents disobedience, and hope that motivates repentance and action.

The Effects of Sins on the Heart and Life

Ibn al-Qayyim dedicates a large part of the book to explaining the effects of sins and disobedience, listing dozens of them, to show that a sin is not a fleeting thing whose effect ends with the end of its pleasure, but rather leaves successive effects on the soul and life.

Among the effects of sins, in his view, is that they darken the heart, so the person feels a sense of alienation and constriction whose cause they do not know. Another is that they deprive a person of knowledge, because knowledge is light, and disobedience extinguishes this light. Another is that they make matters difficult, so the person finds the doors of goodness closed before them, or difficult for them.

Among its effects also is that one sin leads to another; a sin invites another sin, until it becomes a habit difficult to abandon. Another is that it weakens the will for good in the heart, so a person's resolve to repent gradually weakens. Another is that a person becomes accustomed to disobedience with repetition, so they no longer find it ugly, but may even commit it openly. Another is that it diminishes a person's prestige and dignity in the eyes of people, and brings them humiliation after honor.

He also mentions that sins remove blessing from time, money, and life, and that they distance a person from the righteous and draw them closer to bad companions, and that they make the servant forget himself, so they live heedless of their true interest. The idea Ibn al-Qayyim wants to establish is: that abandoning sin is not a deprivation of pleasure, but a protection for the heart and life from many losses that a person does not see in the moment of desire.

From Fleeting Thought to Habit

Among the deepest insights in the book is Ibn al-Qayyim's analysis of how disobedience originates in the soul. He believes that it does not begin as a sudden act, but passes through stages. It begins with a fleeting thought that crosses the heart; if a person does not repel it, it becomes an idea that they dwell on. If they do not repel it, it becomes a desire and an intention, then it becomes a resolve, then it becomes an action. Then, if the action is repeated, it becomes a habit that is difficult to break free from.

Therefore, he advises that a person should treat disobedience at its beginning, at the stage of the fleeting thought, because repelling it at this stage is much easier than cutting it off after it has become a habit. He likens this to someone who sees a small spark and extinguishes it easily, but if they leave it until it becomes a fire, they may be unable to put it out.

Related to this is his discussion of guarding the limbs, the most important of which is guarding the gaze. The gaze, in his view, is the beginning of many evils, because it generates the fleeting thought, and the fleeting thought generates the idea, and so on. He also mentions guarding the tongue from speech that leads to sin, and guarding one's steps from going to places of disobedience. Whoever guards these doors, guards their heart from most of what corrupts it.

Love: The Origin of Every Movement

In the last part of the book, Ibn al-Qayyim talks about love, and he sees it as the origin of every movement in the universe and the soul. Every person moves towards what they love and away from what they dislike. Therefore, a person's righteousness or corruption depends on what they love.

He divides love into types. The highest of them is the love of God, which for him is the origin and goal of religion. There is no contradiction between it and the love of what God has made lawful, such as family, wealth, and good things; rather, these loves are beneficial if they are in obedience to God and an aid to it. As for harmful love, it is that which is preferred over the love of God, or leads to disobedience to Him.

Ibn al-Qayyim speaks in detail about passionate love, meaning intense attachment to a person in an unlawful way, and he sees it as one of the most dangerous diseases of the heart, because it enslaves and subjugates its owner, so their heart becomes preoccupied with the one they love, thus losing their religion and worldly life. He describes its harms to the soul, mind, and life, then mentions its cure: that a person should cut off the causes of attachment, lower their gaze, occupy their heart with what is more beneficial, remember the consequences of this attachment, and turn to God in supplication.

He concludes that the heart finds its true comfort only in the love of its Creator. Any other love, if it becomes the ultimate goal, turns into torment and attachment. As for the love of God, it is what grants the heart tranquility and serenity, and puts other loves in their proper place.

Repentance: A Door That Never Closes

After Ibn al-Qayyim explains the danger of sins, he does not leave the reader in despair, but opens wide the door of repentance for them. Repentance, for him, is not a word spoken by the tongue, but a true return with the heart and action, and it is available to every person, no matter how many their sins, as long as they are alive.

Sincere repentance has known pillars: that a person abandons the sin immediately, that they truly regret what they have done, and that they sincerely resolve not to return to it. If the sin is related to the right of another person, such as money taken or honor harmed, then they must return their right or seek their forgiveness.

Ibn al-Qayyim observes that some people delay repentance, saying: "We will repent tomorrow," or "when we get older." He believes that this delay itself is a sin, because a person does not know when their term will end, and because the longer a sin remains in the heart, the more entrenched it becomes and the harder it is to uproot. So the best time for repentance is now.

Among the beautiful things he affirms is that a servant may be better after repentance than before the sin, if the sin instilled in them humility, modesty, and fear of God, and removed from them the delusion of their own good deeds. The important thing is not that a person never makes a mistake, for that is impossible, but that they return whenever they make a mistake.

Remembrance: The Fortress of the Heart

Among the remedies that Ibn al-Qayyim repeatedly mentions is the remembrance of God. He believes that a heart that remembers God is alive and alert, seeing danger before falling into it, while a heedless heart is like an open house, entered by every thief.

Remembrance, for him, is not merely repeating words with the tongue, but the presence of the heart with the tongue, and remembering God in every state: in joy with gratitude, in affliction with patience, and at the time of desire with fear of Him and modesty. Whoever lives in this state, remembrance becomes a fortress that protects them from falling into sins, and a cure that heals them if they do fall into them.

He adds that one of the greatest aids in guarding the heart is the companionship of the righteous, who remind a person of God if they forget, and help them if they remember. As for the companionship of those who beautify sin, it is one of the biggest causes of relapse, no matter how sincere a person's intention.

Conclusion: How Can We Benefit from the Book Today?

The book offers a comprehensive approach to treating diseases of the heart: to know that for every disease there is a cure, so do not despair; to turn to God with sincere and persistent supplication; to differentiate between hope that drives you to action and delusion that makes you persist in wrongdoing; to realize the true effects of sins and abandon them with insight; to treat sin at its beginning, at the fleeting thought; to guard your gaze, tongue, and steps; and to place the love of God in the first position.

What distinguishes the book is that it does not merely frighten, but combines warning against the consequences of sins with encouraging God's mercy and opening the door of repentance. For this reason, every reader, no matter their condition, will find in it what helps them to start anew.

This has been a summary of "The Disease and the Cure" by Imam Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya. We have presented the most important ideas of the book in our own style, and we advise you to read it in its entirety, as it contains many details, proofs, and examples that the summary could not accommodate. You have been listening to Hakawati.

The Disease and the Cure (Al-Da' wa al-Dawa'): frequently asked questions

What is the subject of Ibn al-Qayyim's book "The Disease and the Cure"?

It is an answer to a question about a man afflicted with a sin he could not abandon. In it, Ibn al-Qayyim discussed supplication as a cure, the difference between hope and delusion, the effects of sins on the heart and life, how sin originates in the soul, types of love, and the cure for passionate love.

What is the other name for "The Disease and the Cure"?

It is also known as "The Sufficient Answer for One Who Asked About the Healing Remedy."

What is the difference between hope and delusion according to Ibn al-Qayyim?

True hope is accompanied by action and repentance, like one who plants and then hopes for a harvest. Delusion, on the other hand, is for a person to persist in disobedience and wish for forgiveness without repenting or acting.

Who is Ibn al-Qayyim?

He is Imam Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, a Damascene scholar from the eighth century Hijri, one of the most prominent students of Ibn Taymiyyah. He has many works, including "Zad al-Ma'ad" and "Madarij al-Salikin."

Can I download the audio summary?

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