Question:
What is the source and meaning of this supplication?
اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنَ البَرَصِ، وَالْجُنُونِ، وَالْجُذَامِ، وَمِنْ سَيِّئِ الْأَسْقَامِ
"O Allah, I seek refuge in Thee from leprosy, madness, elephantiasis, and evil diseases."
Answer:
Alhamdulillah, praise and thanks to Allah for the countless blessings He has blessed us all with. Blessings and salutations to the Prophet Muhammad PBUH, his wives, his family, companions and all those that follow his teachings to the day of judgement.
According to the above question, the above narration is narrated by Imam Abu Daud and al-Nasa’ie in their Sunan. Imam Ahmad also narrated the hadith in his Musnad. Syeikh Syu’aib al-Arna’outh evaluated the sanad of the hadith as sahi when reviewing the hadith or narration in Sunan Abu Daud. Furthermore, Imam Ibn Hibban also narrated the hadith in his sahih, which is:
- From Anas bin Malik RA, the Prophet PBUH said:
اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنَ البَرَصِ، وَالْجُنُونِ، وَالْجُذَامِ، وَمِنْ سَيِّئِ الْأَسْقَامِ
“O Allah, I seek refuge in You from possession, leprosy, leukederma and bad sickness (that may lead to visible deformity)”
Sunan Abu Daud (1554), Sunan al-Nasa’ie (5493) and Musnad Ahmad (13004)
Imam al-Khattabi said that we are encouraged to ask for protection against diseases that will cause permanent deformity or affect one’s mind and thoughts. These diseases are different from other diseases that do not have any permanent effects such as a fever, headache and others which serve as kaffarah of our sins (expunge of sins) and not as a punishment. [See: Ma’alim al-Sunan, 1/297]
Furthermore, mental instability or insanity is a disease which lead to loss of intellect (though process) where a person’s ability to think is the beginning of the goodness of knowledge that it is even stated as prioritized over knowledge itself. As for leprosy, it is a disease that blacken a person’s body, damaging the afflicted body parts, where it will rot and detaches from the body. Thus, we are commanded to ask for protection against anything that could impair our mental capacity such as loss of a person’s mind (insanity) and permanent defect on our body such as the disease of leprosy. Thus, at the end of the dua, a general request of protection from any harmful and evil diseases are stated. [See: al-Futuhat al-Rabbaniyyah, 7/217-218]
We once asked Syeikh Muhamad ‘Awwamah regarding the meaning of “evil diseases” in the hadith and he said any harmful or dangerous diseases such as the avian flu, cancer and others. Thus, corona virus which has become a pandemic right now is also included as one of the evil diseases mentioned the above hadith or supplication. [1]
Closing
To conclude, supplication is a special blessing given by Allah SWT for His slaves as a sign of remembrance of a slave towards his Creator. Hence, we are encouraged to always make dua to Allah SWT so that we will always be in His protection and care. Lastly, may Allah SWT protect us from any diseases or anything that are harmful for us. Amin.