Dua for the sick

When. At the bedside, said over someone who is ill. It is spoken to a person, not merely about them, and is short enough to be repeated while the hand rests on the place that hurts.

The words. The address is Rabban-nas, Lord of mankind — not Lord of the worlds, not Lord of the heavens. Of all the ways the address could have been chosen, the one used is the one that includes the patient in the room.

Al-ba's is hardship and severity, a wider word than illness; it covers the affliction and not only the diagnosis. Then ishfi wa antash-Shafi — the imperative, immediately followed by the name: heal, for You are the Healer. The request and the reason it is addressed here are placed side by side with nothing between them.

Saqam at the end is chronic, lingering sickness rather than an acute episode. So the closing phrase — a cure leaving no saqam behind — is not asking for the symptom to pass. It asks for nothing to remain settled in the body afterwards.

On the doctor. Nothing in this supplication argues against treatment. Medicine and the request occupy different levels; the sentence names who cures, not what to do.

Who says it. This is a supplication for the visitor to say over the sick, which makes visiting the sick part of its meaning. It is not designed for a person to say alone about himself, though nothing prevents it.

In practice. Many say it three or seven times. The repetition is customary, and the words are the same each time.