Etiquette & Sunnahs of Visiting the Sick in the Quran & Sunnah

1. Bring the sick person the glad tiding: with hardship comes ease.

Allah says:

فَإِنَّ مَعَ ٱلْعُسْرِ يُسْرًا

So, undoubtedly, along with the hardship there is ease. (Surah ash-Sharh 94:5)

Lesson: The visitor’s first gift is hope — Allah’s own promise that no hardship stands alone; ease stands with it.

2. Remind him Who heals: “And when I am ill, it is He who cures me.”

Allah says:

وَإِذَا مَرِضْتُ فَهُوَ يَشْفِينِ

and when I become sick, He heals me, (Surah ash-Shu‘ara 26:80)

Lesson: Ibrahim’s words teach the sick heart where cure truly comes from — medicine is a means, and Allah is the Healer.

1. Visiting the sick is one of the five rights of your brother over you.

“The rights of the Muslim over the Muslim are five: returning the salam, visiting the sick, following the funeral, answering the invitation, and saying Yarhamukallah to the one who sneezes.” It is a duty owed, not an optional kindness.

2. Make it a standing habit of life, as he commanded.

“Feed the hungry, visit the sick, and free the captive.” The visit belongs to the daily programme of the believer, not only to emergencies.

3. Visit in the morning or the evening — seventy thousand angels pray for you.

‘Ali ibn Abi Talib (may Allah be pleased with him) said: “Whoever visits a sick person in the evening, seventy thousand angels come out with him, seeking forgiveness for him until the morning, and he will have a garden in Paradise; and whoever visits him in the morning, seventy thousand angels seek forgiveness for him until the evening.”

Lesson: This is the word of a Companion about the unseen — a matter no one speaks of except from what he heard from the Prophet ﷺ — and its chain is graded Sahih.

4. The visitor walks in the harvest of Paradise until he returns.

Thawban reported that the Prophet ﷺ said: “The Muslim who visits his sick brother does not cease to be in the khurfah (the gathered harvest) of Paradise until he returns.” It was asked: “And what is its khurfah?” He said: “Its gathered fruit.”

5. Visit everyone who is ill — he visited the Jewish boy who used to serve him.

A Jewish boy who served the Prophet ﷺ fell ill, and the Prophet ﷺ came to visit him and sat at his head. Compassion at the sickbed is for every human being.

6. Speak the words of comfort at the bedside: “La ba’sa, tahurun in sha Allah.”

لَا بَأْسَ، طَهُورٌ إِنْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ

La ba’sa, tahurun in sha Allah — No harm (be upon you); it is a purification, if Allah wills. Visiting a sick Bedouin, the Prophet ﷺ greeted him with these words: the illness itself is presented as a cleansing, not a curse.

7. Wipe over him with your right hand and say the dua of healing.

اللَّهُمَّ رَبَّ النَّاسِ، أَذْهِبِ الْبَأْسَ، اشْفِهِ وَأَنْتَ الشَّافِي، لَا شِفَاءَ إِلَّا شِفَاؤُكَ، شِفَاءً لَا يُغَادِرُ سَقَمًا

Allahumma rabban-nas, adhhib il-ba’s, ishfihi wa antash-shafi, la shifa’a illa shifa’uka, shifa’an la yughadiru saqama — O Allah, Lord of mankind, remove the harm and cure him; You are the Healer, there is no cure but Your cure — a cure that leaves no illness behind. The Prophet ﷺ would pass his right hand over the sick and say this.

8. For the one whose appointed time has not yet come, repeat the dua of recovery seven times.

أَسْأَلُ اللَّهَ الْعَظِيمَ رَبَّ الْعَرْشِ الْعَظِيمِ أَنْ يَشْفِيَكَ

As’alullah al-‘azhim, rabb al-‘arsh il-‘azhim, an yashfiyak — I ask Allah the Magnificent, Lord of the Magnificent Throne, to heal you. Whoever visits a sick person whose term has not arrived and says this seven times, Allah heals him of that illness.

9. Comfort him with this: even a thorn’s prick is expiating his sins.

The Prophet ﷺ said: “No fatigue, nor disease, nor sorrow, nor sadness, nor hurt, nor distress befalls a Muslim — even if it were the prick of a thorn — but that Allah expiates some of his sins for it.”

10. Reassure him: his good deeds are still being written in full.

The Prophet ﷺ said: “When a slave falls ill or travels, there will be written for him the same (reward) as the good deeds he used to practise at home while in health.” The sickbed is not a gap in the record — the record continues.

11. Use the Prophet’s own ruqyah at the bedside.

اللَّهُمَّ رَبَّ النَّاسِ، مُذْهِبَ الْبَاسِ، اشْفِ أَنْتَ الشَّافِي، لَا شَافِيَ إِلَّا أَنْتَ، شِفَاءً لَا يُغَادِرُ سَقَمًا

Allahumma rabban-nas, mudhhibal-bas, ishfi antash-shafi, la shafiya illa anta, shifa’an la yughadiru saqaman — O Allah, Lord of mankind, Remover of harm, heal — You are the Healer; there is no healer but You — with a healing that leaves no illness behind. Anas offered to recite this for Thabit, saying: “Shall I not recite for you the ruqyah of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ?”