Fever: a blessing in disguise
Fever wipes out one’s sins and rids his body from dead substances and germs. It is a blessing in disguise.
The Prophet sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam ( may Allaah exalt his mention ) said: “When a believer gets sick or feverish, it is like metal when put on fire, the bad is gone and the good remains.” [Al-Bayhaqi]
He sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam ( may Allaah exalt his mention ) also describes the intensity of fever by saying: “Fever is coal from hell, get rid of it by using cold water.” [Ibn Maajah]
The Prophet sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam ( may Allaah exalt his mention ) forbade the cursing of fever by saying: “Do not curse a fever because it abolishes sins like fire abolishes dirt from iron.” [Ibn Maajah]
A
bacterial or viral infection usually raises the temperature of a
person, antibiotics are useless with viral infections, such as the
influenza and the common cold, although the patient might sweat and have
a very high fever.
Then what is the cure?
The Prophet sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam ( may Allaah exalt his mention ) tells us to reduce the fever with water.
The same is still applied today. Putting cold pads on a patient’s
forehead is still used in a lot of hospitals and by doctors even though
fever reducing medicines are abundant, like aspirin, paracetamol (or
acetaminophen, which is the active ingredient in Tylenol) and others.
Using
water to reduce fevers is not limited to using cold pads. Drinking a
lot of fluids is also helpful. This is also understood from the wordings
of the Prophetic narration: “cool it with water.” Water is either what
the patient drinks, what is given intravenously or what the patient puts
on his face or body to cool the fever.
We
have seen a lot of patients where fever reducing medicines
(antipyretics) were not effective with their rising fever. At the same
time, cold water had an immediate effect. That’s why pediatricians
advise parents to take a child’s clothes off and give a lot of fluids if
a fever occurs. An antipyretic might also be give like paracetamol.
Aspirin has been banned for children under 12 years of age.
What is fever?
Fever
occurs when the body temperature rises above normal (37 C). There is an
area in the brain (an area that lies over the pituitary gland in the
front of the head) which is a temperature regulator.
When
a germ enters the body, it starts secreting toxins. Toxins affect the
temperature regulator causing its temperature to rise. The substances
that cause this rise in temperature are called pyrogens. Pyrogens are
caused not only by germs but also by the ruined tissues in the body
after being affected with germs.
When the
temperature rises in the temperature regulator, the rest of the body has
to comply. It increases its temperature in response. Soon, the whole
body feels feverish and the patient’s temperature rises. This explains
the saying of the Prophet sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam ( may Allaah
exalt his mention ) when he described the believers in their kindness
and affections like the body. If a part of it suffers from a germ or a
virus, like inflammation in the respiratory pathways or inflammation of
the urinary tracts and others, all of the body suffers from fever and
restlessness.
Yes the whole body suffers.
The whole body has a rise in temperature and not only where it is
affected. When the inflammation worsens, the germs increase and
consequently ruin the tissues. The germs and the pyrogens will find the
body’s defense system ready to attack and eat the by-products of the
germs and rid the body of them. While doing this, it releases to the
body fluids a substance called leukocyte pyrogens or endogenous.
Therefore the fever remains while the body is cleansing itself from the
by-products.
Didn’t the Prophet
sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam ( may Allaah exalt his mention ) say, when
a man cursed the fever: “Don’t curse it because it abolishes sins like
fire abolishes dirt from iron.”
It is a
cleansing of our sins, a cleansing of dead substances such as dead
tissue and the by-products of the germs, like fire cleans the dirt from
iron.
The famous book on physiology by
Guyton, 1992 edition, stated that an amount equal to one over 10
billionth of a gram of endogenous is enough for a fever to occur.
Such
a small amount of a substance secreted in the body due to a very small
germ or a virus is enough to transfer a person form being healthy, to
becoming sick, feverish and bed ridden.
Imaam Ibn Al-Qayyim may Allaah have mercy upon him said: “I remember once, when I was feverish, a poet cursing the fever, saying.
The sin purifier has visited and left.
How evil it is when visiting and when
leaving
She asked while getting ready to leave What
do you want?
I replied, to never come again.
I
said, shame on him, he cursed what the Prophet sallallaahu `alayhi wa
sallam ( may Allaah exalt his mention ) forbade to be cursed. If he had
said:
The severe-sin cleanser has visited.
Greetings to it while visiting and while
leaving
She asked while getting ready to leave What
do you want?
I replied, to not leave.
It would have been better for him and it still would have left.”
Recent
scientific studies have shown that this leukocyte pyrogens cause fever
by making a substance called prostaglandin in the local glands in the
area of the hypothalamus. When the growth of this kind of prostaglandin
is inhibited, by using medicines, the fever is reduced. This explains
how aspirin reduces fever. It inhibits the growth of prostaglandin and
prevents its making.
The Prophet,
sallallahu alayhe wa sallam, said: “For every ailment, there is a cure.
If the cure reaches the ailment, it is cured by the will of Allaah.”
[Muslim]
That explains the known phenomena
that aspirin does not reduce the temperature of a normal person who is
not feverish. That is because he does not have these endogenous in his
body to work on the hypothalamus.
How do chills occur and why?
The
temperature level in the temperature regulator rises suddenly form its
normal level to a higher level, due to damage in the tissues, due to the
release of temperature generating substances or due to dehydration.
When this happens, the body temperature rises within a few hours to
attain the new temperature.
During this
period, the patient shivers and feels cold, even though the body
temperature is high, because blood vessels in the skin contract. The
chills remain until the body temperature reaches the new level set by
the temperature regulator.
When the body
temperature reaches that level, the chills stop and the patient feels
neither warm nor cold. As long as the infection continues and the reason
for the rise in temperature continues, the body temperature remains at
this new level until Allaah permits recovery.
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