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 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 also describes the intensity of fever by saying: "Feveris coal from
hell, get rid of it by using cold water." [Ibn Maajah]
The Prophet 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 tells us to reducethe fever with water. The same isstill
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 patientputs 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 likeparacetamol.
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 theruined 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 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 consequentlyruin 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 calledleukocyte
pyrogens or endogenous. Therefore the fever remains while the body is
cleansing itself from the by-products.
Didn't the Prophet 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 over10 billionth of a gram of endogenous is enough
for a feverto 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 said: "Iremember 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 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 asubstance called prostaglandin inthe local
glands in the area of thehypothalamus. When the growth of this kind of
prostaglandin is inhibited, by using medicines, thefever 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 reachesthe ailment, it is cured by the
willof Allaah." [Muslim]
That explains the known phenomena that aspirin does notreduce the
temperature of a normal person who is not feverish. That is because he
does not have these endogenous in hisbody 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.