"Do not force ill people to eat and drink because Allah makes them eat and drink." What is meant by this hadith?

Dear Brother / Sister,

Uqba Ibn Amir narrates: "The Messenger of Allah (pbuh) said,

"Do not force ill people to eat and drink because Allah makes them eat and drink." [Tirmidhi, Tibb 4, (2041); Ibn Majah, Tibb 4, (3444).]

The Messenger of Allah (pbuh) advises us in the hadith not to force the ill people to eat and drink if they do not feel like eating and drinking. In order to persuade us, he states that "Allah makes them eat and drink".

This hadith, which is related to medicine, can be regarded as one of the miracles of the Prophet (pbuh). For, today’s medicine states that forcing a patient who does not feel like eating to eat will harm him instead of doing him good. As soon as the body temperature exceeds 38 degrees, the glands stop secreting enzymes and no food except fresh fruit juice encounters any enzyme that will ease digestion. Consequently, food taken in that state decays in intestines, causing poisoning and is of no good to the body. 

The loss of weight in patients with fever when they are hungry is not more than the time when we force them to eat. Besides, the great use of energy for digestion weakens the body of the patient that it needs to struggle against the disease.

If no food is taken, the body uses the reserve food it stored beforehand and no deterioration based on lack of food occurs in vital functions. The use of the reserve food in the body by the body is expressed by the Prophet as "God Almighty’s making them eat and drink".

The explanation of the hadith by scholars is as follows: "Allah helps the patient with anything that can replace eating and drinking; He gives them patience in the face of the pain of hunger and thirst."

(see Prof. Dr. İbrahim Canan, Hz. Peygamber'in Sünnetinde Tıp, p. 72)

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