Healing the Spiritually Sick: A Selection of Noble Hadiths as a Guide for Beginners

Every science has its beginners, and the wisest teachers have always known what to place first in their students’ hands. From a larger collection of Hadith known as Shifa al-Saqim (Healing the Spiritually Sick), al-Habib Umar bin Hafiz of Tarim, founder of Dar al-Mustafa, selected fifty-nine short, sound sayings of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ: words brief enough for a child to memorise and deep enough to guide a lifetime.

This edition presents each Hadith in fully vowelled Arabic with a clear English translation, its sources referenced. Beneath every entry stands a reflection drawn from Imam al-Ghazali’s Ihya Ulum al-Din, followed by points to ponder for private thought or the family table. In Tarim, one reading of the Ihya has always begun another; here, a beginner’s first Hadiths are set beside the tradition’s greatest manual of the heart.

The fifty-nine entries traverse the whole life of a believer: sincerity of intention, the secrets of prayer and congregation, remembrance and salawat, charity given in secret, honest earning and the lawful morsel, mercy at home and beautiful character abroad, the guarded tongue, the shared table, love of the Prophet ﷺ and his Household, the remembrance of death, and a good opinion of Allah at the last breath.

About the author:

Habib Umar bin Hafiz was born in Tarim, in Yemen’s Hadramawt Valley, where sacred knowledge has flowed unbroken for a thousand years. A direct descendant of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ through Imam al-Husayn, he memorised the Quran as a boy and took knowledge from the great scholars of the valley, beginning with his father, Habib Muhammad, who disappeared under Yemen’s socialist regime when his son was only nine.

In 1994 he returned from exile to his home city and founded Dar al-Mustafa, today among the most influential centres of traditional Islamic learning in the world, followed by Dar al-Zahra for women. His students serve communities on every continent, millions have met the Prophetic path ﷺ through his voice, and his call carries the very gentleness this book teaches. He remains, above all, a caller to Allah in the way of his fathers.