What is preferable for the sick person: to begin with ruqyah (healing by Qur'anic recitation) or to seek treatment from doctors?

Question : Shaybah. Which is preferable, O Shaykh: to begin with the invocations of seeking refuge if he is afflicted with an illness, or to go to other medicines?

Answer : This depends on the condition of the patient. Some patients have strong faith in the supplications and invocations of seeking refuge that the Shari'ah has brought, so they begin with those first. But some people have weak faith, as is the case with most people today, and they find that relying on natural things is more beneficial. People differ; some have strong faith regarding the one who recites and regarding the one upon whom it is recited. The one upon whom it is recited must be receptive to this, and the one who recites must be an active, effective agent. It has passed us that there must be a receptive place, an effective active agent, and a means by which the effect is produced. The Qur'an, for example, is undoubtedly a means of effect, but it requires an effective active agent who recites it with faith and strength, until it is as if you feel he is plucking the disease away with his hand by the power of his recitation. And there must be a receptive place regarding the one upon whom it is recited; he must be receptive to it and believe in it, because he will benefit from it. If a person does not have this faith, let him resort to the lesser means, namely natural medicines.