The ruling on believing that perfume harms wounds and whether this is shirk (associating partners with Allah) of the means
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Your Eminence, the Shaykh! Some students of knowledge say: Perfume does not affect wounds; because there is a study that proved that perfume has no effect on the pain of a wound or its swelling. However, whoever believes that perfume causes harm is left to what he believes, and thereby he falls into shirk (associating partners with Allah) of the means. Is this correct? May Allah reward you with good.
We say in this matter a useful rule, which is: The ruling of a thing is not established except through revelation, or through experience.So in His saying, may He be Exalted, regarding the bee: [al-Nahl:69] We learned through revelation that it contains healing, and likewise the saying of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) regarding the black seed: (The black seed is a cure for every disease except death) We learned that through revelation.
And the second way: Experience, and this is known by the senses. What is known to people through experience is that a wound may be affected by a type of perfume, not by all perfumes. This is something they have tested and it is customary among them, that as soon as this perfume is present with a patient who has wounds, the wounds burst and swell, just as we know—for example—that consuming these herbs is a laxative for the stomach or causes constipation through experience. So all the medicines now manufactured and available to people for which no revelation has been sent down, all of them were known through experience. So I know that wounds are affected by some perfumes, and the evidence for this is that they take precautions; a person drinks something of bitter herb or puts it in his nose so that the scent does not enter the pores of the body.
So what we know is a sensory cause, there is no harm in relying on it as a cause, and this is not shirk (associating partners with Allah). As for what is based merely on illusions, it has no effect, and it is not permissible to rely on it as a cause.
We say in this matter a useful rule, which is: The ruling of a thing is not established except through revelation, or through experience.So in His saying, may He be Exalted, regarding the bee:
There emerges from their bellies a drink, varying in colors, in which there is healing for people
يَخْرُجُ مِنْ بُطُونِهَا شَرَابٌ مُخْتَلِفٌ أَلْوَانُهُ فِيهِ شِفَاءٌ لِلنَّاسِAnd the second way: Experience, and this is known by the senses. What is known to people through experience is that a wound may be affected by a type of perfume, not by all perfumes. This is something they have tested and it is customary among them, that as soon as this perfume is present with a patient who has wounds, the wounds burst and swell, just as we know—for example—that consuming these herbs is a laxative for the stomach or causes constipation through experience. So all the medicines now manufactured and available to people for which no revelation has been sent down, all of them were known through experience. So I know that wounds are affected by some perfumes, and the evidence for this is that they take precautions; a person drinks something of bitter herb or puts it in his nose so that the scent does not enter the pores of the body.
So what we know is a sensory cause, there is no harm in relying on it as a cause, and this is not shirk (associating partners with Allah). As for what is based merely on illusions, it has no effect, and it is not permissible to rely on it as a cause.