As he unfolded it, he saw بِسْمِ اللہِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِیْم written within. A Satanic whisper occurred to him that ‘anyone could have written this!’ As soon as his reverence for his shaykh diminished, his fever immediately returned. Worried, he went to his shaykh and apologised for his mistake. The shaykh again prepared an amulet and fastened it to the person’s arm with his own hands, curing the fever again instantly.

Though the shaykh had not prohibited him from seeing the inside of the amulet this time, the person himself refrained from doing so due to his previous experience. Eventually, when he unfolded it after a year, he saw that it too had بِسْمِ اللہِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِیْم written in it.^[1]

Dear Islamic brothers! Indeed, there are great blessings in بِسْمِ اللہِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِیْم, and it is a cure for illnesses. The foregoing account teaches us that if a saint ever prohibits someone even from a (permissible) action, one should abstain from it even if he is unable to comprehend the wisdom behind it.

Another lesson is that one should not unfold and look inside an amulet, as one’s devotion may be affected by this. Furthermore, the amulet is folded in a special way and sometimes particular invocations are also recited during this process. Therefore, unfolding and seeing it may reduce its benefits.

Remedy for headache

Julius Caeser, the Roman politician, once sent a letter to the second Caliph of Islam, ꜤUmar bin al-Khaṭṭāb رَضِىَ الـلّٰـهُ عَـنْهُ. In this letter he said, “I suffer from a chronic headache. If you have any medicine for this, please send it to me.” Sayyiduna ꜤUmar sent him a cap. Whenever Caesar wore this, his head would stop hurting, and whenever he removed it, his