Ibnul
Qayyim al-Jawziyyah رحمه
الله تعالى
Jabir bin
Abdullah (رضي الله عنه ) narrated
that the Messenger of Allaah (صلى الله عليه و سلم) asked a
woman why she was shivering. She answered it was because of fever and cursed
the fever. The Messenger of Allaah (صلى الله عليه و سلم) said:
“Do not slander fever, because it takes away many wrong
actions, just as the blacksmith’s bellows remove dross and impurities from iron.”
[Sahih
Muslim]
It is Allaah’s favour upon you to have your sins erased
from your account while you are still alive. Purification becomes excessively
more difficult with each step of existence after death. Everybody has sins they
need to get rid of. Illness wipes out sins from a person’s account and purifies
their record of deeds in the same way that a blacksmith’s furnace purifies
metal from its impurities.