الرقية بالفاتحة
Reciting the Qur'an's opening chapter over an unwell person, historically used to treat a scorpion or snake sting, given as an example of permissible spiritual healing.
وَمَا أَدْرَاكَ أَنَّهَا رُقْيَةٌ
“And what made you know that it [al-Fatiha] could serve as ruqyah?” (meaning, not a literal translation)
The full narration describes a companion reciting al-Fatiha over a tribal chief bitten by a scorpion, who recovered; the Prophet ﷺ approved of the practice and the wage received for it — the payment detail matters too, since it establishes that accepting compensation for legitimate ruqyah is permissible, a separate practical question the hadith settles alongside the healing itself.
Ibn al-Qayyim treats ruqyah as a recognized category of Prophetic treatment provided it uses Qur'an, authentic supplication, or comprehensible Arabic — free from ambiguous incantations or anything resembling shirk. He discusses al-Fatiha specifically as uniquely comprehensive among Qur'anic chapters, which he connects to why it was the one recited in this particular account rather than a longer passage.
As with other spiritual-remedy entries here, this sits outside what modern medical research addresses directly — its value is understood within religious practice, and the caution below reflects that it was never presented in the tradition as a substitute for direct medical treatment of a dangerous condition like envenomation.