Love for one’s homeland, an emotional attachment to it, and nostalgia for it are part of the innate human nature thatis not denounced by Islam, but israther channeled in the right direction that serves the religion of Allah and raises its banner high. In this hadeeth, the Mother of the Believers ‘Aa’ishah (may Allah be pleased with her) informed us of the situation when the Prophet ﷺ and his Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) migrated to Al-Madeenah. Aboo Bakr and Bilaal ibn Rabaah (may Allah be pleased with them) got a fever, and each of them put his emotions into words according to his certitude in Allah and knowledge of the anticipated consequences. Aboo Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) found solace in reciting the following poetic verse (which means): “Everybody is staying alive in the company of his people, yet death is nearer to him than his shoe laces.” Meaning that when everyone wakes up, he is greeted with ‘good morning,’ or ‘may Allah bless your morning,’ and similar greetings exchanged by people and their loved ones, while death may suddenly befall them and they may depart this worldly life in the evening, indicating the proximity of death from all human beings, whether they are sick or healthy. On the other hand, whenever fever desertedBilaal (may Allah be pleased with him), he would raise his voice and recite some poetic verses. The Arabic expression “Yarfa‘ ‘Aqeeratah” means to raise one’s voice. It was said that a man once had his leg amputated; he raised his amputated leg, placed it over the other leg, and shouted of the top of his voice. Afterward, whenever a person shouted of the top of his voice as such, the Arabs used this expression to describe his act. He(may Allah be pleased with him) used to recite somepoetic verses, expressing longing and hopeto return to Makkah, where he relished sound health. He wished to spend one night in the valley of Makkah to quench his longing for it in the well of Majannah, a well near ‘Ukaath few miles away from Makkah in the direction of the Dhahraan area, where the Arabs had a marketplace in the pre-Islamic era. He (may Allah be pleased with him)wished he could go there to enjoy the view of the Ithkhir and Jaleel (kinds of pleasantly scented grass), which grew back in Makkah, and see Shaamah and Tafeel, two adjacent mountains southwest of Makkah, about 90 km away from it. He (may Allah be pleased with him)would say, "Would that I could stay overnight in a valley wherein I would be surrounded by Ithkhir and Jaleel. Would that one day I could drink from the water of the Majannah, and that the two mountains Shaamah and Tafeel would appear to me!" Afterward, Bilaal (may Allah be pleased with him) supplicated against the polytheists who drove them away from Makkah to a land afflicted with epidemics and diseases. He said: "O Allah! Curse Shaybah ibn Rabee`ah and `Utbah ibn Rabee`ah and Umaiyah ibn Khalaf as they turned us out of our land to the land of epidemics." These were the chiefs of the polytheists and their leaders in Makkah. When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ saw what had befallen his Companions of fever and epidemic, he ﷺ feared that they might hate Al-Madeenah, because people are innately averted from what they hate. Therefore, he ﷺ supplicated Allah, Exalted is He, to instill the love of Al-Madeenah within their hearts, and make them love it even more than they loved Makkah, and to bless Al-Madeenah and its Saa‘ and Mudd. The Saa’ equals four Mudds, and the Mudd is the measure of two open medium-sized handfuls. The Mudd approximately equals 509 grams at the lowest estimate, and 1072 grams in the highest estimate. The Saa’, on the other hand, equals tobetween 2036 and 4288 grams. In another hadeeth, cited in Saheeh Al-Bukhaaree and Saheeh Muslim, he ﷺ supplicated Allah, Exalted is He, to confer upon Al-Madeenah twice the blessings conferred upon Makkah. He ﷺ asked Allah, Exalted is He, to relieve Al-Madeenah of the epidemic and transfer it to Juhfah, which was an abode of polytheism inhabited by non-Muslims then, so that they would be preoccupied by it and distracted from helping the disbelievers. Juhfah is located between Makkah and Al-Madeenah, at a distance of 190 km from Makkah. Allah, Exalted is He, answered the Prophet’s supplication and blessed people’s livelihoods in Al-Madeenah, and instilled its love in the hearts of the Prophet ﷺ and his Companions, and this love remained apparent until death befell them. One of the manifestations of this love was that whenever the Prophet ﷺ returned from any of his travels back to Al-Madeenah, he ﷺ urged his riding animal to move faster upon seeing the houses of Al-Madeenah, out of his deep love for it, as narrated in Saheeh Al-Bukhaaree. The Mother of the Believers ‘Aa’ishah (may Allah be pleased with her) added that when they went to Al-Madeenah, it was the unhealthiest land, afflicted with epidemic diseases, to the extent that the valley of Bathaan, to the south of Al-Madeenah near the Prophet’s Mosque, used to flow with impure colored water that was often stagnant, causing fever and spreading epidemics. It is deduced from the hadeeth that it is allowable for a Muslim to ask his Lord to bless him with well-being and recovery when ailments befall him, just like he asks Him for sustenance and victory, and that such supplications and desires do not imply blaming Allah or rejecting His decrees. It is also inferred that it is permissible to supplicate Allah against the wrongdoers and the disbelievers. The hadeeth also highlights the significance of care for good health conditions, fresh air, and pure water, and warns against stagnant and colored water. It also underlines the permissibility of reciting, quoting, and listening to poetry. .