The Prophet's assertions on the subject of God's decrees are considered of the highest importance as explanatory of the Ḳur-án.--"Whatever is in the universe," said he, "is by the order of God."--"God hath pre-ordained five things on his servants; the duration of life, their actions, their dwelling-places, their travels, and their portions."--"There is not one among you whose sitting-place is not written by God, whether in the fire or in paradise."[113]--Some of the Companions of the Prophet, on hearing the last-quoted saying, asked him, "O Prophet, since God hath appointed our places, may we confide in this, and abandon our religious and moral duties?" He answered, "No: because the happy will do good works, and those who are of the miserable will do bad works."--The following of his sayings further illustrate this subject.--"When God hath ordered a creature to die in any particular place, He causeth his wants to direct him to that place."--A Companion asked, "O Prophet of God, inform me respecting charms, and the medicines which I swallow, and shields which I make use of for protection, whether they prevent any of the orders of God." Moḥammad answered, "These also are by the order of God."[114] "There is a medicine for every pain: then, when the medicine reaches the pain, it is cured by the order of God."[115]--When a Muslim, therefore, feels an inclination to make use of medicine for the cure of a disease, he should do so, in the hope of its being predestined that he shall be so cured. On the predestination of diseases, I find the following curious quotation and remark in a manuscript work, by Es-Suyooṭee, in my possession.--"El-Ḥaleemee says, 'Communicable or contagious diseases are six: small-pox, measles, itch or scab, foul breath or putridity, melancholy, and pestilential maladies; and diseases engendered are also six: leprosy, hectic, epilepsy, gout, elephantiasis, and phthisis.' But this does not contradict the saying of the Prophet, 'There is no transition of diseases by contagion or infection, nor any omen that brings evil:' for the transition here meant is one occasioned by the disease itself; whereas the effect is of God, who causes pestilence to spread when there is intercourse with the diseased."[116]--A Bedawee asked the Prophet, "What is the condition of camels which stay in the deserts? verily, you might say, they are deer, in health and in cleanness of skin; then they mix with mangy camels, and they become mangy also." Moḥammad said, "What made the first camel mangy?"[117]