بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
Alhamdulillah, All praise, appreciation and gratitude is for Allah ﷻ alone, the Creator & Sustainer of the universe and all that exists.
Allah ﷻ has created us as the most honored of His creation, mankind, and then sent to us guidance via the Prophets and Messengers عليهم السلام from the time of the first human being, Adam عليه السلام who was also the first Prophet, upto the time of the last and final Prophet, Nabi Muhammad ﷺ upon whom the final book, the Quran, was revealed.
The Quran is a guidance for the righteous and a source of healing for the believers until the last day, and the sunnah is an explanation of the Quran and the best way of life to follow, which also contains guidance for every aspect of our lives, including our health and wellbeing.
For most of history, medical treatment and the maintenance of health was guided by the teachings of the Prophets and Messengers عليهم السلام who came with divine knowledge from Allah ﷻ. This revealed knowledge is and always will be superior to the knowledge that is gained from trial and error, experience and research, as it is the knowledge that comes from the Creator Himself who has made our souls, fashioned our bodies, placed life into them and is fully aware of the unseen.
We will never be able to adequately grasp with our senses and our intelligence the knowledge that is revealed, we may stumble on to glimpses at times, but it is not possible to gain this type of knowledge in a way that is useful, without the process of revelation, and that is one of the primary purposes for revealed knowledge, i.e to inform us of those matters that we cannot comprehend on our own, so that we can choose to follow the guidance and thereby enjoy the physical and spiritual benefits of practicing upon it, in this world and the hereafter.
For thousands of years, mankind understood this. Even those who rebelled against Allah's laws in respect of worship and the prohibition of haraam acts, still by and large depended upon revealed knowledge for their health. The advice of the Prophets عليهم السلام in relation to healthcare became ingrained into their daily life. The use of honey for example is found in many cultures, similar is the case with hijama (cupping), black seed and the miswak and many other practices that have an apparent link to the practice of the Prophets عليهم السلام. The reciting of prayers and invocations, which is a form of "Ruqya", was also common for thousands of years, being an admission that sickness very often occurs as a divine punishment or as a result of sihr (black magic) and the evil eye and one has to then turn to Allah ﷻ for the cure in such cases. Of course some of these practices were corrupted after the passing of the Prophet (and that is why in the sharia of Islam the practice of Ruqya has been restricted to that which does not involve shirk and the best is to do ruqya only from Quraan).
For this reason much of the medical care was administered or at least supervised by the religious scholars and institutions. At a certain time in history however, healthcare and medical intervention and even the understanding of disease began to be separated from religion, this began in what is termed as the "renaissance" around the 14th century, with the secularist movement, designed by shaytaan to remove religion from daily life and relegate it only to the places of worship.
The so called "enlightenment period" in the 17th to 18th centuries furthered the secularisation of healthcare, as "thinkers" emphasised reason, logic, science, and "humanism" over religious guidance. This period saw the rise of medical professionals who were increasingly educated in universities, where the focus was on scientific methods as the overriding source of knowledge rather than religious teachings.
By the 19th century medical training became completely devoid of any religious influence. Hospitals and medical schools were becoming secular institutions. Although religious organizations continued to play a role, especially in charity care, the primary framework for healthcare was increasingly scientific and atheistic. The 20th century saw the consolidation of healthcare as a secular field, with the establishment of government-run healthcare systems in many countries and the development of medical ethics grounded in secular principles.
The remnants of Prophetic Medicine that still survived this secularist attack on healthcare may have became part of what is regarded today as Complementary and Alternative Medicine in different parts of the world, although indistinguishable from its original roots. These fields however have also been corrupted from their original principles and fallen prey to the influence of the secularist reliance on the scientific method as the superior form of knowledge.
Amongst these is the field of Unani-Tibb, which although originating from traditional Greco-Arab medicine (by which it gets its name), has also lost that emphasis on Quran and Hadeeth as it's primary, infallible source of knowledge. Alhamdulillah, It still however has a preference for those medical practices which were commonly used by Sahaba and the earlier generations of Muslims and it is still based on the methods of recognising the "mizaaj" of a person and the nature of an illness in respect of heat, cold, dryness and moisture, and then applying a remedy to balance the excess, which is a method that is validated by the Sunnah of Nabi Muhammad ﷺ.
In recent times there has been a revival of true Tibb-Nabawi, taking directly from the Quran and hadeeth, and being practiced with the yaqeen, conviction, that the words of Allah ﷻ and His Nabi ﷺ are true and far superior to anything else, including science and research.
Alhamdulillah in this regard this author has been at the forefront for two decades by providing training in the field of "Traditional Islamic Medicine" which emphasises that all diagnosis and treatment must have a basis in the Quran and Sunnah. Sometimes this basis is direct, for example in the prohibition of haraam ingredients and the recommendation of particular medicinals like applying صبر , aloe oil, for eye problems as Nabi ﷺrecommended to Uthman رضي الله عنه on one occasion,
At other times one requires a deep background in both islamic studies as well as medical studies to extract from the verses of Quran and Hadeeth what would otherwise not be noticed, such as the reason why Nabi ﷺ stopped Ali رضي الله عنه from eating dates while he was recovering from an illness (see this article for more details on this incident: Prevention and Muwafaqat...)
In these modern times when healthcare has been hijacked by the secularists and pharmaceutical cartels and turned into a massive money making machine, it is imperative that we look again to the principles of medicine laid down by Quran and Hadeeth to take us out of this oppressive system which only seeks to dictate in a top down approach and does not have the true wellbeing of the patient at heart. Modern medicine ridicules alternative cures including the adoption of sunnah practices, even the use of the miswak, while it rushes to prescribe dangerous drugs and surgical interventions which often leave patients worse than when they started.
With vaccines we are only seeing an increase in diseases, especially asthma, skin disorders, autism and cancers. With the increase in hospitals and research centers we are only seeing increase in the number of patients who "need" X-rays, CT scans, MRIs and surgery.
We do not doubt that there are times when this is needed and beneficial, however the principle we learn from Traditional Islamic Medicine is آخر الدواء الكي , meaning "the last treatment that you should do is cauterisation", which then implies that the last treatment one should seek, after exploring all other options, is surgery and other such treatments, which are invasive and damaging to the human body and have high risk of side effects.
The ummat can take great benefit from adhering to the original principles of Prophetic Medicine and Tibb-Nabawi in these times when they are faced with illness, which I have summarised below:
First turn to Allah ﷻ through duaa, particularly the duaas prescribed by Nabi ﷺ. There are many duaas which are specific to particular illnesses which can be found in the books of hadeeth (ان شاء الله ﺗﻌﺎﻟﯽٰ a seperate article on this will be prepared). One general duaa is:
Meaning: Oh Allah grant me healing in my body, Oh Allah grant me healing in my hearing, Oh Allah grant me healing in my eyesight
It will be a good practice to recite this duaa regularly after every fardh salaah as this is a time of acceptance of duaa
Together with this one should make duaa that Allah ﷺ guides to the correct treatment and saves one from the incorrect treatments, this can also be done by way of the istikhaara duaa, which is a seeking of goodness from Allah ﷻ.
Sadaqah should be given on behalf of the patient as Nabi ﷺ said: Treat your sick ones with sadaqa (giving charity). This can be done in a number of ways and of course the more serious the illness the more one should give. There are many incidents related where cure to a serious illness was achieved through acts of charity. One should not give up on duaa and charity in the case of illness. It is not a matter of "trying it out", but rather if cure is not found then the duaa and sadaqa should be increased and made more regular.
If the illness is minor then seek out a Tibb-nabawi home remedy. (I have prepared a short course in this regard, discussing basic Tibb-Nabawi remedies and when and how to use them, the course can be accessed at this link: Islamic Home Remedies course). Mufti Ayub Jeena, who is a close friend of mine is also making available many sunnah remedies to the ummat and can also be contacted for advice in this regard.
If the illness is not cured or it is a serious chronic illness then one should seek treatment from a qualified and pious Muslim doctor who is trained in Islamic medicine. This person should ideally be an aalim and have received training in modern medicine as well, so that they will not transgress the shariat in applying treatment and are able to advise if you will need to go for medical tests or a procedure. The Prophet ﷺ himself would also recommend people to go to the Arab physician by the name of Harith Ibn Kalada in order to determine the root cause of their illness. From this we learn that going to someone who is qualified and recognised as a physician is part of the sunnah, but today however remember that this person should be a physician who is also trained in Islamic medicine. One should be careful of those who are not properly trained as they could be a danger to your health instead of helping with cure. There are many today who have just done a short course in cupping for example who claim to be doctors of Islamic medicine and apply cupping for every illness, whereas this is not correct according to the sunnah, as the Prophet ﷺ forbade hijama in certain circumstances and advised other remedies appropriate to the illness.
If one follows the above procedure they will benefit greatly from following the sunnah method of treatment and avoiding the incorrect and harmful modern medical interventions. There is much more detail to this topic on dietary and lifestyle changes that can be adopted from the sunnah to prevent and treat many modern illnesses and many other topics that will be useful to the integrated management and resolution of modern illnesses such as cancer, asthma, autism and even mental illness. I will be publishing more articles on these topics ان شاء الله ﺗﻌﺎﻟﯽٰ . To get immediate updates please subscribe to the email list using the form below and also join the whatsapp notification group by using this link: Dr Latibs Health Advices Group
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