Prayer can cause recovery from the pain of the heart, stomach, and intestines. There are three reasons for this. First, it is a divinely commanded form of worship. Second, it has a psychological benefit. This is because prayers divert mind from the pain and reduce its feeling whereby the power to repel [the cause of] pain is strengthened. Expert doctors try all means to strengthen this [natural] power – sometimes by feeding something, sometimes by inspiring hope, and sometimes by inspiring fear. Now, prayer [with concentration] combines most of these means of benefit, because it at once instills fear, self-effacing humility, love [of God], and remembrance of the Last Day."
SEPTEMBER 1998- Thus wrote the 14th century traditionalist and historian Abu `Abd Allah Muhammad al-Dhahabi in his Kitab al-Tibb (Book of Medicine). This emphasis on what can be termed "holistic medicine" in modern parlance – involving the spiritual, psychological, physical, and moral aspects of being – is the essence of Islamic medical tradition which traces its foundation to the revealed Book of God, the Qur'an, and to the Hadith, the sayings of the Prophet of Islam.
This integrated approach is not specific to health only; in the Islamic world view everything – including the heavens and the earth and all that is in between – is seen as a manifestation of the creative aspect of God to Whom everything, living or non-living, submits. At the heart of this worldview is the concept of Tawhid, the Unity of God, embodied in the first part of Shahada, the testimony of faith: La ilaha illa'Llah ("There is no god but God"). Everything in Islamic civilization, including the health sciences, has sprung forth from this fundamental statement which is an expression of the transcendence of divine unity.
This consciousness of the oneness of God is placed at the center of the Islamic worldview so as to act as a directing force which draws to itself all levels of manifest reality in the cosmic plane. To proclaim that there is no god but God is to testify that there is an essential unifying principle behind the apparent multiplicity of the universe which, in Islam, is not restricted to merely the observable and perceptible reality but goes beyond to the realm of the Unseen.
Because God alone is the sole arbitrator of everything that exists, both health and sickness are viewed as coming from God. "There is no disease that God has sent down, except that He has also sent down its treatment," says a famous Hadith (saying of the Prophet). God who has created sickness has also created treatments.
The famous verse (16:69) of the Qur'an about honey is an example of the Divine design in creation: "And thy Lord taught the Bee to build its cells in hills, on trees and in [human] habitations; then to eat of all the produce [of the earth], and follow the ways of Thy Lord made smooth: From their bellies comes a drink of different colors wherein is healing for mankind. Verily in this is a sign for those who reflect."
Scientific research teaches that the process of healing involves the physical as well as the spiritual and psychological domains of human existence. The tradition of spiritual healing in Islam is based on the recognition of the effect of spiritual health on the physical body. The body itself is seen as a mere receptacle for the spirit, which alone constitutes the immortal part of human existence. The body is healthy if the spirit is healthy, and the spirit is healthy if it is not in conflict with the Divine Writ. The submission of the spirit to the Divine commandment produces a harmony in the soul and body which makes all the limbs and organs function properly.
Rhazes (c.251/865-313/925), whose treatise on measles and smallpox is well known in the West, used to treat the maladies of the soul along with those of the body. In his book on the relationship of soul and body, translated into English as Spiritual Physick, he devoted 20 chapters to descriptions of various illnesses that beset the body and soul.
Avicenna (370/980-428/1037), honored in the West with the title of "Prince of Physicians," the author of the monumental Canon of Medicine (al-Qanun fi't-Tibb), is known to have practiced the art of healing with the help of spiritual guidance. The Book of Healing (Kitab al-Shifa), Avicenna's second most important work after the Canon, presents a unique synthesis of the Greek, Persian, Indian, and Islamic practices of healing.
Avicenna based his system of medicine on the equilibrium of the four humors (following Hippocrates): blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. These four humors were then related to the four elements (fire, air, water, and earth) of the natural world. Avicenna believed that the human spirit has been constituted with the power of restoring balance in the body, and that the task of medicine is merely to aid this process. The process of regaining health is, therefore, greatly facilitated by the use of practices which produce spiritual healing.
The system of spiritual healing is related to the cosmic order in the universe through the basic doctrine of the correspondence between all levels of reality, as Seyyed Hossein Nasr has pointed out in his book, Science and Civilization in Islam:
There is in the Hermetico-alchemical natural philosophy – which was always closely tied to medicine in Islam – a basic doctrine of the correspondence between all the various orders of reality: the intelligible hierarchy, the heavenly bodies, the order of numbers, the parts of the body, the letters of the alphabet which are the "elements" of the Sacred Book, etc. The seven cervical and the 12 dorsal vertebrae correspond to the seven planets and the 12 signs of the Zodiac, as well as to the days of the week and the months of the year. The total number of discs of the vertebrae, which they consider to be 28, correspond to the letters of the Arabic alphabet and the stations of the moon.
In Avicenna's medical theory, the human body is composed of three units: the Physical system, the Nervous system, and the Vital system. The Vital system conditions and suitably prepares the Vital Force for the sensory and motor function of the brain. This system is centered in the heart and functions through it.
The human body, according to the Islamic world view, is a weak vessel made of clay (Qur'an: 55:14), a frail material covering, enslaved by the carnal woes. Within the body, the heart is the seat of knowledge and consciousness. It is a lump of flesh, placed in a central void, a regular oscillation – from which flow all emotions and causes of actions. If the heart is sick, the whole body is sick.
Healing through supplications, prayers, and fasting is a well-established tradition in Islam. This is based on the fact that in Islam, humans are viewed as entities in which body and soul are united. The soul has its own maladies (like forgetfulness of the Divine presence, greed, jealousy etc.) and the body has its own ailments but both are combined in one living entity: the human being. Both act on each other and through each other. This unique integration of body and spirit is then linked to the rest of the universe through an elaborate system of levels of reality reaching up to the Divine presence.
"The best gift from God to mankind is good health," Prophet Muhammad once said. "Everyone should reach that goal by preserving it for now and the future." The fact that both health and illness are seen in Islam as coming from God has closely linked the art of healing to worship. The one who practices the art of healing does this for the sake of God’s pleasure. The physician and the patient are thus united through a spiritual bond.
According to a Hadith, God will say on the Day of Judgment: "O Son of Adam, I was sick but you did not visit me." "My Lord! how could I visit you when You are the Lord of the whole world," we will reply. God will say: "Did you not know that so-and-so from among my servants [i.e. human beings] was sick, but you never visited him or her? Did you not know that if you had visited, you would have found me there?" This high consciousness of the Divine, and the spiritual benefit of visiting the sick, is further elaborated by another Hadith-e Qudsi (a narration in which God speaks directly, but the words are attributed to the Prophet) in which God says: "O my servant! Health unites you with yourself but sickness unites you to me."
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Presently director of scientific research at the Pakistan Academy of Sciences, Muzaffar Iqbal has previously held academic and research positions at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, McGill University and University of Saskatchewan. He was editor of Islamic Thought and Scientific Creativity (1991-96) , a journal in the field of Islam and Science, and director of scientific information, Committee on Scientific and Technological Cooperation, Organization of Islamic Conference (COMSTECH). He is the author/editor of more than fifty works including Science in Islamic Polity in the Twenty-first Century (ed.) (Islamabad: COMSTECH, 1995); Health and Medical Profile of the Muslim World (Islamabad: COMSTECH, 1993), Possible Strategy for Energy Mixes in the Muslim World (Co-ed.) (Islamabad: COMSTECH, 1994); Mineral Profile of the Muslim World (ed.) (Islamabad: COMSTECH, 1995). He has also published papers on the history of philosophy of science, history of Islamic science, and the relationship between Islam and science in various journals.
FURTHER READING:
Rhaman, Fazalur, Health and Medicine in the Islamic Tradition (New York: Crossroad, 1987).
Rhazes, The Spiritual Physick of Rhazes, translated by A. J. Arberry in the Wisdom of the East Series (London: John Murray, 1950)
Nasr, Seyyed Hossein Science and Civilization in Islam, second ed. (Lahore: Suhail Academy, 1987).
from: http://www.science-spirit.org/
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