Prophetic Medicine
Prophetic medicine is a term applied to the set of advice transmitted from the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, related to medical matters that he used and described to others, and arrived in the form of prophetic hadiths, some of which are therapeutic and some are preventive. The form of hadiths that began to be compiled by Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya in his book The Prophet’s Medicine and the book Zad al-Ma’ad, and Imam al-Bukhari and Imam Malik also compiled these hadiths.
Prophetic medicine is not classified within the sciences of medicine or an alternative to seeking the help of physicians. The Prophet Muhammad urged to learn medicine and not to treat it out of ignorance. It was reported on the authority of the Prophet Muhammad that he recommended the Muslims at that time to seek the help of Al-Harith bin Kalda, who was called the doctor of the Arabs.
Throughout history, many scholars and jurists questioned the validity of what was called prophetic medicine, and some of them rejected this term and considered it innovative. Ibn Khaldun rejected the idea of the divinity of prophetic medicine and denied this connection to revelation, and considered it a group of mountain legacies that emerged from the Arab environment in which the Messenger of God lived. No more, as well as Lisan al-Din Ibn al-Khatib, who said that “Sharia does not address issues of medicine and natural events that humans must study by themselves and use their senses and minds in order to know them.”
Many scholars also considered that what was mentioned in the hadiths is for treatment and prevention only and is not a treatment and does not fall under the heading of medicine in the correct sense, and that the Prophet Muhammad was not a doctor and relied on the incident of Saad bin Abi Waqqas when the Prophet ordered him to seek the help of a doctor, and some scholars from Al-Azhar Al-Sharif also criticized the exploitation This term for profit, fame, fraud on the public and confusion between things.
The origin of the term
Prophetic medicine is a new term that appeared in the beginning of the fourth century AH, when Abu Bakr bin Al-Sunni (364 AH) wrote the book “Medicine in Hadith” and Abu Obaid bin Al-Hassan Al-Harrani (369 AH) wrote the book “Prophetic Medicine”. 430 AH), Abu al-Abbas al-Mustaghfari (432 AH), Abu al-Qasim al-Nisaburi (406 AH) and others, up to the eighth and ninth centuries AH, when we find works by al-Dhahabi (748 AH), Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah (751 AH), then al-Sakhawi (902 AH), al-Suyuti (911 AH) and others.
Classification of diseases
Diseases are classified according to prophetic medicine into two types, disease of the hearts and disease of the bodies, and they are mentioned in the Qur’an. Ibn al-Qayyim says: “The disease of the hearts is of two types: a disease of suspicion and doubt (in their hearts is a disease, so God made them sicker)” Al-Baqara 10, and a disease of lust and rebellion (O wives of the Prophet, you are not like any of the women if you fear God, so do not be submissive in speech lest he who has a disease in his heart become greedy) Al-Ahzab 32. This is a disease The lust of adultery, and as for the disease of the bodies (there is no blame on the blind, nor on the lame, nor on the sick) Al-Nur 61.
Scholars' opinions
Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah explains the treatment steps in light of the philosophy of prophetic medicine as follows: “Material diseases have their causes with them that extend them, and if the cause of the disease is with him, then looking at the cause should be first, then the disease second, and then the medicine third.”
And the doctor describes in his saying: “He is the one who separates what is harmful to a person, gathers it together, or collects in it what is harmed by its dispersal, or decreases from it what is harmful to him in excess, or increases in it what is harmful to him from its lack, so he brings lost health, or preserves it in form and likeness; And he repels the existing ill by the opposite and the opposite, and takes it out, or repels it with what prevents it from occurring with the diet.
Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah says: “It was part of the guidance of the Prophet, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him, to do medication for himself, and to command it for those who were afflicted with a disease from among his family and companions, but it was not part of his guidance nor the guidance of his companions to use compound medicines called ((Aqrabadin)), rather it was predominant Their medicines are in the singular, and they may have added to the singular what helps it, or breaks its surah, and this is the majority of the medicine of nations of different races, Arabs and Turks, and the people of the desert as a whole, but what was meant by the compounds of the Romans and the Greeks, and most of the medicine of India with the singular. It is changed from it to medicine, and when possible by the simple, it is not changed from it to the compound. They said: And every disease that was able to be repelled by food and diet, he did not try to repel it with medicines. They said: The doctor should not be fond of giving medicines, because the medicine if it does not find a disease in the body that dissolves it, or He finds a disease that does not agree with it, or he finds something that agrees with it, and its quantity or quality increases, he clings to health, and tampering with it, and the masters of experimentation among doctors often treat them with vocabulary, and they are one of the three teams of medicine. Al-Mufradat, its diseases are very few, and its medicine is in Al-Mufradat, and the people of cities who are dominated by compound foods need compound medicines, and the reason for that is that their diseases are mostly compound, so combined medicines are more beneficial for them, and the diseases of the people of deserts and deserts are single, so it is sufficient for their treatment with single medicines. This is evidence according to the medical industry.” The same previous source.
Types of prophetic medicine treatment
Treatment with prophetic medicine includes three types:
1- Natural prophetic medicines, including treatment with honey, camel urine and milk, excretion of blood, treatment with cauterization, cupping, fennel, henna, and dates such as “Ajwa dates” and talbeenah.
2- Divine medicines, including treatment of the evil eye, witchcraft, and others, by means of exorcism, incantation, and ablution
3- The combination of the two things.
criticism
Throughout history, many jurists and scholars have questioned the validity of what is called prophetic medicine, and considered it an innovated term that was not at the time of the Prophet Muhammad, and that what was mentioned about it is not classified within medicine, but only for treatment or prevention.
Ibn Khaldun rejected the idea of the divinity of prophetic medicine and denied the connection of this with revelation, and considered it a group of mountain legacies that emerged from the Arab environment in which the Messenger of God was living in no more, and he said in his famous introduction (And the Arabs had a lot of this medicine, and among them were well-known doctors such as Al-Harith bin Kaldah and others, and the medicine transmitted in the Sharia’a is of this kind, and it is not from revelation in anything, rather it is a matter that was normal for the Arabs, and it occurred in mentioning the conditions of the Prophet, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him, of the kind of mentioning his conditions that are customary and natural, not in terms of that it is legitimate in that way of work ).
Many jurists affirmed that the Prophet Muhammad “sent as a prophet, not a doctor,” and the commandments he came with in this context are from the point of “taking care of human health according to the culture and the temporal and spatial environment at the time, and it is not a substitute for resorting to specialists in the field of modern medicine.”
The Mufti of Egypt, Ali Gomaa, said, "The mention of certain commandments for medication in some of the hadiths of the Prophet - may God bless him and grant him peace - does not turn it into a science called prophetic medicine, and puts it in the face of modern medicine." Gomaa warned against misunderstanding some of the prophetic hadiths and said that this is a diagnosis of the reality A certain time and certain circumstances, which may be suitable for some cases and not suitable for others, and it is not a matter of legislation that is suitable for every time and place.
The Egyptian preacher Khaled El-Gendy, a member of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs in Egypt, said that there is no “prophetic medicine.” He indicated that Ibn al-Qayyim believed that the spirit or soul was the cause of disease, which is scientifically incorrect and unfounded.