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| Muslim Rituals
& Their Effect On The Person’s Health Magomed Magomedov Ph.D. in Medical Sciences, Assistant to the Department of the Man’s General Hygiene and Ecology Daghestan State Medical Academy Being
aware of the importance assigned by Islam to the five-time-a-day offering
of namaz , I felt with my whole heart that apart from indisputable
spiritual effect it is bound to have the purely physical healing effect as
well. Of course, its effect in terms of personal hygiene was obvious. Islam,
in fact, attributes great importance to the personal hygiene and
cleanness. The Qur’an says that “God loves clean people”. There is a
Hadith saying: “Cleanness is one half of faith”. I
conducted my research in this area while I was working for three years for
the department of the non-medical therapy of the Daghestan Medical Academy
under the supervision of the Head of the department, professor K.G.
Mahmudov. It was then that I taught the students of the academy the
physio-reflexotherapy and the Chinese reflexotherapy. Human
beings still remain an exciting object for a scientific study. So far we
have a more or less clear picture only of his fleshy constituent and not
of the spiritual one. The study of the latter has only just begun. Presently
we know that a man is a complex system of electromagnetic fields,
meridians, biological rhythms and so on. Man’s internal organs, in their
turn, present a no less sophisticated bioenergetical whole; they all have
indissoluble multi-channel bilateral connection with skin, which hosts
special spots, whose functions resemble those of buttons on “control”
and “ recharge boards” responsible for particular organs. These spots
are called biologically active spots (BAS). Being a
first-year student of the medical institute, I wrote a course paper on
biorhythms, based on the book by A. I. Chizhevsky “The earthly echo of
the solar storms”, and other sources (Agajanyan and others). Despite
the fact that the existence of the energy body has been scientifically
recognized both in the East and the West and that there appear devices for
registering the biological fields activity of various organisms and
meridians of the biologically active spots, in the Soviet Union this
subject was regarded unworthy. Man was not supposed to have either soul or
an energy body, because the opposite would contradict the materialistic
(atheistic) ideology of those times. After
many years of searching I managed to collect a volume of literature on
biorhythms, skin BAS, body meridians and so on; so I could begin my own
research. After studying this area, the healing nature of the Muslim
rituals became evident to me. More than that, unlike the methods of curing
and preventing diseases practiced by untraditional medicine, usually
inaccessible for the “mortals”, Muslim rituals are more safe,
universal, accessible and simple in performance; they also embrace the
whole complex of curing treatment. Reflexotherapy
was known in China as far back as five thousand years ago. To become a
doctor one had to take a 15-20 years' course of study. Doctors used their
knowledge primarily for curing diseases and very rarely (exception was
made for the royal family) for their prevention. Reflexotherapy, however,
had a negative side: the patient was exposed to traumas since the doctors
used cauterization and so on. Until
now, the methods and approaches of the reflexotherapy remained the same.
Yet we cannot help admiring the simple and great way of how the same
result is achieved in Islam. Sivak (toothpick), for example, massages
numerous BASes in your mouth, while ablution stimulates and massages the
BASes with water. Ablution
movements can be compared to the scrupulously mastered exercises of
self-regulation and preventive treatment; they regulate proper circulation
of energy in the body, its accumulation and expenditure. The majority of
the most powerful BASes are being washed during the Muslin ritual. It is
not the doctor, who had studied for many years, who does it, but every
Muslim by himself. Besides, praying five times a day obliges a Muslim to
take the preventive measures against diseases beforehand. The
time of namaz coincides with the alternation of the daily biorhythms and
periods of increased BAS activity. Certainly, only the All-Knowing Creator
could make it all so great and simple. As-Sivak As-Sivak
(or “al-arak” in Arabic) is a tree growing in Saudi Arabia, India,
Pakistan and some other countries, whose branches are usually cut for
making small sticks (“misvak”) of a particular length. Muslims use
those sticks for brushing their teeth and massaging the gums before
ablution or namaz and in some other cases. The
Prophet (peace be upon him!) defined using sivak as Sunna or a recommended
action. It is said in the Hadith: Not
only sivak enriches us spiritually, it also helps to keep us healthy.
American scientists have recently revealed the remarkable effect sivak
produces on the mouth cavity: it kills up to 80% of bacteria after a
single use. Sivak prevents caries, strengthens the gums, and its effect
lasts for almost 48 hours. Tunis and other countries have already started
production of the sivak-based toothpaste. Apart
from the purely hygienic effect, sivak also stimulates the biologically
active spots (BAS), located in the mouth cavity between teeth and gums. These
spots are responsible for our six sense organs (ears, eyes, nose, tongue
and gullet), three pair cells (wedge-shaped, upper-jaw, ethmoid), one
single sinus (any), temporal lower-jaw joint, and 28 spinal nerves that
regulate the functioning of practically all organs, muscles, and joints of
the upper and lower extremities. The
same spots regulate the functioning of such organs as gall and urinal
bladders, liver, kidneys, stomach, pancreas, spleen, lungs, heart, small
and large intestines. Massage
of the mouth BAS with a sivak toothpick relieves pain and decreases
neuro-reflex muscles tension resulting from osteochondros. Regular use of
sivak, besides preventing diseases, controls the development of 70 of them
and helps to preserve clear mind until the last breath. Thus a single
sivak toothpick, used with faith in your heart and intention on your lips,
can substitute a whole team of medical specialists. Ablution
Ritual The
importance of ablution before namaz in terms of hygiene can be hardly
denied. Before ablution Muslims psychologically prepare themselves for it
and formulate an inward intention (niyat). Then they are ready to perform
an ablution. They wash their faces, hands and arms, brush their heads with
wet hands and wash their feet. In doing so they follow the mentioned
order. So,
what is going on in man’s organism during ablution; in what way it
affects his health? Chinese
medicine singles out more than 700 biologically active spots on the human
body. For their quick effect reflex therapy named the sixty-six drastic
spots aggression spots, antique spots or prime-elements spots. Sixty-one
of the drastic spots are located in the zones required for ablution before
saying prayer. Other five are located between ankle and knee. Since it is
desirable (Sunna) to wash the leg up to the knee, ablution becomes a kind
of treatment complex which includes the hydromassage of the BAS, their
thermal and physical stimulation. In
addition to that the order in which the spots are to be stimulated is no
less important. Face ablution, apart from the purely refreshing effect on
the thermal skin receptors, “recharges” such organs as intestines,
stomach, bladder, has a positive effect on the nervous and reproduction
systems and so on. The BAS
responsible for the osseous system, intestine, nervous system, lumbar
area, stomach, pancreas, gall-bladder, thyroid gland, solar plexus and
others are situated on the right leg. Thus ablution activates those
systems and organs and improves their functioning. The BAS
responsible for the work of hypophysis, the brain organ that regulates the
functioning of the endocrine gland and controls growing, are located on
the left leg. More
than a hundred BAS are located in the cochlea area. They can be compared
to the body’s "control board”. Ear ablution is Sunna (desirable). The
massage of the ear BAS harmonizes the work of almost all organs, decreases
high blood pressure (due to the anti-hypertension and anti-allergic
zones), and relieves tooth and throat pain. It is
also important how intensively you massage the BAS. During ablution Sunna
suggests applying certain physical strength, which suits the physical
state of a person. This has also scientifically grounded explanation. Think only: a Muslim, who has taught another person how to perform ablution and namaz in two or three days (in a week maximum), has unconsciously passed him the knowledge and methods of the Chinese medicine. Traditionally, it would take, as we have already mentioned, fifteen or twenty years. Contact info:
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