Spiritual Medicine in the
History of Islamic Medicine
Ibrahim B. Syed, Ph.D
Spiritual
Medicine has two components: Distant Healing and Self-care. It is known
that the spiritual elements also play an important role in the recovery
process from acute or chronic sickness. Spiritual healing techniques
frequently can support or complement conventional health care modality. It
has been known for centuries, that the “placebo effect” is substantial
and has positive influence over the body. In this paper, the relation
between religion and health is emphasized and the importance of spiritual
medicine is defined.
The
articles of faith in Islam are:
1. Tawhid or belief in the Oneness of Allah (SWT)
2. Salat or con- tactual prayer
3. Siyam or Fasting during the month of Ramadan
4. Zakah or charity
5. Hajj or pilgrimage to
Mecca
.
History
has recorded that Babur, Mughal Emperor of
India
, prayed for his son, Humayun’s health who was seriously ill or almost
near death. Hence Babur asked Allah (SWT) to spare his son’s life and
take his (Babur’s) life in lieu thereof.
Recent
scientific research indicates that affirming belief in God or Allah (SWT)
makes a critical contribution to our physical health. When people call
upon faith, they activate neurological pathways for self- healing.
The
Muslim prayer consists of contact prayer (salat), Zikr (Dhikr) or
remembrance of Allah and recitation of the Qur’an. These elicit the
physiologic relaxation response. The Prophetic saying is “Worship in the
congregation is more excellent than Worship alone, by twenty seven
degrees.” Hajj and congregational Prayers serve to buffer the adverse
effects of stress and anger, perhaps via psycho-neuro-immunological
pathways. It is speculated that congregational prayers may trigger a
multi-factorial sequence of biological processes leading to better health.
Studies have shown higher degrees of social connection (through family and
friends or congregational prayers in the Masjid) consistently relate to
decreased mortality.
Zakah
is altruism and in sharing the wealth, apart from the socio-economic
benefits, the Muslims also garner better health. Doing good to others is
also Zakah and those who volunteer their work find marked improvement in
their health. Several studies have already documented the health benefits
of fasting during the month of Ramadan.
The National Institute of Health, in
Bethesda
,
Maryland
, a few years ago opened an Office of Alternative Therapies, which
encourages Homeopathy, Ayurveda, Aromatherapy, and other “alternative”
therapies.
Recently
there is a tremendous surge in interest and publications in the field of
spiritual medicine in the
United States
. An abundance of articles (1-8), books, and conferences in recent years
have addressed the impact of spirituality on patient, physician, and
health care. For example Dr. James S. Gordon, MD who is the founder and
Director of the Center for Mind-Body Medicine at Georgetown University,
Washington, D.C. published “MANIFESTO FOR A NEW MEDICINE: Your guide to
healing partnerships and the wise use of alternative therapies
(Addison-Wesley, 1996). Dr. Gordon wrote that medical education is long on
technical mastery but short on issues of personal and spiritual growth.
Dr. Gregory Plotnikoff, MD who is the medical director of the
University
of
Minnesota
’s Center for Spiritual Care and Healing advocates care for the body and
the soul (9). “Timeless Healing: The Power and Biology of Belief,” by
Herbert Benson, M.D. (Scribner, 1996) draws on Benson’s work at
Harvard’s Mind/Body Medical Institute. Benson’s prescription for
doctors and patients contains three ingredients: 1. identifies each
other’s important beliefs and motivations, 2. discuss and act on those
beliefs, and 3. let go and believe. Religious belief and faith are the
vehicles for his prescription. Dr. David Larson, MD who is the president
of the National Institute for Healthcare Research (NIHR),
Rockville
,
Maryland
awarded five $10,000 grants in 1996 to Medical Schools to incorporate
classes on Religion and medicine into their Curricula. He is the author of
the 1995 book, “The Neglected Factor.” Dr. Ornish, MD has documented
the reversal of coronary artery occlusion by diet and meditation. This
message-that health care has a spiritual component-flies in the face of
modern Western health care culture, which holds to a biomedical model for
healing and recovery.
Spiritual
Medicine has two components: Distant Healing and Self-care (that is
healing by patient’s own efforts). Distant healing is defined as any
purely mental effort undertaken by one person with the intention of
improving physical or emotional well being in another. In clinical
practice, healing may involve a mental effort in or out of the healer’s
presence, with or without his or her awareness, and with or without touch.
This broad definition would also include petitionary prayer or Du’a in
which the practitioner generates a mental request for a particular outcome
or that God’s “will be done.”
What
is spirituality?
An individual has biological, psychological, and social dimensions and yet
there is a spiritual dimension, which connects to all of these and
contributes to an individual’s sense of wholeness and wellness.
Experiences such as joy, love, forgiveness and acceptance are
manifestations of spiritual well being. Imbalance in one of the several
dimensions led to disease and exacerbating illness. It is known that the
spiritual elements also play an important role in the recovery process
from acute or chronic sickness. Spiritual healing techniques frequently
can support or complement conventional health care modality (3).
Spirituality is often defined as the experience of meaning and purpose in
our lives-a sense of connectedness with the people and things in the world
around us. For many, this connectedness encompasses a relationship with
God or a higher power. For many American, spirituality is experience and
expressed through religiousness. The terms “religiousness” and
“spirituality” often are used interchangeably. Religiousness is
adherence to the beliefs and practices of an organized place of worship or
religious institutions. Spirituality provides a sense of coherence that
offers meaning to one’s existence as a human being. Sometimes a patient
may experience states of consciousness that have profound spiritual and
transformative impact, including near-death experiences, mystical states,
and delirious states associated with alterations of brain chemistry. These
events may have a positive impact on the individual or they may lead to
distress. Reassurance and legitimization of the experience by a health
care provider can be very therapeutic (10). Physicians are helping
patients look beyond the physical dimension to find comfort, answers, and
cures. The vast majority of Americans believe that spirituality influences
their recovery from illness, injury, or disease, says one recent poll. Two
thirds of the respondents indicated they would like physicians to talk
with them about spirituality as it relates to their health or even to pray
with them.
Religion
and health
Religiousness may contribute to the enhancement of well being in a number
of ways.
The
Relaxation Response
A bodily claim that all of us can evoke and that has the opposite effect
of the well-known fight-or- flight response. This is called the
“relaxation response” by Benson. In this state the blood pressure is
lowered, and heart rate, breathing rate, and metabolic rate are decreased.
The relaxation response yields many long-term benefits in both health and
well being and can be brought on with Salat, Zikr and recitation of the
Qur’an which are related lead to very simple mental focusing. These lead
to the power of self-care, the healthy things that individuals can do for
themselves. Our bodies are wired to benefit from exercising our beliefs,
values, thoughts, and feelings. Patients who suffer from anxiety and panic
after surgery or from a terminal illness have documented that they
experience the wonderful physical solace after making Du’a
(supplication) to Allah (SWT). This experience is the opposite effect of
the edgy, adrenaline rush we experience in the stress-induced
fight-or-flight response. Through Du’a patients have gained both
emotional and spiritual balm. This tender comfort and soothing gained
everyday makes one to regain confidence both in body and one’s ability
to face the twists and turns of life. Salat, Du’a elicit the relaxation
response in patients resulting in mental equilibrium and help them to ward
off disease by doing something to calm the body and the fears. It has been
known for centuries, that the “placebo effect” is substantial and has
positive influence over the body. What is less known is that an
individual’s belief empowers the placebo. The fact that the patient,
caregiver, or both of them believe in the treatment contributes to better
outcomes. Sometimes affirmative beliefs are all we really need to heal us.
Other times there is a need for the collective force of our beliefs and
appropriate medical interventions. Every individual has the power to care
for and cure him- or herself. Physicians are now paying special attention
to the self-care that is on the inner development of beliefs that promote
healing. The placebo effect was found to have a substantial impact on the
commonly reported symptoms-chest pain, fatigue, dizziness, headache, back
and abdominal pain, numbness, impotence, weight loss, cough, and
constipation. In 1992 an
Ohio
State University study of patients with congestive heart failure, it was
demonstrated that placebo treatment may also help more serious conditions.
It has been shown that belief in or expectation of a good outcome can have
formidable restorative power, whether the positive expectations are on the
part of the patient, the physician or a care-giver or both. In a study
pregnant with belief alone cured themselves of persistent nausea and
vomiting during pregnancy. The women were given a drug and were told that
it would cure the problem, but in fact were given the opposite-syrup of
ipecac-a substance that causes vomiting. When patients believed in
therapies that were fervently recommended by their physicians, this fervor
worked to alleviate a variety of medical conditions including angina,
asthma, herpes simplex cold sores, and duodenal ulcers. Good
doctor-patient relationship is known to accelerate the healing. Two thirds
of the patients got better after hearing the good news from their doctors
even if the prescription is vitamins. Hence the bedside manner does
matter. Studies show that surgical recovery is more quick if the
patient’s surgeon is upbeat, confident and kind.
In
“psychosomatic” disease episodes of anger and hostility can translate
into stomach ulcers and heart attacks. Our thoughts are intimately related
to our bodies. The success the medical profession achieves is attributable
to the inherent healing power within individuals. A patient’s positive
frame of mind can be exceedingly therapeutic.
Benson
describes a renal cancer patient who could elicit relaxation response
through per beliefs and prayer, refrained from pain medicine in spite of
her great deal of pain, and was relieved of the terrible distress she had
suffered before. When she died she was at peace, drawing upon this
internal physiologic succor and the power of her beliefs during the final
weeks of her life.
When
the relaxation response is activated it provides a calm state in the mind-
opposite of the fight-or-flight response-whenever the mind is focused for
sometime through Salat or Zikr. In other words, when the mind quiets down,
the body follows suit. Recent scientific research indicates that affirming
belief in God or Allah (SWT) makes a critical contribution to our physical
health. When people call upon faith, they activate neurological pathways
for self- healing.
The
Muslim prayer consists of contact prayer (salat), Zikr (Dhikr) or
remembrance of Allah and recitation of the Qur’an. These elicit the
physiologic relaxation response.
Spiritual
Medicine in Islam
In Islam Spiritual medicine can be used to mean two different things,
although both are allied and sometimes confused. One refers to the belief
in a spiritual or ethical or psychological cure for diseases that may have
physical or spiritual (or psychic). Thus, a physical illness may be cured,
for example by recitation of the Qur’an or other prayers (Du’a). Most
medical men of Islam even in the scientific tradition of medicine
recognized this belief to an extent. Ibn Sina is credited with psychic
cures. Muslim physicians practiced various forms of psychotherapy such as
shock or shame-therapy in the treatment of mental illnesses and this
treatment was original. A famous Persian work titled The Four Essays (Chahar
Maqala), written about 1155 AD for the ruler of Samarqand by his
court-poet, Nizami-Ye ‘Aruzi discusses administrators, astronomers,
poets and physicians. Each chapter gives definitions of an ideal person in
each category followed by ten illustrative anecdote (11). Ibn Abi
Usaibi’a narrates about the treatment by Jibra’il ibn Bakhtishu’ of
a beloved slave-girl of the caliph Harun al-Rashid through shock treatment
(12).
Part
of spiritual medicine in Islam is devoted to ethical well being, but from
a practical point of view. Thus Abu Bakr al-Razi wrote al-Tibb al-Ruhani
(Spiritual Medicine) which has been translated into English as The
Spiritual Physick of Rhazes. (13). In this work, al-Razi describes in
detail the moral diseases and discusses with acute perception how these
affect human behavior.
The
Moghul emperor Jehangir once suffered from some illness, which his doctors
were unable to cure. Frustrated, he repaired to the tomb of the Saint
Mu’in al-Din Chishti at
Ajmer
and was cured. Ever since then he wore earrings in the name of the saint
as a token of being his follower (14).
Volumes
of spiritual prescriptions for cures exist. Most prayers and amulets
contain verses from the Qur’an, to which high curative powers were
ascribed. Very frequently, the recommendation is made that the patient
shall write down certain Qur’anic verses on a piece of paper or on a
glass (ceramic plate) and after soaking these writings in water drink the
water. In south-east Asian countries, sick people stand outside the
mosques and the believers who are coming out of the mosques after
performing the salat, recite certain Qur’anic Surahs and blow air on the
sick people. Khawass al-Quran (Miraculous Properties of the Qur’an): The
“miraculous properties” of practically each passage of the Qur’an
are discussed including their curative properties for various diseases. It
is said that when Surah 38 (Saad) is recited on a sleeping person it cures
breathing problems; when written down and read during a patient’s waking
hours, it cures illness. A person who continuously recites it will be
immune from all troubles at night (15).
Sufi
Shaikhs or pir are said to cure (16):
Al-Dhahabi
(d.1348 AD)(17) says the benefits of the Islamic ritual prayers (salaat),
which involve certain changing physical postures, are fourfold: spiritual,
psychological, physical, and moral. He further says:
Prayers cause recovery from pain of the heart, stomach, and intestines.
Prayers
produce happiness and contentment in the mind; they suppress anxiety and
extinguish the fire of anger. They increase love for truth and humility
before people; they soften the heart, create love and forgiveness and
dislike for the vice of vengeance. Besides, often- sound judgment occurs
to the mind (due to concentration about difficult matters) and one finds
correct answers (to problems). One also remembers forgotten things. One
can discover the ways to solve matters worldly and spiritual. And one can
effectively examine oneself- particularly when one strenuously exercises
oneself in prayers.
Salaat
is a divinely commanded form of worship
Psychological benefit: prayers divert the mind from the pain and reduce
its feeling.
Besides the concentration of the mind, salaat is; Exercise of the body:
postures of standing Upright, genuflexion, prostration, relaxation, and
concentration; where bodily movements Occur and most bodily organs relax.
Al-Muwaffaq ‘Abd al-Latif narrates in his book Kitab al-Arba’in that a
number of people who led lazy lives because of their wealth, who
nevertheless had preserved good health. The reason is they were given to
frequent prayer and also regular tahajjud (midnight prayer) (18).
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About
the Author:
Ibrahim B. Syed, Ph.D is Clinical
Professor of Medicine University of Louisville School of Medicine
Louisville, KY 40292
President, Islamic Research Foundation International, Inc 7102 W. Shefford
Lane Louisville, KY 40242-6462
e-Mail: irfi@iname.com
Source: http://www.irfi.org
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