Islam and Medicine (Part 1)
lslam is the religion of all times and places. It is a perfect system of temporal values. By practicing its laws Muslims all over the world not only attain spirituality but the pinnacle of all other glories and gain the wealth of health.
There is a great inter-relationship between modern medicine and some of our Islamic teachings.
Every word of Qur'an is in fact an experience of great reality and science is just an effort made towards this reality. Knowledge is limitless and its horizons are constantly expanding with every strike of progress disclosing fresh information and according to Qur’anic knowledge are a comprehensive text and it involves all branches of sciences, religion, technology, agriculture, engineering and medicine. It is definitely a miracle of our sacred religion that it expands on all branches of human knowledge. This is known from the following quotation from Qur'an:
"We have revealed to you the Scripture so that it might be a clear evidence for every thing."
In the following paper I have tried to elucidate that the guidelines given in the Qur’an and Sunnah concerned with the promotion of physical health of humans have been duly proved by years of modern medical scientific research all over the world. Some of them which I am going to deal with in this paper.
PRAYERS
In Surah Moon "God deprecates those who are careless in their prayers offer them only for show." The blessed Prophet told us "Prayers are certainly health promoting." Although the real purpose of prayers is to worship Allah yet there is a large number of additional benefits also.
EXERCISE
As we eat three times daily we need exercises to lessen the cholesterol in the body which increases in the blood after meals, thickens it and leads to the deposition of slit in the arteries.
In addition to saving us from the sins and elevating us to the heights of spirituality, prayers are great help in maintaining our physical health. They keep our body active, help digestion and save us from muscle and joint diseases through regular balanced exercise. They help the circulation of blood and also mitigate the bad effect of cholesterol. Prayers play a vital role in acting as a preventive measure against heart attack, paralyses, premature senility, dementia, loss of control on sphineters, diabetes mellitus etc.
Collateral circulation plays a major role in decreasing the danger of heart attack in patients. Patients above 55 years of age in which this type of circulation is developed have less severe attacks. It is possible to speed up the development of collateral circulation by regular and balanced exercises which is present in the prayers are not only potent, preventive measure against coronary heart diseases but also help in the development of collateral circulation in those people who have already suffered from a heart attack or are prone to it.
Heart patients should offer-the five obligatory prayers regularly as they get the permission from their doctor to leave bed.
The arrangement of prayers is such that those at the time of empty stomach are brief but those after meals are longer and give more exercise to the body.
During the month of Fast (Ramadhan) the additional twenty Rakaat (Tarawih) are added to the late evening prayers because more than normal food is usually consumed after breaking fast.
The performance of prayers put almost all muscles of the body in action. Different groups of muscles are activated while performing prayers. During Sajda blood supply to the brain is improved. One of the useful methods to strengthen the muscles of the knee joints to mitigate the strain on knees in osteo arthritis is the regular exercise of these muscles during prayers.
Source: islamic-world.net
