Principles & Elements of Traditional – Islamic Medicine (Part I)

Allāh Almighty has said: “We have indeed created man in the best of mould”. He created all body parts of man in the most complete formula and the best possible structure. Allah put the body parts to carry out their duties in the most accurate and complicated way, placing and ordaining the function of body parts with each other and their effect on the whole body.
The parts of body including brain, eyes, ears, tongue, heart, stomach and kidney are in the shape of a unified set as the function of each of the parts directly or indirectly affects the other body parts. The function of a part may make the function of other parts better or may worsen it as well as it is the reason of proper or improper work of the parts. For example, there is a Hadith which says: “Indeed in the body there is a lump of flesh, if it is good, the entire body will be good, and if it is corrupted, the entire body becomes corrupted, and that is the heart.” (Būkhāri)
The next point; human body is the center of the activity of soul and the self; as the body is a place for the soul to take up position, it is the center of soul, too. So the status of them can leave useful or destructive effects on the human body.
We hear many people saying: I have gotten many tests and everything is OK and normal. My therapist doctor tells me that I am not suffering from any illness. But I myself know and sure that I am ill. I feel ache, sleeplessness, anorexia, weakness and feebleness and I do not know what is my ache and illness. Please help me and find any solution for me. In such situations, apart from focusing on body diseases and the position of body, the mental and psychological status and its effects on the body should be considered, too.
Generally, the signs of mental diseases are divided into two kinds: 1. Being sad and feel grieved, disappointed, hopeless, stress and anxiety which are clues for the mental and psychological status; 2. The signs like ache, sleeplessness, anorexia, feebleness, boredom and lethargy show the position of body.
On this basis, the traditional medicine first of all looks at the human body and spirit as a complex and set, then in treatment, it focuses on the both sides simultaneously.