Prophetic medicine (al-tibb al-nabawi)

Prophetic medicine is what the reports preserve of the Prophet's guidance in treating the body, as Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya presents it in Zad al-Ma'ad. Ibn al-Qayyim sorts the Prophet's treatment into three kinds: by natural drugs, by divine remedies, and by a combination of the two ¹. The chapter rests for him on the reports that every disease has a remedy, among them 'every disease has a remedy' in Muslim ² and 'God sent down no disease without sending down a cure for it' in al-Bukhari ³; he holds that seeking treatment does not conflict with trust in God ⁴.

Ibn al-Qayyim begins by distinguishing the medicine of hearts from the medicine of bodies: the medicine of hearts is, for him, entrusted to the messengers, and the heart's health can only come through them ⁵. Bodily medicine he divides in two: one kind God instilled in every animal, speaking or dumb, such as meeting hunger, thirst, cold and fatigue with their opposites, which needs no physician; the other needs thought and reflection, such as treating the diseases that take the temperament out of balance ⁵. He holds that the Qur'an already pointed to the principles of medicine, taking the permission given to the sick to use earth in place of water as an example of abstention an-Nisa 43 ⁵. He states that the Prophet was sent as a guide to God and that bodily medicine came as a completion of his law, used when there is need ¹.

Ibn al-Qayyim says the Prophet's treatment of illness was of three kinds: first by natural drugs, second by divine remedies, third by a combination of the two, and he then takes each in turn ¹. Among the divine remedies he counts the remedies of the heart and spirit: strength of heart, reliance on God, trust in Him, taking refuge in Him, charity, supplication, repentance, seeking forgiveness and kindness to people ^{6 7}; he promises to discuss reciting the Fatiha over someone stung ruqya ⁷. As for natural drugs, he says they were mostly simples rather than compounds: it was not the practice of the Prophet or his Companions to use the compound drugs called aqrabadhin, though they sometimes added to a simple something that helped it or blunted its force ⁶. He explains this by the fact that drugs belong to the same genus as foods: a people whose food is mostly simple suffer few diseases and are served by simple drugs, while townspeople, whose diseases are compound, need compound ones ⁶.

Ibn al-Qayyim relays from Jabir the Prophet's saying 'every disease has a remedy; when the remedy of the disease is found, it is cured by God's leave' ² Muslim 5741; from Abu Hurayra (may God be pleased with him) in al-Bukhari 'God sent down no disease without sending down a cure' ³; the report of Usama ibn Sharik (may God be pleased with him), in which the Bedouin asked whether they should seek treatment and he answered that they should, since God set no disease without setting a cure except one, old age ⁷ Ibn Majah 3436 al-Tirmidhi 2038; and the Prophet's answer to Abu Khizama, who asked whether charms, drugs and precautions turn back anything of God's decree: 'they are part of God's decree' ⁸ Ibn Majah 3437. On how far 'every disease has a remedy' extends, Ibn al-Qayyim sets out two readings: that it is fully general, covering even fatal diseases no physician can cure, for which God has placed remedies whose knowledge He withheld from people; or that it is a general expression meant in a particular sense, every disease that admits a remedy, as in the verse on the wind sent against 'Ad al-Ahqaf 25 ^{7 4}. He adds that the Prophet tied healing to the remedy 'meeting' the disease, that is, fitting it in quality, quantity, time and the body's receptiveness ⁴.

Ibn al-Qayyim relays that the sound reports contain the command to seek treatment and that it does not conflict with trust in God, just as meeting hunger, thirst, heat and cold with their opposites does not; he holds that neglecting the means undermines trust itself tawakkul ⁴. He sets out the objection of those who say that if healing is decreed treatment is pointless and if it is not decreed it is equally pointless, and answers that drugs and charms are part of God's decree, so one decree is turned back by another, as the decree of hunger is turned back by eating qadar ⁴. He adds that the saying 'every disease has a remedy' strengthens the spirit of both patient and physician and urges the search for the remedy, because a patient who senses his disease has a cure attaches his heart to hope ⁹. He devotes a chapter to the prohibition of treatment with forbidden substances, reporting from Abu al-Darda the Prophet's words 'do not treat yourselves with what is forbidden' ¹⁰.

Ibn al-Qayyim says the physicians agree that when treatment by food is possible one should not turn to drugs, and when a simple will do one should not turn to a compound ⁶. He then states his own view of the comparison: the physicians' medicine stands to the medicine God reveals to His messenger as the medicine of itinerant healers and old women stands to theirs, reasoning that the physicians' knowledge is, according to some, analogy, according to others experience, and according to others inspirations, dreams and sound guesswork ⁶. This is his own opinion, which he attributes to himself and argues. Throughout the chapters he quotes Hippocrates, Galen, al-Razi and the author of the Canon to show the medical wisdom in the reports ^{11 12 13}. He lays down a further principle, that bodies are treated with the drugs and foods they are accustomed to, and says the whole of the Prophet's treatment agrees with the patient's habit and land ¹⁴. And he notes that the Prophet's address is of two kinds, general to the people of the earth and specific to some, placing the report on cooling fever with water among those specific to the people of the Hijaz and their neighbours ¹ fever.

Other records of the museum take up the topics of the chapter as Ibn al-Qayyim presents them: among simple remedies black seed, Indian and marine costus, senna and sannut, the desert truffle and ithmid and kohl; among treatments cautery, cupping, talbina, oral and nasal drops and diet; among diseases and conditions fever, contagion, the plague, epidemic disease and visiting the sick. The reader may also see seeking treatment.

This page describes what the sources report of the Prophet's guidance and what Ibn al-Qayyim says about it; it gives no medical advice and no legal ruling.