Principle Forty: How the Qur’an Points to the Fundamentals of Medicine
The foundations of medicine are three:
- Preserving health by using beneficial means;
- Abstaining from harmful matters;
- Removing whatever noxious element has already afflicted the body.
Every medical issue ultimately revolves around these three principles.
The Qur’an draws attention to them in several passages. Concerning the preservation of health and the repelling of harm, Allah says: “Eat and drink, but do not be excessive” (Al-Aʿrāf 7:31). He commands eating and drinking—without which the body cannot remain sound—and He states this command in unrestricted terms, indicating that one may consume whatever food or drink suits him and benefits him at any given time and circumstance. He then forbids excess, whether by overeating and overdrinking or by mixing incompatible foods or eating at improper times. This amounts to a prophylactic measure against everything that harms a person. If even the indispensable nourishment of food and drink can reach a point where it injures the body and must therefore be restricted, how much more so anything else!
Likewise, Allah permits a sick person to perform dry ablution (tayammum) when the use of water would harm him—again a safeguard against all detrimental factors.
He also allows a pilgrim in the state of consecration (muhrim) who suffers discomfort from his hair to shave his head in return for a compensatory offering. This falls under the heading of expulsion—removing what harms the body—so what about things whose harm is even greater?
Allah forbids casting oneself into ruin, and that prohibition encompasses every kind of food, drug, or practice that harms a person, as well as the neglect of preventive measures against potential harm and the failure to treat existing ailments with beneficial medical methods.
The same principle underlies all the acts of worship mentioned in the Qur’an—such as jihad, prayer, fasting, pilgrimage, and the rest—that entail beneficence toward creation; although their supreme aim is to win Allah’s good pleasure, nearness, and reward, they also safeguard the body, train it, discipline the soul, gladden the heart, and contain particular secrets that preserve and enhance health while removing what is injurious.