The Place of Prophetic Medicine in the Sacred Law

Answered by Shaykh Faraz A. Khan

Question:  My question is regarding the various hadith regarding certain medical treatments apparently recommended by the Messenger of God (sullAllahu alayhi wasalaam), specifically:

Do they relate to a general recommendation to seek out what is known to be effective medicine in the society of the time, or are they themselves being recommended?

I ask because some of the things that have been relayed to me do not seem to have the properties that are attributed to them, at least not according to modern medical practice.

Answer: Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullah,

I pray this finds you in the best of health and faith.

Your question returns to a general issue of the place of prophetic medicine in the Sacred Law, and whether prophetic treatments are recommendations based on revelation or based on mere trial-and-error of the times.

A Problematic Position

Some scholars maintain that the medical treatments and related issues mentioned by the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) are not part of the Sacred Law that we are obliged to believe in and act upon.

For example, Ibn Khaldun states in his Muqaddima that the Arabs had inherited a tradition of medicine based on trial-and-error (tajriba), and that the medicine discussed in prophetic hadiths were from this tradition, and were not from revelation (wahy). The hadiths of fecundating date-palms, in which the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, ‘You are more knowledgeable of your worldly affairs,’ is indicative of this. An exception, however, would be treatment used by way of ‘seeking the blessings’ (tabarruk), which is not medicinal per se but rather based on his role as prophet. The treatment of honey for stomach illness is also such an exception.

Scholarly Rebuttal and A More Balanced Position

However, Mufti Taqi Usmani comments that such an attitude is one of immense danger, if what is meant is that prophetic medicine is based solely on inherited tradition based on trial-and-error, and that hence some of the treatments prescribed by him (peace and blessings be upon him) do not correspond with reality. Likewise, Ibn Khaldun’s statement that none of those treatments are from revelation: this is impossible to be certain of.

Rather, some prophetic treatments could very well be from revelation, while some could be based on trial-and-error. Hence, one cannot be certain that none of them are based on revelation.

What we can be certain of, though, is that none of the treatments that the Prophet prescribed as certainly effective, which have reached us through sound narrations, are contradictory to reality, regardless of whether or not human science has confirmed these treatments. This is because it is inconceivable that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) would prescribe something as certainly effective while in reality it proves ineffective.

If a treatment is based on revelation, then of course it would correspond with reality. If it were not based on revelation, then it still cannot contradict reality, because he (peace and blessings be upon him) affirms nothing with certainty if it contradicts reality.

As for the incident of fecundating date-palms that Ibn Khaldun uses as proof for his position, it is not an example of the Prophet affirming something with certainty; rather, it was his personal opinion, due to which he said, “It is only my personal opinion, and do not take me to account for personal opinion.”

The most that can be said, in this discussion, is that the treatments narrated from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) are not part of the “message” (risala) that he was ordered to convey to humanity, and hence not part of the Sacred Law, i.e., they are not part of what must be followed by all Muslims in every time and place.

The Categorization of Hadiths by Shah Wali Allah

As Shah Wali Allah al-Dehlawi states, in general, narrations from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) are of two types:

(1) That which pertains to conveying the message (risala), regarding which the Qur’an explicitly states, “That which the Messenger brings forth, take it; and that which he forbids, refrain from it” (59:7).

It includes knowledge of Judgement Day and the wonders of the unseen realm, all of which is based upon revelation (wahy).

It also includes legal rulings of the Sacred Law; some of this is based upon revelation, and some is based upon his ijtihad. Yet his ijtihad (peace and blessings be upon him) is akin to revelation, since Allah Most High protected him from his opinion affirming an error.

(2) That which does not pertain to conveying the message (risala), which includes his statement in the incident of fecundating date palms, “I am only a human: if I command you to do something in your religion, then take it; but if I tell you to do something based on personal opinion, then [realize] that I am only human.”

This category includes prophetic medicine; it is based upon personal experience and trial-and-error (tajriba). It also includes things he did based on custom rather than worship, or what he did coincidentally rather than intentionally. It also includes things he mentioned similar to what his people would mention, such as the hadith of Umm Zur`. [Dehlawi, Hujjat Allah al-Baligha]

[Taken from Mufti Taqi Usmani, Takmila al-Fath al-Mulhim (4:173-74)]

And Allah knows best.

wassalam

Faraz

Checked & Approved by Faraz Rabbani