Top

Published in:

01-04-2020 | Philosophical Exploration

Causes and Means of Healing: An Islamic Ontological Perspective

Authors: Ahsan M. Arozullah, Aasim I. Padela, M. Volkan Stodolsky, M. Amin Kholwadia

Published in: Journal of Religion and Health | Issue 2/2020

Abstract

Healthcare practitioners are increasingly aware that patients may utilize faith-based healing practices in place of conventional medicine based on their spiritual and/or religious understandings of health and illness. Therefore, elucidating the ontological understandings of patients utilizing such religion-based treatments may clarify why patients and clinicians have differing understandings of ‘who’ heals and ‘what’ are means for healing. This paper describes an Islamic ontological schema that includes the following realms: Divine existence; spirits/celestial beings; non-physical forms/similitudes; and physical bodies. Ontological schema-based means of healing include conventional medicine, religion-based means (e.g., supplication, charity, prescribed incantations/amulets), and active adoption of Islamic virtues (e.g., reliance on God [tawakkul] and patience [sabr]). An ontological schema-based description of causes and means of healing can service a more holistic model of healthcare by integrating the overlapping worlds of religion and medicine and can support clinicians seeking to further understand and assess patient responses and attitudes toward illness and healing.

The ontological schema described here focuses on realms of existence that map to causes and means of healing accessible to a human being during their worldly life. There are additional realms of existence described by Islamic theologians that are not included here such as the barzakh that is the world of the graves that a human being can access only during the period after worldly death and before resurrection.

Muhyi al-Din Ibn al-‘Arabi, known as “the greatest master”, was born in twelfth century Spain and spent the second half of his life in the Eastern Islamic world. He authored 251 titles that contributed significantly to every aspect of Sufi thought including metaphysics and is viewed as an essential link between the Islamic spirituality of the West and East. For a detailed introduction to his life and works, please refer to the introduction of Ralph Austin’s translation of Ibn al-‘Arabi’s The Bezels of Wisdom (1980, Ramsey NJ: Paulist Press).

Qutb al-Din ibn ‘Abdur-Rahim, known as Shah Waliyullah, was born in a small village named Pulth in Upper Pradesh province of India in the eighteenth century and is recognized as a leading Islamic scholar from the Indian subcontinent in both exoteric and esoteric sciences including metaphysics. His intellectual and spiritual status is well recognized throughout the Islamic world. For an introductory summary of his teachings in English, please refer to G.N. Jalbani’s The Teachings of Shah Waliyullah of Delhi (1979, Lahore Pakistan: Ashraf Printing Press).

English translation of the Qu’ran taken from Muhammad Asad’s translation, ‘The message of the Qu’ran’ (1984, reprinted 1993, Melksham, Great Britain: Redwood Press Limited).

From the perspective of a human being who exists in the realm of creation, the angels in the malakūt provide a means to deliver supplications to God through their role as messengers. However, from the perspective of Islamic beliefs, God is not dependent in any way on creation and therefore, His knowledge of human supplications does not depend on delivery by angels.

There has been a lively debate among jurists and theologians regarding whether adoption of tawakkul involves leaving off of worldly means, and whether or not it involves a desire for a specific outcome. In the context of healing the debate can be rephrased as to whether tawakkul demands leaving off actions to facilitate healing and simply “resigning” the outcome to God. Accordingly there are various well-reasoned stances on the matter. For some insights into how the debate is a reflection into the different schools of Sunni law the reader is directed to the paper by Qureshi and Padela (2016). When Must A Patient Seek Healthcare? Bringing the Perspectives of Islamic Jurists and Clinicians into Dialogue. Zygon 51:3.

Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, known as al-Ghazali, is noteworthy as one of the great theologians, mystics, and jurists of the twelfth century. He is referred to as Hujjat-al-Islam (the ‘authority’ or ‘proof’ of Islam) based on the breadth of his scholarship and spirituality. For an introduction to his life and works, please refer to H. Littlejohn’s translation of Book 32 of the Revival of the Religious Sciences (2010, reprinted 2013, Cambridge: The Islamic Texts Society).

This hadith qudsi is quoted here as provided by al-Ghazali. There is a slightly different transmission in al-Mustadrak of al-Ḥākim (Abū ˁAbd Allāh Muḥammad b. ˁAbd Allāh) that translates as, “If I test my believing servant and he does not complain about me to his visitors, I release him from his sickness and then I give him flesh better than his flesh and blood better than his blood. Then his deeds will restart [as his sins are forgiven].” [Al-Ḥākim, 1:500, Al-Mustadrak ˁalā l-ṣaḥīḥayn. Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ˁIlmiyyah, 1990]. Al-Ḥākim states that the hadith is sound according to the criteria of al-Bukhārī and Muslim although they did not transmit it.

Akhtar, S. H. M. (2015). The reformation of character (Ridhwan Kajee, Trans.), Karachi: Khanqah Imdadiyyah Ashrafiyyah Gulshan Iqbal.

Al-Ghazali, A. H. M. (2010). Al-Ghazali on patience and thankfulness: Book XXXII of the revival of the religious sciences. (H. T. Littlejohn, Trans.), Ghazali Series, Islamic Texts Society.

Alrawi, S., Fetters, M. D., Killawi, A., Hammad, A., & Padela, A. (2011). Traditional healing practices among American Muslims: Perceptions of community leaders in Southeast Michigan. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-011-9495-0.CrossRef

Arabi, I. (2015). Futuhat al-Makkiyah (Meccan revelations), Vol. 2. Beirut: Dar Sader.

Cherry, M. J. (2000). Polymorphic medical ontologies: Fashioning concepts of disease. Journal of Medicine and Philosophy,25(5), 519–538. https://doi.org/10.1076/0360-5310(200010)25:5;1-W;FT519.CrossRefPubMed

Egnew, T. R. (2005). The meaning of healing: Transcending suffering. Annals of Family Medicine,3(3), 255–262. https://doi.org/10.1370/afm.313.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Padela, A. I., Pruitt, L., & Mallick, S. (2017). The types of trust involved in American Muslim healthcare decisions: An exploratory qualitative study. Journal of Religion and Health,56(4), 1478–1488.CrossRef

Qureshi, O., Padela, A. I. (2016). When must a patient seek healthcare? Bringing the perspectives of Islamic Jurists and clinicians into dialogue. Journal of Religion & Science, 51(3), 592–625.

Sulmasy, D. P. (2002). A biopsychosocial-spiritual model for the care of patients at the end of life. The Gerontologist,42(suppl_3), 24–33. https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/42.suppl_3.24.CrossRefPubMed

Title: Causes and Means of Healing: An Islamic Ontological Perspective
Authors: Ahsan M. Arozullah
Aasim I. Padela
M. Volkan Stodolsky
M. Amin Kholwadia
Publication date: 01-04-2020
Publisher: Springer US
Published in: Journal of Religion and Health / Issue 2/2020
Print ISSN: 0022-4197
Electronic ISSN: 1573-6571
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-018-0666-3

Keynote webinar | Spotlight on medication adherence

Springer Medicine

Causes and Means of Healing: An Islamic Ontological Perspective

Abstract

Keynote webinar | Spotlight on medication adherence

Springer Medicine

Abstract

Please log in to get access to this content

Other articles of this Issue 2/2020

Religious Discrimination Scale: Development and Initial Psychometric Evaluation

Authors Disclosing Their Theistic Orientation in Journal Articles on Religion and Health? Infrequent, Informal, and Mostly Inconsistent with Conflict of Interest

Investigating Socioeconomic Disparities in the Potential Healthy Eating and Physical Activity Environments of Churches

The Comparison of Death Anxiety, Obsession, and Depression Between Muslim Population with Positive and Negative Religious Coping

Roles of Religious Commitment, Emotion Regulation and Social Support in Preoperative Anxiety

Conscientious Objection: A Talmudic Paradigm Shift