Scholars harp on benefits of Islamic medicine

Revered Muslim scholars and orthodox medical practitioners have called for increased awareness about “prophetic medicine” and the establishment of centres for its practitioners in Nigeria.

They made the call on Monday at the 2023 edition of the yearly Imams Conference, organised by Lekki Muslim Ummah (LEMU), an umbrella organisation for all Muslims in the Lekki Peninsula area of Lagos State. The theme of the conference was, ‘Health is Wealth’.

The Chief Imam of Lekki Central Mosque, Sheikh Ridwanullah Jamiu, lamented the dearth of research in the field of “prophetic medicine”, stressing that there are lots of benefits in the industry.

“Prophetic medicine is really a rich industry, but the challenge is that people have not done enough research in the field. The industry has to be enhanced and regulated.

“In fact, we need an Islamic medical centre where prophetic medicine practitioners can be brought together with orthodox medical practitioners under one roof for some cross-fertilisation of ideas.

“The Prophet (SAW) gave us the medicinal value of so many things, but we have not actually been able to derive the maximum benefits of those things.

“So, we need to create awareness and motivate people to do more research in this area. It can serve as alternative medicine, help humanity and serve as a source of income for our Imams.”

A lecturer at the Al-Hikmah University, Ilorin, Kwara State, Dr. Dhikrullah Shafi’i Olohunoyin, emphasised the need for the establishment of centres for “prophetic medicine” practitioners in Nigeria.

He said the reason for the low attention it receives is due to the fact that practitioners are not established with centres, adding that Muslim communities need to unite to create centres, where the practitioners can operate seamlessly.

“We have individual specialists in their own rights scattered across the country who do Islamic medicine in line with the Sunnah. The challenge is that most of these specialists are not established, and their work requires building a team and a comfortable centre. It is not something they can do alone. And everything boils down to finance.

“We have some of our brothers in Ibadan, Oyo State, under the aegis of At-Turaath. It is a health organisation that incorporates Islamic medicine in its practice, comprising both male and female specialists. Females attend to female patients, while males attend to male patients.

“My advice, therefore, is that Muslims in various states should collaborate with these specialists to build centres for Islamic medicine and ruqyah. That’s the best way to go. Individual efforts won’t achieve much. It has to be coordinated,” he counseled.

Olohunoyin encouraged Muslims to make their imaan (belief) in Allah stronger, as “prophetic medicine” requires a full measure of faith.
“To practice Islamic medicine, we have to be familiar with the Quranic verses that work for healing. Then, we should also do everything within the tenets of Islam.

“We must have the firm belief that Allah is the only one that heals. All other things people call upon are mere creatures, whether it is the jinn or angels. All of them do not heal. It is only Allah that heals. It should be in our belief, therefore, that it’s only Allah that heals,” he stated.

An invited lecturer, Ustadh Musharaf Aderogba, urged Muslim stakeholders to ramp up advocacy and awareness on “prophetic medicine”.

According to him, Muslims must be made to understand that the solution to most of their ailments is in “prophetic medicine”, which is also called alternative medicine.

“There is an advocacy in the media that people should return to alternative medicine because the chemicals in orthodox medicine have side effects.

“We have to create awareness for ‘prophetic medicine’. If we say we have financial challenges, it means we are not being honest with ourselves. We have wealthy people among us in the Muslim community. We just need to make more awareness to preach the benefits of ‘prophetic medicine’. For me, therefore, awareness is the first thing,” he declared.

He explained that most of the “prophetic medicines” in Nigeria are imported. This, he said, is essential because our experts in botany and other fields who are supposed to help in this regard are only fixated on academics.

He said: “There is little to no practice. Well, I feel they may need some level of government support and intervention to embark on this. For instance, they require sophisticated machines to produce these items. The pharmaceutical companies we have in Nigeria only make provision for orthodox medicine.

“In most cases, orthodox medicine is being sponsored by developing countries to generate income. If we should also examine it, the requirements for orthodox medicine are not as costly as that of ‘prophetic medicine’. That’s why only Islamic countries that understand its value are the few who take ‘prophetic medicine’ with keen dedication.”