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A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

My dear reader,

I have wanted to write this book for a long time but was always in a time deficit, thanks to the various commitments and especially committees that exactcd a heavy toll of the time to think and the time to write.  My sabbatical leave tram the University of Kuwait was therefore a welcome event, and I decided that this book should be one of the fruits of this leave.

Since we started the clinical teaching at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Kuwait, a teature on our curriculum was "Islamic Aspects of Obstetrics & Gynaecology". Although allocated two hours of didactic lecturing, the subject was frequently visited during the clinical part of the programme. No other branch of medicine is as entwined with religious implications as obstetrics & gynaecology. And it was our conviction that as we prepare doctors to serve a community, they should have some insight in its prevailing values, these being the Islamic values in much of the Muslim world, at least in matters of health & hygiene and how Islamic teachings relate to them.

Moreover, the present age illustrates how changing lifestyles can change the 'disease/health' map of a community. This makes the real preventive medicine for some of today's most serious health problems reside practically in the realm of ideology and codes of social morality rather than within the boundaries of the health and medical professions as traditionally defined until now; unless of course those boundaries are appreciably widened. Value systems may have to be revised if new epidemics are to be combated, and health professionals will find it increasingly unethical to stay away from the fight to change values, under the guise of the traditional neutrality of medicine. In the discussion of these values Islam has a word to say, that both Muslim and non-Muslim readers might be interested to hear.

Of course this book is not a text of obstetrics & gynaecology. Nor is it a text book at all. It is meant to be more of an Islamic coverage of the areas encompassed by that discipline as they deal with various aspects of womanhood and motherhood. As well known, it takes more than knowledge of obstetrics & gynaecology to practise this discipline on Muslim patients. This book attempts to equip the practitioner with the background necessary to view things with an Islamic perspective.

Inspite of the way this introductory note has run so far, I would like to assure the reader that this is not a medical book targeted only to medical practitioners or students. It is a book in Islamic culture at large, for any 'lay' reader interested to know how Islam relates to the topics presented in these pages. It is about Islam and not about medicine that I wanted to tell my reader from the outset. The Muslim reader will find in it an assemblage together of scattered knowledge already known in whole or in part. For the non-Muslim it is a chance to know more about Islam. We hope both would be interested.

Hassan Hathout
South Pasadena-California
April, 1986

The translation of quotations from the Holy Quran were taken from Yusuf Ali's translation, with minor modifications that we thought would better express the meaning, and using the modern English style.  Every Quranic quotation is followed between brackets by the sura (chapter) and the verse numbers.  The traditions (hadiths sayings) of the prophet are our translation, followed between brackets by the name(s) of hadith scholar(s) who reported each hadith.

Basic concepts that are common knowledge have not been referenced, otherwise the references have been included between brackets in their appropriate positions along the text. 

I am indebted for the University of Kuwait for the sabbatical leave that offered the necessary time to write this book.

I am also grateful to the Islamic Center of Southern California in Los Angeles for giving me free access to their library and resources.

"For the wind that bloweth the sail is the mind.
But the faith in the heart is the compass to guide.
And what is eyesight if the heart is blind?!
Lo! We all look so good.   But what is inside?
Who is right?  Who is wrong?  Only God will decide."

---   The Author