Islamset - Medical Philosophy in Islam:FOREWORD

FOREWORD

In the name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful

Islam today stands on the threshold of a new era. After almost 400 years of stagnation, Islamic civilization is beginning to reassert itself in the affairs of modern society. Muslims throughout the world are critically reassessing, and re-evaluating the philosophies and ideologies of today and finding them wanting. Increasingly, they are turning to Islam and through its book of guidance the Quran and the example of the Prophet (SAW), seeking solutions for the problems of today.

This revival of Islam is influencing all branches of knowledge including the humanities, and the natural sciences. Medical science too is caught up in this revival. The concept of Islamic medicine is now openly discussed and debated and Muslim physicians are now proudly professing their loyalty to Islamic medicine. They are justifiably proud of the outstanding contributions made by the early Muslim scientists in such fields as medicine, astronomy, mathematics and optics, etc., contributions, which for centuries have been suppressed and indeed plagiarised by western scientists. The West has consistently and systematically played down the contribution of Muslim scientists to civilization. Most historians conveniently ignore the intervening period from Greek civilization to the Renaissance - a period during which Islamic civilization reached its zenith.

Hopefully, this is no longer to be. As Muslims we have the responsibility to set the records straight. In this monograph, Prof. Haq Nadvi has set out to do so, and has in my opinion succeeded admirably. He discusses the philosophy of medical treatment in Islam, based on the Quran and the Sunna of our Prophet (SAW) and outlines the contribution made by our early Muslim physicians and scientists to medicine, both in original discoveries and in propagating these through their medical writings. He shows how most of these were translated into Latin and used in Europe for centuries as standard reference texts on medicine. He critically analyses the assessment of Orientalist to Arabic medical literature and shows clearly how this was influenced by their bias against Islam. Indeed he demonstrates very well how Greek medicine which has and still is considered to be the foundation of modern medicine has its origins in Egypt. Finally he discusses how the Muslim scientist received the knowledge from contemporary civilizations of the time - Persian, Greek and Indian -and critically analyzed it, improved upon it by observation and research and applied it within the framework of the Islamic belief-system.

In this book, Prof. Haq Nadvi has indeed, admirably succeeded in putting the record straight as far as Islamic medicine is concerned. I sincerely hope and pray that it will inspire all of us to research our Muslim Medical heritage, learn from and emulate it, Insha-Allah.

Dr. Allie Moosa,
Professor, Faculty to Medicine,
University of Natal.