Voices of Islam (219 page)

The fourth stage in the restoration of moral balance is similar to surgery, in that it involves the elimination or ‘‘cauterization’’ of the portion of the self that is diseased. This amounts to emergency treatment because it addresses a mortal threat to the moral life of the person: ‘‘If this type of restoration to moral balance [i.e., antidote], too, proves insuffi ient, the self constantly returning to the repetition of the [same] negative trait, then it must be consciously chastised and deadened. Diffi ult and arduous tasks must be imposed upon it to effect change. Furthermore, one should set about making vows and covenants that are difficult to implement after becoming aware of the negative effects upon the self. This category of restoration to moral bal- ance is like the cutting-off of limbs in medicine or the cauterization of the extremities. The final remedy is surgery.’’
41

The ultimate goal is the unity of the self: ‘‘The goal of self in practical philosophy is unity, which is achieved by the self when it completes the per- fection of nature in its mode of operation in the self. As the self seeks balance, it learns to read the Signs of guidance through creation and guidance through revelation, on the way to completing the perfection of nature in its mode of operation. The stages are: becoming conscious of self; becoming centered in positive traits; benefiting another person; and practicing guiding

174
Voices of Art, Beauty, and Science

the development of positive traits and preventing the development of negative ones in other and in the self.’’
42

The Medicine of the Prophet and Islamic Medicine are branches of the tree of knowledge that grew in the Islamic world over a period of more than 1,400 years. Although its origins were in Greek approaches to medicine such as those of Hippocrates and Galen, Islamic Medicine eventually synthesized the theory and practice of Greek medicine and those of other civilizations such as India and China. Eventually, just as in other branches of science, Muslims came to excel in medicine and added their own important contribu- tions to medical knowledge. This can be seen in the widespread influence of Ibn Sina’s (Avicenna’s)
The Canon of Medicine
throughout medieval Europe. Western theories of scientifi medicine have now taken over most of the Islamic world, so much so, in fact, that doctors may even become the leaders of countries, such as former Prime Minister Mahathir Muhammad of Malaysia. However, Islamic Medicine is still a living tradition in many areas of the Islamic world. One can fi numerous practitioners and even clinics of Islamic Medicine in countries such as Iran, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India.

NOTES

1. ‘‘Scientifi knowledge comes from the study of natural phenomena. These natural phenomena are the signs of God.’’ See M. M. Sharif,
   A History of Muslim Philosophy
   (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1963), vol. 1, 147.
   

2. See, for example, the following Qur’anic verses: 2:164,219; 3:190; 6:95–99; 10:3–6; 13:2–4; 17:12; 30:20–27; 45:3–6.
   

3. See Sharif,
   A History of Muslim Philosophy,
   146–147.
   

4. These are common traditions, and are known to virtually every Muslim. See, for example, the hadith in
   Sunan al-Tirmidhi,
   ‘‘He who leaves his home in search of knowledge walks in the path of God.’’ Abu ‘Isa Muhammad al-Tirmidhi,
   Jami‘ Sunan al-Tirmidhi
   (Beirut: Dar al-Ma‘arif, 2000), 39:2.
   

5. Fazlur Rahman,
   Health and Medicine in the Islamic Tradition
   (Chicago, Illinois: ABC International Group, 1998), 38.
   

6. The consumption of alcohol is known to increase the incidence of several cancers and infl conditions of the alimentary tract, cirrhosis of the liver, pancreatitis, heart muscle damage, and various disorders of the central and peripheral nervous systems. See Shahid Athar,
   Islamic Perspectives in Medicine
   (Indianapolis, Indiana: American Trust Publication, 1993), 118.
   

7. Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya,
   Medicine of the Prophet,
   trans. Penelope Johnstone (Cambridge, U.K.: The Islamic Texts Society, 1998), 4.
   

8. Ibid., 5. 9. Ibid., 17.
   

10. Ibid.

11. Ibid., 10.

Medicine and Healing in Traditional Islam
175

12. Ibid., 10–11.

13. Ibid., 11. 14. Ibid., 199.

1. Jalal al-Din ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn Abu Bakr al-Suyuti,
   Traditional Medicine of the Prophet,
   trans. Cyril Elgood (Istanbul, Dar al-Fikr, 1999), 145.
   

2. Ibid., 146; see also, Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazzali,
   On Listening to Music
   (Chicago, Illinois: Great Books of the Islamic World, 2002).
   

3. For a discussion of ‘‘pharmacognosy’’ and a description of works on the subject, see Seyyid Hossein Nasr,
   Islamic Science: an Illustrated Study
   (London: World of Islam Festival, 1976), 187–189.
   

4. See al-Tirmidhi,
   Jami‘ Sunan al-Tirmidhi,
   ‘‘Kitab al-Tibb,’’ hadith no. 21.
   

5. For the history and development of hospitals in the Muslim world, see Nasr,
   

   Islamic Science,
   154–156.
   

6. Nizami ‘Arudi of Samarkand,
   Chahar Maqala,
   trans. E.G. Browne (London, U.K.: Luzac, 1921), 76.
   

7. Seyyed Hossein Nasr,
   Science and Civilization in Islam
   (Chicago, Illinois: ABC International Group, 2001) 185.
   

8. Imam Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj,
   Sahih Muslim,
   trans. Abdul Hamid Siddiqi (Lahore, Pakistan: Sh. Muhammad Ashraf, 2001), vol. 3, 1004 (no. 4462) and 1001 (no. 4454).
   

9. Quoted in Suyuti,
   Traditional Medicine of the Prophet,
   103.
   

10. Ibid.
    

11. Islamic Medicine also formed the basis of medicine in the medieval Western world through the infl ce of Ibn Sina’s (Avicenna’s)
    The Canon of Medicine
    (al-Qanun fi al-Tibb), which was translated into Latin soon after its publication in Arabic. For 700 years, Ibn Sina’s
    Canon
    was the most important textbook on medicine in Europe. It also formed the basis of the work of Samuel Hahnemann (d. 1897
    CE
    ), the founder of homeopathy.
    

12. See, for example, Sami K. Hamarneh, ‘‘The Life Sciences,’’ in
    The Genius of Arab Civlization: Source of Renaissance,
    ed. John R. Hayes, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1983), 173–200.
    

13. See Vincent J. Cornell, ‘‘Religion and Philosophy, ’’ in
    World Eras Volume 2: The Rise and Spread of Islam 622–1500,
    ed. Susan L. Douglass (Farmington Hills, Michigan: The Gale Group/Manly Inc., 2002), 324–399.
    

14. Suyuti,
    Traditional Medicine of the Prophet,
    19.
    

15. On the medicine of souls and traditional ‘‘psychotherapy’’ in Islam, see Laleh Bakhtiar,
    God’s Will Be Done: Traditional Pyschoethics and the Personality Paradigm
    (Chicago, Illinois: Institute of Traditional Psychology, 1994), volume 1 of the series
    God’s Will Be Done.
    

16. ‘‘To find the real center, which entails absolute moderation, is diffi to attain. To remain at this center and to preserve the balance is even more diffi .’’ See Muhammad Mahdi ibn Abi Dharr Naraqi,
    Jami‘ al-sa‘adat,
    trans. Shahyar Sa‘adat (Tehran: Foundation of Islamic Thought, 1989), 70. The Prophet Muhammad also said, ‘‘
    Sura Hud
    has made an old man of me’’ (
    shaykh,
    ‘‘old man’’ or ‘‘wise person’’) because of the verse, ‘‘Tread the Straight Path as you have been commanded, as well
    

    176
    Voices of Art, Beauty, and Science
    

    as those who are repentant with you, and do not transgress. Verily, [God] is the Seer of whatever you do’’ (11:112).
    

17. Sunan al-Tirmidhi,
    ‘‘Kitab al-Zuhd’’ (Book of Asceticism), 34.
    

18. Suyuti,
    Traditional Medicine of the Prophet,
    22–23.
    

19. Avicenna,
    The Canon of Medicine,
    trans. O. Cameron Gruner and adapted by Laleh Bakhtiar (Chicago, Illinois: Great Books of the Islamic World, 1999), 251.
    

20. Ibid.
    

21. Ibid., 5.
    

22. Nasir al-Din Tusi,
    Nassirian Ethics,
    trans. G. Wickens (London, U.K.: George Allen & Unwin, 1966), 182. On the intellectual environment in which Tusi lived and worked, see ‘‘Conservation and Courtliness in the Intellectual Traditions,
    

    c. 1258–1503,’’ in Marshall G. S. Hodgson,
    The Venture of Islam: Conscience and
    

    History in a World Civilization, Volume 2: the Expansion of Islam in the Middle Periods
    

    (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1977), 437–500.
    

23. Tusi,
    Nassirian Ethics,
    175.
    

24. Ibid.
    

25. Ibid.
    

26. Ibid.
    

41. Ibid., 182.

42. Ibid.

I
NDEX
‌

•

Aag Ka Darya
(Hyder), 129 ‘Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi, 131 ‘Abd al-Rahman 2nd (caliph), 78

‘Abd al-Rahman Ibn Khaldun.
See
Ibn Khaldun

‘Abd al-Rahman Jami, 133 ‘Abd al-Ra‘uf Singkili, 125 Abdillatif Abdalla, 133

Abel, 12

Ablutions, 50

Abstract art, 7, 12, 30

Abu ‘Ali ibn Sina, 62, 159.
See
Ibn Sina, Abu ‘Ali (Avicenna)

Abu Bakr (caliph), 53

Abu Bakr al-Razi.
See
Al-Razi, Muhammad ibn Abu Zakariyya

Abu al-Faraj, 131

Acculturation, modern European dress, 57–58

Acoustic considerations.
See
Auditory considerations

Adab al-Tabib
(Ibn ‘Ali al-Ruhawa), 160

Adam: divine form of, 32 n.4; naming task, 143–44

Adhan
(call to prayer), 72 Adonis, 127, 150

Advice to Kings
(al-Ghazali), 126 Affective system (Islamic medicine),

166, 168

Afrad,
115, 120 n.9

Ahl-i-Haqq
(‘‘People of the Truth’’), 76–77, 86 n.31

Alcazar gardens (Cordoba), 102–3, 106

Alcohol drinking, 155, 174 n.6

Alexander, 8

Alf layla wa layla
(
The Thousand and One Nights
), 23, 130

Alhambra, 2, 94, 101–2, 104, 106

‘Ali (‘‘Lion of God’’), 75 Ali, Agha Shahid, 133 Ali, Ahmed, 128

‘Ali Hujwiri, 61

Alkali, Zaynab, 128

Amdah nabawiyya
(music in praise of Muhammad), 72–74

Amulets, 159

Andalusian music, 77–79

Angel Gabriel (
Pir-Binyanun
), 76, 123 Angels: naming of, 143–44; recitation

of
Qur’an,
47 n.13 Angkor Wat (Cambodia), 89

Aniconism, 5, 17 n.1, 18 n.21, 29–32,

32 n.3; influence on calligraphy, 33.

See also
Images

Animals: in Islamic art, 17 n.2; ‘‘poetry’’ of, 143, 148; responses to

music, 63; souls of, 165–66;

zoomorphic sculptures, 31

Anonymity of sacred art, 35–36, 39 ‘Antara ibn al-Shaddad, 93

Apparel.
See
Dress

Arabesques: in Arabic art, 23; in architecture, 11–12; as

ornamentation in Qur’an, 43–44, 47 n.10

Arabic art: Arab-Islam connection, 19; contemplative nature of, 22

178
Index

Arabic grammar, 127

Arabic language, 19–25, 122; archaic nature of, 20; auditive and imaginative intuition, 21; characteristics of, 21; compared to other languages, 24, 127; link to art, 22; phonetic system, 20, 21, 22, 26

nn.4, 7; poetry, 132, 133, 145; as

sacred language of Islam, 19, 25–26 n.1; semantics, 21; sentence forms, 23–24; verbs, 21, 26 n.7

Arabic script, 15–16, 123

Archaic heritage: of Arabic language, 20; influence on Islamic art, 11 Archetype of Qur’an calligraphy, 36 Architecture, 6–7, 8–12, 13; Arabic,

24; concentric arrangements, 9;

contemplative nature of, 2, 30; crystal shape, 6; distinction between public and private domains, 96; houses, 13–14; mausoleums and tombs, 54–55;
mihrab
(prayer niche), 16–17, 18 n.20, 51–53;