A soul without love is impossible to be elevated to the horizon of human perfection. Even if he lived hundreds of years, he could not make any advances on the path to perfection. Those who are deprived of love, since being entangled in the nets of selfishness, are unable to love anybody else and die unaware of love which is deeply implanted in the very essence of the existence.

A child is received with love when he is born, and grows up in a warm atmosphere composed of affectionate, loving souls. Even if he may not enjoy the same love in the same degree in later phases of his life, he always longs for it and pursues it throughout his life.

There are impressions of love on the face of the sun, water evaporates high towards those impressions, and after it has been condensed in drops high above, the drops come down joyfully onto the earth on the wings of love. Then, thousands of kinds of flowers burst through love and offer smiles to their surroundings. Dew drops on leaves glitter with love, and twinkle with amusement. Sheep and lambs bleat and skip about with love, and birds and chicks chirp with love and form choruses of love.

Each being takes part in the big love orchestra of the universe with its own particular symphony and tries to demonstrate, by free will or through its disposition, an aspect of the deep love in the existence.

Love is implanted in a man’s soul so deeply that many people leave their home for its sake, many families are ruined and, in every corner, a Majnun groans with the love and longing for a Leila. As for those who have not been able to uncover the love inherent in their being regard such kinds of manifestations of love to be madness!

Altruism is an exalted human feeling, and what generates it is love. Whoever has the greatest share in this love is the greatest hero of humanity who has been able to uproot whatever of the feelings of hatred and rancour in him. Such heroes of love continue to live even after their death. These lofty souls, who, by kindling each day a new torch of love in their inner world and making in their hearts a source of love and altruism, were welcomed and loved by people, got the right of living eternally from such an Exalted Court that, let alone death, even Doomsday will not be able to remove their traces.

A mother who can die for her child’s sake is a heroine of affection; an individual who dedicates his life to his nation and country is a self-sacrificing member of his community, and a man who lives and sacrifices himself for humanity is a monument of immortality who deserves to be enthroned in hearts. For them, love is a weapon with which to overcome every obstacle, and a key to open every door. Those who possess such a weapon and key will sooner or later open the gates to all parts of the world and spread everywhere the fragrance of peace from the ‘censers’ of love in their hands.

The most direct road leading to the hearts of people is the road of love. This road is the road of prophets. Those who follow this road are not rejected; even if they are rejected by one or two people, they are welcomed by thousands. Once they are welcomed through love, nothing could prevent them from attaining their object.

How happy and prosperous are those who follow the guidance of love. How unfortunate, on the other hand, are those who are unaware of love which exists deep in their souls, lead a ‘deaf and mute’ life!

O God, the most Exalted! Today when hatred and rancour have invaded everywhere like the layers of darkness, we take refuge in Your infinite love and entreat at Your door that you may fill up the hearts of your mischievous, pitiless slaves with love and human feelings!

Synchronization is a problem in many areas of science, notably in electrical and electronics engineering. In synchronization, there must be at least two events, one of which serves as the reference for the other. Synchronized events always follow each other in a regular manner. In electrical engineering at the instant of synchronization of two busbar voltages, both voltages must be equal in magnitude and period and they must be in phase so that they can be switched in parallel if desired.

In my research I was synchronizing output voltage with line voltage; more recently I was trying to add certain further features into my program like time delay. At this stage while trying to generate synchronized outputs with a delay I failed to allow a few microseconds to the related registers (necessary because of some time delay caused by a few instructions) and also (as I later realized) I was putting some instructions in the wrong sequence. Maybe the beauty of the micro controller design is that it does not allow you to generate (actually you command the microcontroller to generate at the related outputs what you want it to generate) just anything you may happen to have in mind. The input has to be correctly ordered. If you give the right instructions in the right order, it generates (of course, within its limitations) the correct result, otherwise it generates the wrong result or just rubbish.

I spent a whole week looking for the reason for the problem which I have very roughly described. The program ought to have worked correctly because every instruction looked to be all right. But I didn’t see far enough into just how important a few microseconds and the sequences of instructions are. So, I got very frustrated and annoyed at not being able to find the reason for the failure of what ought to have been a simple program.

At night, while thinking about the problem, I realized some of the reasons for the problem, with the help of God. It was only a matter of a few microseconds in every cycle. I did not think that the program could be affected that much by that little. The outputs appeared quite stable for a time but then, after a while, the program would suddenly crash.

Ordinarily we might think: What can a few microseconds matter or the sequence of instructions? When we ask such questions, actually we are starting to think about the complexity of the universe.

The cause of the problem I was having was a few microseconds in every cycle (one cycle is 20,000 microsecond). A few microseconds in one cycle may seem nothing, but in fact the few microseconds are out in a continuous system, every cycle is affected. As a result, the program was causing the wrong outputs to be generated.

If, at this juncture, we think about the magnificence and/or complexity of the universe or for that matter of human beings, we begin to appreciate the greatness of God. In reality, it seems to me, it is impossible to imagine fully or to realize exactly the greatness of God since we cannot even grasp fully how complex the organization of the universe is. Take my problem as an example: it was a simple system with single input and single output, and yet neglecting to compensate a few microsecond of delays caused my output to crash. In the universe, every action and event in every bodily process in every plant and animal, must take place with the most minute exactness in real time, and not in the microsecond range but maybe in many times more or less than that range. Any oversight, be it ever so small, any error of sequence, any delay however small in any event in the universe, will affect all the other events in a chain of effects causing the system to crash suddenly, locally or, maybe, entirely. In short, the existence of the universe depends upon the correct instructions being minutely programmed in the correct sequence.

When we look at either the universe or at an individual creature in it, a human.being or plant or animal, we see that each operates as a large, separate system. We cannot even imagine how many inputs and outputs these systems have, we cannot imagine the complexity of the innumerable problems that are solved in such a way that life has been going on for millions of years. Whenever we look with open mind at any living organism within the universe or at the universe as a single, whole system, our sight returns to us, dazzled and overwhelmed-exactly as is described in the beautiful words of sura al-Mulk:

Then look again and yet again, your sight will return to you weakened and made dim. (67.4)

We see in the sky billions of stars turning in synchronization with each other according to some extraordinary law of harmony. And this harmony has been operative for millions of years, so effectively that its continuance is not in doubt. The same extraordinary miracle of harmony can be studied at the microscopic level: Within a single atom huge numbers of particles whizz past each other around the nucleous at unimaginable speeds in a continually renewed and vital process of creation.

Our understanding cannot fathom, nor our researches exhaust, the wonder in which we live and which we behold. And when we realize the complexity of the innumerable systems which compose the universe and whose inter-related functions have been managed not for seconds or hours, but for hundreds of millions of years, can we do otherwise than humbly acknowledge the wisdom and power of God? Equally, when we accept, as logically we must, that in the universe as a whole, everything is organized in the right way for its continued operation, are we not bound to conclude that every event, seemingly good or bad, has occurred at its own time and place, precisely, as pre-ordained (or ‘programmed’ we might say) by God? Thus, we are led to acknowledge the Creator, to marvel in humility at His grandeur, and His greatness.

There has been strong opposition to the idea. The issue was discussed in the U.S. and Europe as long ago as the early 20th century. In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Diamond v. Chakrabarty that: ‘anything under the sun made by man’ is patentable. The court considered a distinction between a product of nature and a product of human invention or intervention as the decisive factor, rather than the distinction between sentient life and insentient matter. In ex Parte Allen, the Board of Appeal held that an oyster was patentable because it had been genetically altered by human intervention. In the end of the U.S. Patent Office ruled non-naturally occurring non-human multicellular living organisms, including animals, to be patentable. More recently, in 1988, Harvard University was granted a patent on a transgenic mammal named ‘Once Mouse’.

Is the situation any different in Europe? In Germany, inventions in the field of biology were not, in principle, excluded from patent protection, the Federal Supreme Court decided in the Red Dove. The European Patent Convention or EPC, signed in Munich and ratified in 1977, came into force on 1 June 1978 in the member states. Article 53 of the EPC provides that European patents shall not be granted in respect of:

a. inventions, the publication or exploitation of which would be contrary to ‘public order’ or morality, provided that the exploitation shall not be deemed to be so contrary merely because it is prohibited by law or regulation in some or all of the contracting states;

b. plant or animal varieties or essentially biological processes for the production of plants or animals. This provision does not apply to microbiological processes or the products thereof.

This article contains three exceptions to patentability of plant and animals.

1. Animal varieties and plant varieties.

2. Essentially biological processes for the production of plant and animals.

3. Inventions which are contrary to ‘public order’ or ‘morality’.

1. What is the meaning of the term variety?

This question was debated by the Examining Division’s decision (EPOR 4 (1990)) in regard to Once Mouse. The application was made by Harvard University for a patent for a genetically modified animal which was to be used to cure cancer.

The application was refused:

a. on the grounds of non-reproducibility under Article 83 of the EPC. Although the application was based on claims related to all non-human mammalian animals, actual tests had only been done on mice: it could not be assumed that the same manipulation could be successfully performed on other mammals without inventive skill; and,

b. on the grounds that the legislators had intended to exclude animals in general from patentability under Article 53 (b).

However the Board of Appeal did not see any reason to limit the claims under Article 83. Also, the Board did not agree with the Examining Division’s interpretation of Art 53 (b) as excluding animals as such from patent protection. They pointed out that the legislators must have intended the phrase ‘animal varieties’ to be more narrowly construed than ‘animals’. The Board, therefore, held the question to the Examining Division.

On reconsideration, the Division decided that ‘Once Mouse’ did not fall under the terms of the ‘variety’ exemption. It concluded that in relation to Article 53 (b) claims directed to non-human mammals generally did not fall within the scope of the terms ‘animal variety’, (race animale).

The ‘variety’ exemption was also considered in the Giba-Geiy Case by the Technical Board of Appeal.

In- this case, the claimed invention satisfied the requirements of patentability but the Examining Division refused to grant a patent because the subject matter fall into scope of the Art. 53 (b).

Contrary to the Division’s view, the Europe Patent Office (EPO) Technical Board argued that 53(b) excludes only plant varieties and it is clear that ‘plant’ is different from ‘plant varieties’. According to the Board, ‘plant variety’ means stability of characteristics within specific tolerances after every individual propagation or propagation cycle. The Board of heed that 53(b) excludes ‘only the plants or their propagating material in the fixed form of the plant variety.’

2. Another problematic clause under Article 53(b) concerns ‘essentially biological processes for the production of plants and animals’ which are excluded with the proviso that ‘this exclusion does not apply to microbiological processes or products thereof’.

Two main question arises here. Firstly: what differentiates ‘essentially biological processes’ from ‘microbiological processes’?

Llewelyn has assumed that ‘an essentially biological process could be defined, most simply, as one where natural methods are the dominant influence’. The EPO defined ‘essentially biological process’ as dependent on the extent to which there is technical intervention by man in the process. If such intervention plays a significant part in determining or controlling the result the process will not be an ‘essentially biological’ one.

It has been held by the EPO Board, in the context of plants in Lubrizal/Hybrid Plants, that the meaning of ‘essentially biological process’ must be judged on the basis of the essence of the invention, taking into account the totality of human intervention and its impact on the result achieved.’ Human intervention may also mean that the process is not ‘a purely biological’ one even though the intervention made by only a trivial contribution.

The Draft Directive established a new and different approach, namely that a distinction must be made between naturally occurring substance itself and the product in a useful form, which results from human intervention in isolating it from its natural environment.

Art 53(b) says that ‘essentially biological processes’ are not patentable but the Draft Directive provides that this only covers traditional biological breeding activities thereby and rescues the interventions in ‘essentially biological process’ from non-patentability.

The most significant element of Article 53(b) is its inclusion of the products of microbiological processes. This means that a plant or animal produced by a ‘microbiological process’ falls outside the scope of the exclusionary provision of Art 53 (b) and is therefore patentable. It could be said that the aim was specifically to enable products of microbiological processes to be patented, i.e. all genetically engineered plant and animal.

Again, the problem is one precise definition. How does one decide that a process which has been carried out is a ‘microbiological’ one? EPO guidelines explain that ‘microbiological’ covers the processes used by micro-organisms and processes used for producing micro-organisms. Also, ‘micro-organism’ includes material such as plasmids and viruses (which have been used to create new plant genetic matter) and cell lines. All such process are patentable. The Draft Directive similarly rules (in its Article 5) that processes which either use or operate upon a micro-organism, or result in a micro-organism, should be considered microbiological and thus eligible for patent. It goes further: ‘the word micro-organism shall be interpreted in its broadest sense as including all microbiological entities capable of replication, e.g. as comprising, inter alia, bacterium fungi . . . and cells.’

3. The third exception is on the grounds of immorality. Art 53 (a) provides that a patent should not be granted in respect of inventions, the publication or exploitation of which would be contrary to ‘Public Order’ or ‘morality’. In other words, if the public considers an invention ‘immoral’ a patent would not be granted.

But, the Examining Division ruled in regard to ‘Once Mouse’ that irrespective of whether the public considered it moral or immoral, such inventions incontrovertibly assisted mankind in the care of ‘widespread and dangerous’ diseases. The Technical Board of Appeal pointed out in its recommendations to the Division that the possible suffering to animals and risks to the environment should be balanced against the invention’s usefulness in meeting human needs (diagnosis, treatment, food supply for a rapidly growing world population) on the other hand. The Division stated that ‘the invention would reduce the overall level of animal suffering by reducing the number of animals used in conventional animal testing.

Considerable doubts remain. Whether or not ‘Once Mouse’ may help save people dying from cancer, who is to guarantee that mice or other animals will not be manipulated to which achieve a cure for baldness or other trivial (but commercially ‘compelling’) purpose. What is the excuse for creating a very unhappy, transgenic rat to cure a widespread but non-lethal condition such as acne?

Genetic engineering should be the subject of general legislation rather than ‘patent law’ especially in respect of ‘immorality’. 

Conclusion

The development of new features in plants and animals using microbiological methods is a long, difficult, expensive process with no guarantee for success. Therefore patents which have been granted by appropriate and competent bodies need to cover not only the first generation of the altered animals or plants but also their progeny which are then the result of natural breeding: and this was allowed in the claims of the Harvard Patent.

Despite strong arguments on several grounds, a new invention related to living matter should not be prevented from securing a patent. It is also our view that the distinction between patentable and non-patentable should be made on the basis of human intervention (especially in relation to microbiological processes) rather than on the basis of sentient or insentient matter.

However the patentability of human life or any part of human life must always be regarded as unacceptable in principle because human life should not be subject to commercialism: it would open the way to a new form of slavery.

• References
• CHRISRIE, A. (1989) ‘Patent for plant innovation’ EIPR, 3.
• CORREA, C. (1992) ‘Biological resources and intellectual property rights’ EIPR, 5.
• NOTT, R. (1992) ‘Patent protection for plant and animals’ EIPR, 3, p.79.
• PAVER, M. (1992) ‘All animals are patentable but some are more patentable than others’, Patent World, March, 9.
• WHAITE, R.& JONES, N. (1989) ‘Biotechnological patent in Europe’, The Draft Directive, EIPR, 5.

When a honeybee discovers a new source of honey within about ten metres of the hive, she returns to the hive and regurgitates drops of honey which are eagerly drunk by other bees. Then, in order to indicate the source of the drops they have just drunk, she performs an interesting sequence of movements we call the ‘round dance’. She dances round in a circle, first in one direction, then reversing and going round in the opposite direction, again reversing and so on. During the performance, other bees follow her about, holding their antenna against her abdomen. After the dance, she flies back to the food source, normally a particular flower or group of flowers. The other bees who followed the dance do not fly after her but fly out in all directions. However, fairly soon, a great number of them find the new source. They do so because they have smelt the scent of the flowers that clung to the dancer’s body and so to recognize the right kind of flower. Observing this procedure of the bees’ communication with admiration, Frisch reported that the ‘round dance’ tells the other bees to go out and search in the near neighbourhood of the hive; and the scent on the dancer’s body tells them which flowers to look for. In one experiment, bees informed by a dancer at once found the right flowers in a section of Munich Botanical Gardens where 700 different plant species were blooming.

But honeybees search for food at a greater distance than 10 metres. They have been observed to fly more than 13 km in search of honey. Remembering the average that a honeybee is only about 13 mm long, that 13 km for a bee is the equivalent of about 1,600 km for a human being. It is clear that, even for distances considerably less than 13 km, the round dance would not be much use. If the discoverer of a new food source informed the other bees to go out and search in all directions for over several kilometres, they would never find the flowers. Thus, when a bee finds food at a considerable distance, say over 100 metres from the hive, she returns to the hive, offers the honey she has found, and then performs a different kind of special dance. She dances along in a straight line for a certain distance, wagging her tail vigorously and buzzing away by means of slight vibrations of the muscles that flap her wings in flight. At the end of this wagging run, she stops buzzing and wagging her tail, circles round to one side back to where she started, does another wagging run, circles round to the opposite side, does a third wagging run and so on. This sequence of movements is called ‘tail-wagging dance’. Showing special interest in wagging runs, a number of other bees follow her round. It is known that bees cannot hear sounds in the air, however they can feel the buzzing vibrations through the surface on which the dance is performed. Like the round dance the ‘tail-wagging’ dance tells the followers of the dance that there is food available, and what flowers to look for, from the smell. But it tells them much more than this; it tells them precisely how far away the flowers are, and in exactly what direction. And so, the bees who study the dance can fly with precision to the spot indicated, even at a distance of kilometers, and find the honey-bearing flowers.

The distance to the food is conveyed by the tempo of the dance. A quick-step tempo means a relatively nearby food source, a slow tempo means a more distant one. More precisely as the distance increases, so does the duration of each wagging run. The bees who follow the dance study several wagging runs and then appear to calculate the average duration which they then translate into distance by a mathematical rule.

The ‘tail-wagging dance’ is sometimes done on a horizontal surface just outside the hive. When this happens, the dancer indicates the direction of food by aiming her run in exactly the direction of the food. She can do this if she can see the sun (or the polarized light of the blue sky, which indicates the position of the sun to bees, though not to us). So, actually she is taking up a position in which she sees the sun as the same angle as during her flight to the honey source. The wagging run makes the same angle with the sun on her outward flight did. But the dance is normally performed in the dark inside the hive, on the vertical surface of the honeycomb. Here the angle between the flight path and the sun is translated into the angle between the wagging run and the vertical direction straight upwards.

Another remarkable fact about the bees communication is that if the bee reached her goal (and returned from it) by an L-shaped detour, she uses the angles and lengths of the two sections of flight to calculate the true direction of the goal by straight-line flight, and this is the direction she conveys in her dance, even when she did not this direct route herself.

As for the bees who are following the dance, they are working literally in the dark and can only use touch to find out the angle of the dancer’s wagging run against the vertical. They translate this back into a visual angle with the sun, fly off in this direction for the distance signaled by the wagging run tempo, and look for the flowers of the scent they smelt on the dancer.

So far we have described the language of the Carniolan race of honeybees according to the findings of Frisch. Other races have different ‘dialects’. German, North African, Caucasian, Italian honeybees all indicate distance and direction by much shorter dances than the Carniolans. How the honeybees have learned to communicate with each other is certainly remarkable! However, it is not a true language, because the system used by bees, unlike human languages, cannot generate new combination of structures and symbols to describe novel events. One example of their limitation is that bees appear to have no way of communicating height or depth beyond a few meters. Thus, if you take a bee to a source of food in a place, say 10 metres above ground level, she will return to her hive and try to indicate the food source by means of her dance. Then, the other bees will all fly out in the direction she indicated, but they will never find the source. No matter how near the source is, even if it is just above the hive, the result will be the same.

WHY OPTICAL?

Despite the many benefits that classical computers (‘classical’ here means computers in which the signals are carried electrically) have brought to our lives, they have some limitations which prevent any improvement in the speed or volume of signals carried. These limitations are inherent to the way these computers work.

For example, classic electric circuits carry information units serially, one by one, and there are some lower limits beyond which such circuits cannot be built-below that limit they simply cannot process the information reliably. Another handicap is that electrons floating in circuits can interfere with each other-and this interference, incidentally, is one reason why engineers cannot produce smaller circuits. By contrast, photons, light particles, which are the main signal or information carrying agent simply do not interact with each other because they do not carry a charge.

An optical computer could be run faster than one running electrons, theoretically at the speed of light, along optical fibres which are specifically designed guide-wires to transfer light-photons in and out between chips in an optical computer without distortion.

One of the main advantages of optical computers is their capability of processing more than one piece of information at the same moment. That means multi-beams can be processed in one chip. This would allow engineers to use parallel processing which greatly enhances the speed of the computer.

THE DIFFICULTIES

Lasers would, naturally, be the source of light in this new generation of computers. Scientists and engineers all over the world are trying to build appropriately tiny lasers emitting precise frequencies of infrared light. But they face a number of practical hurdles. One has to do with making lasers of appropriate size and efficiency. Current technology does not have the means to build optical chips comparable in size to ‘classical’ ones. The efficiency of the lasers is not high enough for the specifications required. Most of the energy to run these lasers escapes as heat and is not used. Since one or at most two percent of this energy can be transformed into the useful form of light, the rest can generate a lot of heat which is dangerous to the condition of the chips.

Making the right lasers is not the only problem on the way to fully optical computers. Switches are at the heart of optical computers, but as photons do not interact with each other, there are substaintial difficulties in building switches.

SOME PROPOSED SOLUTIONS

One solution to this problem is to build computers which are part electrical, part optical. Many scientists now believe that the most viable use for optical technology is in this type of hybrid system combining optics and electronics. Researchers are now focusing their work on optical interconnections between chips, which could be a reality in as little as one or two years. This type of connection can vastly increase the amount of data moving in and out of chips.

Such a machine would have to contain prisms, mirrors, and lasers to channel the light, as well as gallium arsenide chips that convert pulses of laser light into electrons so as to function as switches. If all this does happen, there will be a need for new computer architectures, that is, new computer structures.

However, there are some scientists following a different route. They are trying to find ways to use current transistor technology so as to detect laser beams in the information processing. NPN type transistors without a metal cover would be appropriate because they are faster. This approach also allows for adaptation of existing designs, with all the advantages in time and savings that brings.

FUTURE

The first optical processor developed at AT&T Bell Labs measured about two feet by two feet. Scientists hope some day to fit it all into three square inches. A fully optical computer is more than five years away.

Scientists have set themselves a target for the year 2000: 1,000 I/O (input and output) channels running at 1 giga-bit/sec. That is a thousand times faster than current modern computers.

It is a pity that we must wait for a decade, while scientists and engineers try to accomplish this difficult task. But what an exciting wait!

•  FURTHER READING
• ‘Bright future’, Scientific American, May 1990.
• ‘Now easier optical’, Electronics, May 1990.
• ‘Slacken lights up’, Scientific American, July 1991.
• ‘Optical computer no longer lighters away’, Byte, April 1992.
• ‘Optical computing sheds ‘blue sky’ image’ Electronics, April 1990.

It is true that almost all of the nineteenth century Western philosophical theories were based on the idea of ‘progress’ and ‘evolution’. As everyone knows, the roots of the Darwinian theory of evolution lie in the theory of Malthus, an eighteenth century Anglican priest, who was interested in the influence of demographic factors on economics. According to his theory, only those who are able to produce have a right to survive, while the others-the poor, the sick, the disabled, who are not able to produce-are condemned by nature to be eliminated. Having much appreciated this socio-economic theory of Malthus, Darwin put forward, as a scientific theory, that selection is an overall law encompassing the whole of nature, according to which only the powerful can survive; the weak are cleared away in the course of time. Maurice Bucaille, a contemporary French scientist, says that he has not been able to find, in the work of Darwin, a single scientific proof although Darwin made plenty of observations to support his theory, and that his is more of a philosophical, not scientific, theory. If, then, some socio-economic worries lie in a ‘scientific’ theory, one which has shaken the circles of science for the last two centuries and been used as a ‘weapon’ against religion, why should it be unfair to seek a political purpose behind some philosophical ones?

It may well be asserted, albeit difficult to affirm in a brief article intended for a magazine, that the Western philosophies of history, especially those put forward in the nineteenth century, had some political intentions and functioned as an ideal precept for the nineteenth century Western imperialism. Almost all of these philosophies suggested that mankind were in an irreversible flow towards good and nothing could stop this flow. This was an assertion of continuously forward movement of progress. The sociology of Spencer, for instance, is a continuation of the theory of Darwin. According to Auguste Comte, mankind had already passed the stages of metaphysics and religion, and reached the last and happiest age of progress by entering the stage of science. We can find the same notion of progress in the historical philosophies of Herder, Fichte, Hegel and Karl Marx.

Hegel’s philosophy of history can be defined, according to Abdu-Hamid Siddiqi, as a composition of conflicts and contradictions. As a matter of fact, Hegel holds that each period in the history of social civilisation represents an independent unity. This unity, which is thoroughly of its own, gives rise to it antithesis over time, resulting in a thesis-antithesis conflict. After a while, the sides agree on a ‘synthesis’, which finally ends in a new conflict of thesis and antithesis. As a result of this conflict, a new thesis is brought about which encompasses both its thesis and antithesis. This tripartite system causes ‘thoughts’ to progress, until it attains to the ‘Geist’.

The ‘Geist’ is, in the philosophy of Hegel, who appeared to be under the influence of the Indian philosophies, a spirit-the universal spirit-which manifests itself through concrete events. Each event, together with the philosophy accompanied to it, is a stage in the evolutionary course of this spirit, and because of this no philosophy is not to be criticised as being wrong. Every event is planned by an absolute, determining will, and all of the desires, inclinations, efforts and conflicts are the means which the Geist employs in self-realization. Everything in the world, therefore, happens irrespective or independently of man’s free will and man is nothing more than a plaything of an all-powerful will. That being so, only those who can perceive the demands of this will or, more clearly, the course of events, and act accordingly are the heroes of their time to be absolutely obeyed.

His theory mostly based on the atheism of Feurbach, the evolutionist theory of Darwin and the dialectics of Hegel, Karl Marx, in his own words, stood up the Hegelian man who stands on his head, upright on his feet. (To this, an Egyptian Muslim thinker responds: ‘Is man really a being who ‘walks on his head’) According to Marx-in all his views whether philosophical or historical, sociological or economic-man is a being ‘walking on his feet’, that is, whose mind is directed, commanded by his ‘feet’.

Marx maintains that man is an outcome of the legal relationships between himself and the tools of production that he must originally have found present in nature and then developed in the course of history. What we call ‘human thought’ is the reflection in his mind of the relations between himself and his material, economic life and the tools of production he uses. For this reason, the only true knowledge is, according to Marx, that which will come out in human mind when the legal relationships between man and the tools of production are established in a communist system according to the principles of communism. We can rightfully conclude from this argument that all the Marxist theories are substantially false because Marx himself conceived them all in a capitalistic system. Again, to Marx, all the human life or history on the earth consists of the conflicts between individuals, classes and peoples for the economic reasons. This conflict, which is inevitable, after passing through the primitive feudal and capitalistic stages, is certain to result in communism. For this reason, all these stages are not to be criticised.

As to historicism, which was once quite widespread, because sociological laws vary according to time and place, we cannot find a long, stable period in human history by which we can come to long term general rules. History never repeats itself at the same level. We cannot make true predictions about ‘tomorrow’ since the relationships between events are very complex. This is truly so, but, in historicism, activity has a great importance, although what we conceive of is impossible to realise unless they are in conformity with the main course of history. This main course, however, depends on certain blind and irresistible laws. So, only when man acts in accordance with these independent laws and the urgent, inevitable changes they impose, man means to have acted reasonably. What falls to man, then, is to give a hand to the changes or attempts that he is expected to accept because it is completely unreasonable to desire to give a better shape to the world.

To sum up, we can list the outlines of the philosophies of history summarized above, as follows;

a. Mankind is in a continuous progress towards the final happy end.

b. This progress depends on the fatalistic, irresistible laws of history which are completely independent of man, so a man must, in any case, obey these laws, otherwise he is certain to be eliminated.

c. All the stages, primitive, feudal or capitalistic, through which mankind inevitably pass in the course of time to the final happy end should not be criticised, because mankind have nothing to do other than passing through them.

What is implied concerning the political conditions of time by all such philosophies of history may be this: The present socio-economic and even the political conditions of the world are inevitable, because they were dictated by nature, which decrees that only the able and the powerful can survive. If the laws of history dictated by nature are in favour of the west, the communities that choose to survive must concede to the dominion of the West.

Is it ever possible to approve this while we clearly see that any age contains ‘ages’- while some people are living in the age of electronics in some parts of the world, some others are suffering the conditions of the middle, or even primitive ages, which is equally true also for individuals-and history, rather than moving forward along with a straight line, advances by cycles, and that man is the being who, much more than a plaything of some laws of only nominal, not external, existence, makes history by enjoying free choice. Also, it is not morally, even scientifically and historically, possible to approve the injustices, no matter whenever and under what circumstances they are committed. Further, we have a right to ask those who side with such philosophies of history whether they can concede to the spread of Islam at the expense of Christianity, and why they would prefer to try their hardest and resort to every kind of means to maintain their dominion, rather than leaving everything to the fatalistic laws of history?

Like every other incoherent and false philosophy, the above mentioned philosophies of history did not last long. When the twentieth century came in, the atomic physics had already dethroned the mechanical physics, which resulted in the obsolescence of the gross materialistic and positivistic world-views together with the ever-evolutionist conceptions of history, like the money which is no longer in circulation. The places of such conceptions were taken by the philosophies of history which were anxious about the future of the West and did not put absolute confidence in science and technology.

Of these, according to Danilevsky’s philosophy of history a civilisation is not transformed into another, and no civilisation cannot be saved from dying. A civilisation is the further step of a culture and each culture develops one or more than one values of humanity. The present Western civilisation is based on science. Any civilisation cannot claim superiority over the others in all respects. A people that have reached the stage of civilisation are doomed to collapse after a long period of decline; because of this, the Western civilisation will one day become a thing of the past.

There are many cultures according to Oswald Spengler, a German sociologist whose work The Decline of the West shook the West in the early years of this century. Each great culture is unique and none of them can, as with Danilevsky, claim superiority over the others. A civilisation manifests itself in big cities as the inevitable result of a culture. Over time, the desire for living dies away and women no longer bear children. Faith is replaced by scientific irreligion or dull metaphysics. Any civilisation that has entered upon this stage either gives birth to materialism, love of money, passion for power, sex and class conflict as its fruits, or results in imperialism, and finally collapses. Spengler holds that the present Western civilisation, with all its big cities, railways and skyscrapers, will in a near future, turn into an etnographic museum.

The ideas of Arnold Toynbee can be traced in Ibn Khaldun. A civilisation is, Toynbee maintains, the work of a creative minority in a propitious clime, and it falls into decay as the founding minority lose their charm and become unable to find solutions to new problems. According to Ibn Khaldun, who influenced, to some extent, almost all the philosophers of history in the twentieth century, a civilisation-he calls it ‘Umran-is based on tribal solidarity which is the distinguishing mark of nomadic life. Nomads lead a very simple life and do not know anything of luxury.

Ibn Khaldun also holds that human beings feel an intrinsic need to live together, but, since some people are of an aggressive disposition, co-existence calls for some sanctions. These sanctions are either put by a powerful individual or tribal solidarity determine them naturally. Thus, the need for a common authority results in the establishment of the state.

The social solidarity is, Ibn Khaldun maintains, much stronger in nomadic tribes. If united with religion, it becomes an irresistible power. Nevertheless, as the state is established more firmly, the social solidarity becomes no more needed and, due to the established (settled) living, people indulge in luxury. Luxury dissolves the solidarity and the ruler, in order to strengthen his authority, forms a council and a troop of royal guards. But nothing keeps the state or civilisation from collapse: increasing extravagance, luxury and indulgences of every kind, and heavy taxes bring about the ruin of the civilisation

What distinguishes the Qur’anic concept of history from other philosophies is that, first of all, while philosophers of history or sociologists build their conceptions on the interpretation of past events and present situations, the Qur’an deals with the matter from the perspective of unchanging principles. Second, contrary to the fatalism of all other philosophies, including even Ibn Khaldun’s, the Qur’an lays great emphasis on the free choice and moral conduct of the individual. Although Divine will, emphasised by the Qur’an, could be regarded as, in some respects, the counterpart of the ‘Geist’ in the Hegelian philosophy and of absolute, irresistible laws of history in other philosophies, the Qur’an never denies human free will. God, according to the Qur’an, tests man in this life so that man himself should sow the ‘field’ of the world to harvest in the next life, which is eternal. For this reason the stream of events-successes and failures, victories and defeats, prosperity and decay-all are the occasions which God causes to follow one another for mankind, to the end that the good may be distinguished from the evil. Testing must evidently require that the one who is tested should possess free-will to prefer between what is lawful and unlawful or what is good and bad. Thus, according to the Qur’an, what makes history is not a compelling Divine will, rather it is man’s own choice, the operation of which God Almighty has made a simple condition for the coming into effect of His universal will. If this point is understood well enough, then it will be easy to see how groundless are the Western philosophies of history especially with respect to their conception of ‘inevitable end’.

A possible question; If civilisations are not, essentially, subject to an inevitable end, why, then, was none of the past civilisations able to resist decadence and the ‘corrosive power of time’?

The core of the matter lies in the answer to this important question. What, indeed, caused the philosophers of history such as Ibn Khaldun, Toynbee, Spengler and the like to form a wrong conception of history is that they, rather than trying to discover the real dynamics of historical movements, attempted to explain the apparent causes of the establishment, flourishing, and decay of civilisations. Whoever looks back to the past couldn’t help arriving at the same conclusions. But that no community has so far been able to remain at the peak it climbed does not mean that this is an inevitable end, a determinist grip on the fate of nations. The past civilisations collapsed because they did not heed the warnings of what had happened to peoples preceding them. To accept a historical determinism means to nullify human free will and to regard as useless, even an absurdity, all the warnings and advices made to living people by both Divine scriptures and social sciences.

As stated before, man is tested in the world. He has a carnal soul which is the source of all desires and animal appetites. In addition, man has a natural inclination towards living together with his fellow human beings, and also he is in a complex relationship with his natural environment. This requires that man’s carnal desires should be limited and his relations with both his human and natural environment be based on ‘justice’ so that he may be at peace with himself, his environment and nature. Nevertheless, as history witnesses, some people may, under the instigation of his carnal desires, not be pleased with his share in the society and attempt to dominate others. If such people realise their ambitions, they, this time, in order to justify their actions, make a constitution to govern the people. It is indeed, easy to have the people to ‘vote’ for their constitution.

This is what has always been where and when the Divine laws are abrogated. Where the people sincerely believe in one God as the Lord, Sovereign and Master of human kind, without concession to any intermediate role of some classes such as Clergy as in Christianity and Shi‘a Islam, and where they are really conscious of the meaning of Divine Unity, which, by delivering man from the humiliating slavery of carnal desires, worldly positions, or of other beings, and eradication of the false and artificial contradictions of the black and the white, clergy and laity, the ruler and the ruled, the employer and employed etc., elevates him so high to be the servant of only One God, no one does attempt to dominate others through the force of money, colour, race or weapons.

According to the Qur’an, all men are, on account of being the creatures of one God, essentially equal in the sight of God. Furthermore, man lacks the enough knowledge and power to establish the rules according to which at least the majority of people could live at peace with themselves, with each other and with the natural environment. Above all, man has to be at peace with his Creator and Sustainer. Because of these, only God’s exclusively is sovereignty both in heavens and on the earth.

What God asks of man-it is what we can conclude we must do through the exercise of our reasoning-is that man should build his wordly existence on three foundations: justice, religious-moral values and Divine laws of life and nature.

The Qur’an invites man, first of all, to believe in and worship One God, by which he may lead a balanced life: He may attain true inward happiness and peace and co-exist with his fellow human beings in accordance with the rules of justice, without being led astray by his carnal, evil-commanding soul. Second, the Qur’an lays some moral, also legal, principles-for example, it says:

Give to the kindred his due and the poor and to the wayfarer. But spend not wastefully in the manner of a spend thrift. Kill not your children for fear of poverty. We provide for them and for you. Come not near to unlawful sexual intercourse. Do not kill anyone which God has forbidden, except for just cause. Come not near the orphan’s property except to improve it. And fulfil covenant. Give full measure when you measure and weigh with balance that is right.

Also, the Qur’an prohibits usury, black marketing, hoarding, theft, gambling, and cheating etc. Besides, it is also a Qur’anic injunction to study nature, discover its laws and make progress in sciences. Moreover, there are some other vital principles, obedience to, or neglect of, which has a definite part in man’s ‘fate’. For example, patience and forbearance usually bring success and victory, and while working produces wealth, inertia and laziness are the causes of poverty.

Thus, man, according to the Qur’an, by neglecting or living in accordance with justice, religious-moral values and divine laws of nature, determines his own future. There is principally nothing, other than his free choice, to dictate his fate. If, then, a community, at least by majority, obey God and perform both His ‘religious’ and ‘natural’ laws, there can be nothing to prevent them from realizing peace, happiness and harmony in both individual and social life. Otherwise, no matter how glittering a community may appear, it is inevitable for them to fall into decay.

There is another point to be emphasized concerning the Qur’anic concept of history. The Qur’an does not accept ‘inevitable end’ for civilisations. Any civilisation, as long as it follows its ‘right’ way, it could remain at the peak, although no civilisation has so far been able to. And, any civilisation which is due and, on the threshold of, collapse because it has deviated from its course, could be saved from destruction and even realise a new rise if it reforms its way. Finally, history does not follow a straight and always forward course, rather, it advances by cycles.

The quality of the services provided by the welfare state depends upon its level of prosperity. For this reason, welfare states came into existence in industrialised countries before developing countries. Where these states have been economically and politically stable, improvements in social welfare have been made. However, there has been a claim that in recent years the concept of the welfare state is in crisis and that in practice governments have been unable to meet the needs of vulnerable people adequately. Welfare pluralists have claimed that the welfare state has failed to meet needs and provide services. They assert that the state must withdraw from direct provision and recognise the potential of both the family -especially in providing personal social services, and the voluntary sector. With the provision of services transferred from the state to the community, the cost of social services will become less and effectiveness will increase. However, will ‘the community’ shoulder this responsibility? Can the family be expected to meet the needs as effectively as welfare pluralists envisage. There are serious doubts whether a well formed family structure neighbourhood actually exists.

‘The community’ is now seen as the main source of care for vulnerable people. ‘Community care’ implies ordinary members of local communities such as families, neighbours and friends providing help and care for those who are in need.

Abrams (1977) defines community care as the provision of help, support and protection by lay members of societies acting in everyday domestic and occupational settings. It is possible to say that community care is care provided by the community itself.

The community is composed of families, neighbours and friends. Most of the care for the elderly and for children is provided by families and relatives. Only a limited number of elderly people, children or the disabled are cared for by the statutory voluntary organizations; the rest are looked after by their families and relatives and to a limited extent by neighbours and friends. In the United Kingdom during 1987 fewer than 243,000 out of a total of 8,6 million people aged 65 and over were resident in local authorities’, voluntary organizations’ and the private sectors’ homes. This means that only nearly 3,5% of the total number of elderly people were living in institutional homes: The rest of them were either taken care of by their families or were trying to cope with living on their own.

If the burden of social services provision is to be shouldered by the community, can families, relatives or neighbours manage to act as a realistic substitute for the welfare state? Can they meet the expectations of the welfare pluralists?

In today’s industrial societies most relationships are based on reciprocal interests. Individualism is at its highest level. The ties of kinship and family are withering away. Social and moral values are being undermined. However, as Abrams (1977) points out, the effective social bases for community care are kinship, religion and race, not ‘the community’.

Although the family is seen as the strongest and most reliable source of care, it is at present undergoing severe problems, particularly in Western societies. The family is affected by a number of social and demographic factors, the most significant ones being: the age structure of population, its marital structure, the size of the family and the changing roles of the family members (Nissel: 1980).

The population is ageing. The number of elderly in need is increasing and the level of provision is decreasing. On the one hand number of the people dependant on family care is increasing and is likely to continue increasing; on the other, the number of carers is declining because the idea of having a family is disappearing and the size of the family is getting smaller. Birth rates decreased from 84,3% in 1971 to 64,2% in 1990 in the United Kingdom and the percentage of births outside marriage rose from 8,1% in 1971 to 30,3% in 1990 (Social Trends, 22:1992). This may mean that there will be fewer potential carers when the present generation of parents reach old age (Johnson: 1990). The family is also faced with a changing marital structure. There are increasing numbers of one-parent families caused by separation, divorce and deaths. Many of these single parents have young children. Divorce affects the care negatively; the estimated number of divorcees in Great Britain was about 517,000 in 1971 and increasing to 2,374,000 in 1988 (Social Trends, 20:1990).

Another set of demographic and social factors that affect the relation between the family and the welfare state is the change in household structure. It would be argued that women are more likely than men to be the carers of the family. This is because women have been seen traditionally as the main people responsible for the care of children and the elderly, while the men have been seen as the bread-winners working outside of the home for the family. However, during the last two decades this situation has changed in Western societies. Although most of the family-based care is shouldered by women, the number of women in the labour force has been increasing. According to the statistics, there were 9,3 million women in the British labour force in 1971 and to 11,8 million in 1988. It is also projected that there will be 12,7 million women working in the year 2000 (Social Trends, 20:1990). The number of working women is likely to continue increasing, and as a result this may mean that the care provided by women is likely to decline.

In today’s world, particularly, in Western industrialized societies, the family has gradually been losing its strength and increasingly unable to perform its functions. It may be true to say that we now live in a world where family, social and moral values are being slowly destroyed. Policy makers, politicians and religious scholars are worried about what should be done to avoid the impending consequences.

How can men and women be encouraged to stay in marriage? How can their children be motivated to care for their frail parents? What are the motivations that keep the society in order and ensure that its members help each other? How is altruism managed in societies where individualism exists? How can social solidarity be re-established? There are many other questions; however, most agree that the main problem is with the social and moral values of society.

In recent years, the managers of the welfare state have found it difficult to meet the needs of its ever increasing number of vulnerable people due to high costs, ineffectiveness and lack of resources. This has led them to try to shun all responsibility for provision of services and to put the onus on us ‘the community’.

However, as society as a whole changes, relationships between children and parents, between families, between neighbours are changing. People’s behaviour in a society is usually formed by their social position and by the moral and religious beliefs with which they have been brought up. It may be impossible to expect people to take care of others especially those who are in need, if they do not feel that they should do so. In today’s societies it is clear that most of the elderly parents are not looked after by their children and they have to cope with living on their own which they usually cannot manage. Most neighbours are also reluctant to get to know each other.

We can conclude that societies need to be supported by strong social and moral values which form the norms of social behaviour. Only then people will try to behave as they are expected to as human beings. In this context, I will leave you with the words of the Messenger, upon him be peace:

‘None of you truly believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself’, ‘He who does not care about his neighbour’s starvation, while he is in wealth, is not among us’, and ‘He who desires that he be granted more provision and his lease of life be prolonged, should treat his kith and kin well’. 

References

• ABRAMS P. (1977) Community Care: Some Research Problems and Priorities Policy and Politics No.6
• JOHNSON N. (1990) Reconstructing the Welfare State Hertfordshire: Simon&Schuster Int.
• NISSEL M. et al. (1980) The Welfare State-Diversity&Decentralisation, London, PSI
• Social Trends 20 (1990) London Central Statistic Office
• Social Trends 22 (1992) London Central Statistic Office
• SPICKER P. (1988) Principles of Social Welfare, London, Routledge
• WALKER A. et al. (1986) The Debate About Community, London PSI

I once asked an Austrian friend of mine who had just qualified as a doctor where he went when he was sick. The surprising answer was that he and most of his colleagues went to a homeopath. He reminded me of our family G. P. who didn’t believe in medicines. I was told ‘just take your son home and make sure he eats well’.

My friend’s preferring a homeopath to one of his fellow professionals, was as I later found out, a rejection of what he had learned during his many years of study. He felt that he had been taught a set of beliefs, which, in his words, ‘did more harm than good’. He believed that he had been trained to ‘manage symptoms using chemicals’ and that his profession had nothing to do with looking for cures or curing people. He told me that he felt dirty when he had finished his shift and that he wasn’t being ‘true to himself’.

My friend may be an exception and is probably frowned upon and dismissed as a crank by other doctors, but, his views raise many interesting issues relevant to professionals and non-professionals alike.

There is an increasing interest in alternative approaches to health. The rise in health shops and alternative clinics show that the world of commerce is cashing in on this fact. Most bookshops stock books on acupuncture, homeopathy and other forms of Eastern medicines. However, the West’s search for an alternative has overlooked the medicine of the Muslim world, sometimes referred to as al Tibb al Nabawi, the medicine of the Prophet or Islamic medicine.

At Tibb al Nabawi

The name al Tibb at Nabawi literally means prophetic medicine. It is based upon the sayings of Muhammad, upon him be peace. However, it encompasses much more than the relatively small number of prophetic sayings. It incorporated Greek and Indian philosophy and practice wherever they were found to be in accordance with the general principles of Islam. The sayings of the Prophet set down general guidelines and principles which later led to the great discoveries and observations of the likes of Ibn Sina and other Muslim thinkers.

This series of articles will be an introduction to some of these principles.

Illness

The word illness, mard, is used in the Qur’an in two different ways. ‘It is no fault in the blind nor in one born lame, nor in one afflicted with illness (mard)’ (Al-Nur, 24.61). This example and the verses like it give special licenses to one who is sick. These licenses include delaying the compulsory fast and not having to fight during wartime. Verses such as ‘and any of you who is ill or has an ailment in his scalp should in compensation either fast or feed the poor’ (Al-Baqara, 2.196) which refer to the sick pilgrim not having to shave or cut his or her hair, led Muslim scholars to attempt to find a legal definition of the word mard illness.

The jurists set out the basis for practical diagnosis. They identified the means by which one could judge illness which included irregularities in the blood, urine, stool, and semen; imbalance in patterns of sleep, eating and drinking and the appearance of wind, sneezing and vomit.

Illness was defined as being ‘out of balance’. This encompassed both physical and mental states. The mental or emotional state is the second usage of the word mard in the Qur’an. ‘In their hearts is a disease (maid)’ (Al-Baqara, 2.15) The heart (qalb), here, refers to ‘the seat of the emotions’, Physically, one is considered to have an illness if one is ‘out of balance’. Likewise, one is emotionally sick if one is out of the natural and pure state that we were created in.

Doctors are needed for some of these emotional and physical illnesses; for others they are not. Tiredness is a symptom of being ‘out of balance’ which can be rectified simply by sleeping.

Islam sees the ultimate curer of these states to be the One who created them. He sent doctors to His creation such as Jesus who cured the leper as well as those suffering from pride and inflated egos. The last of these great doctors was Muhammad, upon him be peace, who, through his advice and practice, set out principles for curing both types of illness.

The state of balance

Common to many systems of alternative medicines is the concept of ‘balance/imbalance’. One’s natural healthy state is a balance between the four qualities of dryness/wetness and hot/cold. The reason a person may have left this state can be either ‘material’ or ‘consequential’. Material sickness is where a substance has entered the body and has caused its balance to shift in one of the several directions. Once the substance is gone the body will return to its natural mizaj, the model of balance.

A ‘consequential’ illness is where the effect of a substance in the body remains after it has left the body. The body is left with an excess of heat/cold or dryness/moisture.

Prophetic medicines sees illness as being caused by either this state of imbalance or damage to an organ or to the natural weakening caused by old age. The doctor’s first job is to discover the cause of illness, consider its cause, think what might encourage it to return it to its correct state act upon that and then depend on the Creator.

SOME BASIC PRINCIPLES

Preparation of medicines

Most medicines in al Tibb al Nabawi are based on the dietary advice of the Messenger, upon him be peace. A simple illness requires a simple medicine. The cure for imbalance leaning towards heat would be something cold. The classic example is the fever. The Prophet said ‘fever is from the hell, put it out with water.’ (Bukhari and Muslim)

A complex illness e.g. one leaning to hot-dry would require a complex mixture, in our example a cold-dry cure.

Every illness has a cure

The Prophet, upon him be peace, said ‘for every illness there is cure. If the cure matches the illness, improvement will take place by the permission of God.’ (related by Jabir in Muslim) and ‘God did not send down an illness except that He sent down a cure (Bukhari).

The above sayings establish there important principles. Firstly, they encourage the administration of medicines. There is agreement among the majority of Muslim scholars that it is a must. Secondly, they imply that, if administering medicine is a compulsion, then searching for a cure must also be a compulsion. Finally, they emphasise the dependence on God. In this modern age of ours we tend to depend on the medicines and not on the True Curer. It is interesting to look at how few remember God in illness until they realise their illness is terminal and that there is no hope for a cure. My own experience is that it is extremely upsetting and often devastating for both patient and doctor when the limitations of modern medicine dawns on them.

Cure may include spiritual as well as physical medicine

Muhammad, upon him be peace, described specific cures which included the likes of honey for the chest and liver. He also described procedures and principles, e.g. ‘emptying the stomach and putting out the fever with water’. In addition, he prescribed prayers and supplications for things like headaches and general sickness. These can be found in the books of hadith, traditions, as well as in the various books of prayers of the Prophet.’

Diet is the key to good health

Himya meaning both precaution and diet. Himya, with both of these meanings is the central pillar of Islamic medicine. The principle is found in the Qur’an which permits the use of sand in place of water in ablution and washing, if the latter is found to be detrimental to health. There was an occasion when the Prophet came with his cousin, Ali, to the house of Um al Mandari bint Qays al Ansari. They began to eat when Muhammad, upon him be peace, stopped and said to Ali ‘you are recovering.’ He took some barley and chard and gave it to him saying ‘this is better for you (related by Ibn Majah)’ The incident is an explanation of the principle of himya in its fullest sense.

Harith, described as the doctor of the Arabs, said ‘himya is the source of every cure, the stomach is the home of every illness.’ The Messenger said: ‘The stomach is the well of the body and the veins drink from it. If it is healthy, the veins pass on good health, if it is sick the veins pass on poison’.

Dietary precaution himya, can be used in three stages.

1. As a cure

2. To keep the body healthy.

3. To aid recovery

Based on the model of Ibn al Qayyim, hakims and traditional doctors have developed a sophisticated system of dietary medicine.

General behaviour and basic hygiene

The Messenger came to perfect behaviour. He taught not only us what foods we should eat hut how they should be prepared. Things like covering food, washing hands before eating and boiling food thoroughly when cooking were all stressed by the Prophet. The same is true of the etiquette of eating. The Messenger taught us to sit in such a manner that our stomach can be filled only to a third of its capacity.

Dieatry advice

The Messenger, upon him he peace, mentioned over seventy specific foods which he considered healthy. Modern science has confirmed that he was right. Among the foods mentioned were honey, dates, vinegar, fish and ginger.

*This article was based on Al Tibb Al Nabawi which is the final section of the book Zad al Ma’d of Ibn al Qayyim al Jawzi. It will be followed by a series of articles expanding on some of the points mentioned above.

References 

1. AL BUKARI (1980) Jami al Sahih
2. AL HAKIM (1965) Majmu’ Zawaid
3. IBN AL QAYYIM (1987) Al Tibb al Nabawi al Taiba
4. MUSLIM (1965) Jami al Sahih

It was the last day of the Eid, Muslim religious festival. The bakery had to be prepared for the following day. Hikmet went to clean the oven. He was alone in the bakery. He locked the main door, turned the lights on, opened the door of the oven and went in. He planned to return home after his shift. The workers would start the morning shift at about 4 a.m. and turn on the electrical oven to warm it up while they prepared the dough.

Hikmet was absorbed in his work, and hummed a song. At that moment Cengiz, a young worker in the bakery, came in. He had returned to collect his dirty apron. When he unlocked the main door, he was very surprised: ‘Hey, someone has forgotten to turn the lights off,’ he murmured. He took his apron; shut the door of the oven, unaware that Hikmet was inside. He turned the lights off, and went out.

When the lights went off, Hikmet rushed to the door of the oven, but it was locked. He began to shout at the top of his voice. He hit the door again and again, but nothing happened. No one heard him. He shuddered with honor. Then, trying to be calm he looked at his watch. It was 11 p.m. He had about five hours before the oven would he switched on. He felt himself being brought face to face with death. The oven would slowly become hot. First he would sweat. Then he would be gradually suffocated. The temperature would rise. His lipids would melt, and his flesh would be roasted. Probably, he would die of a heart attack before that, or perhaps he would go mad and die laughing. That would he better, he thought.

He remembered the pain on his hands when he had to take the loaves from the oven. Now, he would be baked like one of those loaves. A few days ago he had burned two fingers while cooking. What pain he felt! He kept them under cold water for ten minutes. And now? Not just two fingers, his whole body would burn. He recalled the fire scenes of movies. The thought was unbearable.

He felt it was getting hotter. He wondered who had shut the door and lit the oven. O my God! It was too early. He looked at his watch. It was 1:00 am. Two hours had passed. Two hours had flown. He touched the walls and bars. They were cold. He calmed down a little.

He thought of his family. His wife and son must be worried. He remembered that he had offended her. Shouldn’t he have been kinder and more respectful to her? And his son… He wished he had not beaten him. He beat him after he had unintentionally broken a window. He thought that he would he asked about these.

He wished he had accepted his wife’s offer. She had asked him: ‘Let’s begin to pray together.’

‘When we get old’, he had answered. Would he only be asked about his old age? No, he would be asked about his whole life.

Why didn’t he go to mosque when he heard the call to prayer on the way to the bakery? The muezzin called for the night prayer with a voice coming from the depths of his heart, and announced the supremacy of God and called to salvation. He would have prayed his last salat before his demise, and perhaps God would have forgiven him. ‘What a fool I am’, he groaned. ‘How lucky are those who pray five times a day’, he thought, ‘any prayer could be their last one, and they would be prepared.’

What about his seven year old son? He cared for his food, clothes and health, but not for his heart. Why did he let him watch all the rubbish on TV? Why did he not make him love God and the Prophet, peace be upon him?

He recalled his childhood and youth-day by day. There was nothing left for him except regret and shame. He would be asked of everything he had done. He remembered his marriage and how he had made his parents sorrowful. He was bent double in regret.

An idea came to his mind. He would pray inside the oven. He made tayammum, dry ablution, by putting his hands on the walls and then he began to pray. Who but God could help him now?

For the first time he felt himself really talking to his Lord. For the very first time he understood the meaning of the verses he was reciting: to thank the Lord of the worlds, to trust in Him, to ask for help from Him, to be on the Straight Path and not to go astray.

He prostrated with all his being. He felt and confessed his insignificance saying ‘You are the Exalted, You are the Compassionate!’

After the night pray he began to make up some of the missed ones. He came from Him and was returning to Him. He wished he had not forgotten this return. When he got tired, he sat down, rested for a while and continued to pray.

Cengiz had gone to his house and slept. He woke suddenly. It was 3 o’clock. He had a nightmare. His friend Hikmet was burning in flames in the oven and shouting: ‘Cengiz, Cengiz!’ What a strange dream it was! Then he remembered what he had done that evening. ‘No! It can’t be!’, he screamed. He immediately dressed and rushed outside. He ran and ran. It was 4:45 a.m. when he reached the bakery. The workers had not yet come. He unlocked the door, turned the lights on, opened the door of the oven and shouted: ‘Hikmet!’

There was no answer. He shouted again and again. Hikmet was deep in prayer and weeping. He was startled to hear his name. It must be a dream. Someone was calling him, and the lights were on. He went to the door, saw Cengiz and went outside.

Cengiz screamed as if he had seen a ghost: ‘Who are you?’ Hikmet hesitated when he came to embrace him. ‘What do you mean? Don’t you recognize me? I am Hikmet. I was in the oven cleaning it when someone shut the door.’

‘I don’t believe it. You cannot be Hikmet,’ Cengiz said, Hikmet was perplexed. How could his friend and colleague not recognize him? He saw a mirror, rushed to it and looked at himself. No! This face, this hair was not his. He looked at his wrinkled face and touched his white hair with his hands. He had become old. He was about to be suffocate with his sobs. He couldn’t look at the mirror again. With his hands on his head he stood in silence.