Following sound faith (eemaan) and pure monotheism (tawheed), one of the greatest assets that a Muslim can have is good health. Good health facilitates the fulfilment of the religious and worldly obligations. It empowers a Muslim to do good deeds for his or her own benefit and for the benefit of the society at large. It makes a Muslim productive and optimistic and this only brings further benefits to the society as a whole.
Ibn al-Qayyim, a chapter heading, "His (sallallaahu `alayhi wasallam's) Guidance Concerning health," states the following:
Since health is one of the most precious favours Allaah has given to His servants, the most generous of His gifts, and most plentiful of His bounties, nay more, absolute health is the most precious of all favours, without exception - it is fitting that whoever is granted a portion of this good fortune, to cherish, preserve and to guard it against harm. Bukhari has related in his Saheeh form the hadeeth of Ibn Abaas: The Messenger (sallallaahu alayhi wa sallam) said, "There are two favours about which many people are not aware: health (sihhah) and faraagh (free time, leisure)" ... (Zaad al-Ma'aad 4/196).
To this end, HealthyMuslim.Com is a growing online resource that aims to provide coverage on all aspects of health, nutrition and disease with a specific focus on natural health (diet and lifestyle) and sound principles of nutrition. As our bodies are a trust, then it is a religious obligation to maintain them to the best of our abilities.
Ibn al-Qayyim, the noted Muslim scholar stated that the principles of sound health are three:
In a modern context this equates to eating wholesome nutritious foods, ensuring balance of quality and quantity, keeping away from things that are toxic and harmful to the body (and in modern society there are many), and striving to detoxify the body from the consequences of bad diet and lifestyle and exposure to harmful elements.
The content on HealthyMuslim.Com will be largely based around these principles, and will include details of new research as well as established solid principles of nutrition.
It is our firm belief that modern (Western) medicine, whilst certainly having positive aspects in a number of areas, does little to treat or cure, by and large, the true underlying causes of diseases and chronic illnesses. It is mostly centered around the treatment of symptoms, that is, to manage disease symptoms. This leads to the continued use and reliance upon prescription drugs with the true underlying causes of the disease never really being addressed. This model of disease treatment is structured in order to facilitate the exploitation of disease conditions and states for profitable pharmacological agents.
Allen Rose, the worldwide vice-president of GlaxoSmithKline, admitted in 2003 in public, that 90% of all drugs, whether produced by his company or not, do not work in the majority of people. That's straight from the horses mouth. That does not mean that some drugs do not have any value, it just simply means that the idea that was pushed for most of the twentieth century (and still is) that absence of disease is synonymous with use of pharmacological agents is not correct. In fact, such a belief is an aberration in the many thousands of years of the history of medicine, whose foundation has always been in diet, nutrition and lifestyle. The greatest of modifiable influences upon disease are diet, nutrition and lifestyle (which are from the asbaab [ways and means], and this is after consideration of the role of al-qadaa wal-qadar within which are the asbaab).
Despite billions and billions being poured into what we are told is "objective scientific research" diseases and illnesses only increase in occurrence and major breakthroughs are never in the horizon. cancer, diabetes, heart disease and myriads of other diseases and ailments increase day by day. The true and real reasons for all of these failings of the body come back down - in the overwhelming majority of disease conditions - to the principles of nutrition, diet, state of mind, and lifestyle, after the decree of Allaah, the Exalted.
We will be publishing what in our estimation is the most credible and sound advice for maintenance of good health in light of the principles of:
We hope that by way of this resource you are able to better understand the principles of nutrition and are able to make good sound decisions that will impact positively on your own health and the health of your children. Please try to spread this site as far and wide as possible in order to maximize the benefit.
Important Notes