THE PHYSICAL AND MORTAL EDUCATION IN ISLAM
Islam has adopted positively the principals of the general health to concentrate in the legislative fields. All of the precepts and laws of Islam yield the best fruits that preserve the physical health and guard against many diseases. Some Western physicians, after they had been acquainted with the Arab and Islamic medicine, accepted Islam. Dr. Georgeo Dar Blanto says, “All of the Islamic precepts, rituals, and recommended practices have a good relation to health. They always intend to achieve two goals at the same time; religious and physical.”
Dr. Ronan confirms the same fact. Dr. Rondsandge says, “The Islamic instructions represent health since they call to contentment and moderation in food and drink, cleaning, and washing with pure water five times a day before every ritual prayer. In addition, the ritual prayer is a set of physical activities. Islam has also decreed to confine those who are defected by infectious diseases. The Islamic sciences allot a great part of searches for the health conservation.”
The fascinating physical instructions of Islam admired the Western physicians, such as Dr. G. Blanton and Dr. Ronan, who regard the Prophet (s) as the noblest and the excellent physician in this world. Dr. Blanton says, “It is quite undeniable that treatment and health were within the main topics that Mohammed dealt with. In addition, he himself enjoyed a considerable acquaintance with medicine.”
At any rate, the Prophet (s) cared very much for the well-being since he believed that without the marks of the physical education along with its application, the elements of the sound life are unavailable. He was so careful of the physical soundness such that he used to instruct his companions to supplicate to God for good health and recovery, “After certitude, nothing is more beneficial than sound health.” He also approved medicine and called to specialization in this field. He said, “Science is of two sorts; physical and religious.” Likewise, he ordered of medication and assured that each malady has a remedy. He said, “Use medication. God has not made a malady before He had created its remedy, except death- it is surely cureless.”
He also constituted a special medical program titled ‘At-Tibb un-Nabawi –The Prophetic Medicine-’. In this program, he exposed some diseases and provided their remedies in addition to a comprehensive elucidation of food, such as fruits, edibles, and meat that are medically useful.
Imam Ali (a) also expressed some physical courses within his recommendations and advice, among which was that magnificent advice he had afforded to his son Imam al-Hassan (a) in which he said: “O son! May I offer four words after which you will no longer need medicine? Do not eat unless you are hungry. Stop eating while you are still hungry. Chew food deliberately. Before sleeping, go to toilet. You will not need medicine.”
This advice is the highest physical recommendation that the modern medicine has declared. Overeating and inaccurate chewing bring about many diseases to the digestive system.
Imam as-Sadiq (a) also discussed medicine and hygiene and delivered valuable lectures that revealed the most accurate affairs of these sciences. He also discussed physiology, blood circulation and the microbes that affect diseases. Moreover, he reviewed the qualities of fruits, vegetables, meat, and the like. These physical and medical discoveries have been compiled in a book titled ‘Tibb ul-Imam as-Sadiq’ –Medicine of Imam as-Sadiq-. The Imam argued with the best physicians of his age and discussed the deepest and most accurate medical advances. Those physicians submitted to his knowledge and confessed of the questions he had provided. Most of these argumentations are recorded in the books dealing with the life of the Imam. We may consider that the best of these advances are those recorded in the book titled ‘Amalil Imam as-Sadiq’ –Dictations of Imam as-Sadiq-, in which chapters pertaining to physiology with its accurate questions and topics are recorded. The most modern scientific labs and analytic devises and technology have not attained the topics that are discussed in that book. Naturally, these treatises contributed in the development of hygiene. As much as we conceive, the most splendid physical theses that are related to the Imams (a) are those recorded in the book titled ‘Ar-Risaletul Thehebiya’ –The Golden Treatise-. It is also called ‘Tibbul Imam ar-Rida’ –The Medicine of Imam ar-Rida-.
Imam ar-Rida (s) wrote it as a response to the demand of al-Mamun, the Abbasid caliph. Historians mention that the caliph concerned greatly with that book that he ordered the writing it with gold and betook as a course of his physical life. He also eulogized that book honorably. He said, “I named it the golden and stored it in the store of wisdom after the Hashemite youth had copied it. The soundness of corporeality depends upon the well preservation of food and averts diseases to form vigorous life that brings about wisdom due to which the Paradise is gained.”
It surely deserved protection, guard, attention, and consideration since the seekers of wisdom and knowledge could depend and refer to it. It also was the authority since it came out of the houses that inherited the Prophet’s rulings, the prophets’ eloquence, the successors’ proofs and the scholars’ ethics. It is the remedy of the diseased. I showed it my retinue and the most knowledgeable people of wisdom, medicine, and authoring. They all praised and applauded it for the high rank of its writer and the truthful contents.”
The Imam (a) disputed with the master scholars of his age that the caliph had gathered for overcoming him so that the caliph would have a flaw through which he would debase and disgrace him. However, those master scholars were unable to overpower the Imam. They confessed of his virtue and mastery in that field.
In any case, Islam has constituted general principals of physical courses that guard against many diseases.
CLEANNESS
Cleanness is one of the most important elements of the composition and prosperity of the physical life since it protects from the lethal and epidemic diseases. Islam has adopted positively and involved some rulings and obligations to cleanness. God praises and adds cleanness to the qualifications of the favorable. He says:
Surely, Allah loves the returners and loves those who purify themselves.
Certainly, a mosque founded on piety from the very first day is more deserving that you should stand in it. In it are men who love that they should be purified. And Allah loves those who purify themselves.
Many reports of the Prophet and the Imams deal with the adherence to cleanness, considering it as a principal rule of the individual and social lives.
“Cleanness is a part of faithful believing.”
“The religion is based upon cleanness.”
“Allah is good and loves the good. He is clean and loves those who are clean.”
“Purity is the half of faithful believing.”
The cleanness to which Islam has called comprises the following:
- Islam has called to the cleanness of the body by removing the dirt, clipping the nails, shaving the hair, and brushing the teeth.
- Islam has called to the cleanness of the clothing by removing the insects that carry diseases.
- Islam has called to the cleanness of the residence, especially the bathroom.
- Islam has called to the cleanness of food and drinking water.
Any negligence of these matters may lead to the effect of diseases. This is forbidden, because it is, according to the Islamic legislation, a sin. God says:
And do not throw yourselves to the danger.
Islam has also abhorred and warned against dirt. The Prophet (s) said, “How evil the dirty servants of God are!”
Some of the types of dirtiness are the body dirt, dress dirt, lodging dirt, sitting in dirty places, and spitting in the public places and mosques.
Islam’s attention to cleanness is evidently clear through the following enactment:
Bathing
Islam has directed both sexes to wash all of the body, with water soon after any sexual intercourse or wet dream. God says:
And if you are under an obligation to perform a total ablution, then wash yourselves.
Modern science has proven that the human body loses a part of its vitality and activity after each sexual intercourse, and will not return by any action other than washing all of the body with water. It is also obligatory upon women to wash their bodies and remove the dirt of blood after purification from the blood of menstruation. This washing recovers the women’s vitality and activity. Muslim jurists refer to other obligatory and recommended baths that make Muslims clean, in most cases, and away from dirt and filth.
Ablution
Ablution is obligatory before the five daily prayers in addition to other obligatory prayers except the Funeral Prayer. It is obligatory to wash the face and the two arms, and pass the hand over, for Shias, the head and the feet. Similarly, it is recommendable, in the ritual ablution, to wash the hands and rinse the mouth and the nose in addition to the other actions. The specialist physicians mention important advantages for the ablution. They are as follows:
1. Water that is shed on the face and the hands helps in activating the dermal capillaries. This increases the heart vivacity, activates the body respiratory processes, and helps in inhalation and exhalation. Consequently, the perceptive motivated nerves are stimulated. Then, the stimulation moves to the whole cardiac, gastric, and pulmonic nerves, as well as all of the organs and glands.
2. Eyes are protected against ophthalmia because they are washed with water several times a day.
3. The nasal channels are cleaned from the germs gathering there by rinsing the nose.
4. The skin is protected against dermatoses. The face and the hands are uncovered organs that are vulnerable to the affection of microbes. Immunity will certainly be obtained if those organs are washed several times a day.
5. The oral cavity is protected against the germs that penetrate because of the pollution of hands. If the hands are always clean, they will not carry any microbe. Diseases that affect the human body through polluted hands are the digestive parasites, typhoid, and paralysis. At any rate, the ablution is the most notable means of protecting the human bodies against such serious diseases.
6. The ablution alleviate tense nerves and anger, as physicians aver. The Prophet (s) said, “Rage is the Satan’s. The Satan is created of fire. Water extinguishes fire. You should perform the ablution whenever you are enraged.”
Brushing the teeth
Islam has recommended using the toothbrushes. The Prophet (s) said, “Unless I did not want to fatigue my people, I would order them of using the toothbrush.”
The toothbrushes in the early era of Islam were the miswaks. They are branches of a tree that includes small fibers used for cleaning the teeth. Dr. Hamid al-Badri refers to some of the hygienic advantages of these fibers. He says, “This plant is chemically composed of cellulosic fibers and some volatile oils. It has aromatic rating and mineral salts such as Sodium chloride, which is the normal salt, and potassium chloride and gypsum oxide. Thus, these sticks are natural toothbrushes that are supplied with mineral salts and aromatic materials that help in cleaning the teeth. The Prophet (s) and his companions used these natural toothbrushes many centuries ago, while the other toothbrushes were first used in 1800. It is worth mentioning that any negligence of the teeth may lead to tooth decay that carries poisonous materials and originates many diseases.”
Using the toilet:
Islam has legislated cleaning after using the toilet. This process stands for cleaning the urinal organ twice or, preferably, three times with water. For the fecal organ, it is optional to clean with water or with a material that removes the feces thoroughly. The first way, however, is preferable, as jurists confirm. This notable enactment creates body cleanness and protects against the microbes and the dirt of the urine and the feces.
Cleanness of dresses:
Jurists unanimously have agreed upon the obligation of wearing clean clothes during prayers. They have also ruled the invalidity of the prayers that are performed by those whose clothes are –intentionally- unclean. They rule that such prayers should be repeated with clean clothes. It is quite acceptable that the cleanness of dresses plays a big role in the achievement of individual and social physical soundness, and protects against definite diseases.
Hairdressing and nail clipping:
Islam tends to clean the parts of the body; hence, it urges on hairdressing and nail clipping. The Prophet (s) said, “There are five matters that are within the sound nature. They are shaving the pubes, circumcision, trimming the mustache, tearing out the hair of the armpits, and clipping the nails.”
Health and protection against infectious diseases are obtained through the application of these healthy courses.
In any case, Islam has decreed cleanness, because it involves the prosperity and the development of the general health, and contributes in saving good physical soundness. The developed countries, along with the international health organizations, strive for publicizing the general health among peoples of the world. They also work for guarding man from irregularity and aberrance. Bantam, the English, says, “Diligent preservations in the legislative purity of the Islamic religion will dismiss sinning and quit the defects. All of the criminals that I have seen in the jails were dirty in appearance and reality.”
NUTRIENT COURSES
Islam has constituted a distinctive course of nutrition, and ordered Muslims of applying them to their lives.
Moderation of food:
Islam has shown the necessity of moderation in food. God says:
O, children of Adam! Attend to your embellishments at every time of prayer, and eat and drink and be not extravagant. Surely, He does not love the extravagant.
This holy Verse includes the principals of the general health and founds an equable rule of physical safety. This is the moderation of eating. Overeating ravages the body and causes the infliction of many diseases. Imam as-Sadiq (s) says, “If people economize in their eating, their bodies will be sound.”
Imam ar-Rida (s) says in ar-Risaletu Thehebiya, “O Amirul-Muminin
! Consider only the food that suits you and your stomach, and intensifies and relishes your body to prepare it for yourself and use as the diet. The excessive food is useless. The food that is neither excessive nor imperfect is the useful. You should not have the adequacy of food. You should leave the food while you are still craving for it. This is better for the stomach and the body, and more helpful for the mind and less heavy for the physique.”
Islam has underlined the necessity of moderation in eating since it achieves the physical soundness and takes away from diseases. The Prophet (s) said, “Eat only when you crave, and abstain while you are still craving.” “Sons of Adam –human beings- have not filled a bowel worse than the abdomens. Sons of Adam should be content with a few bits that rectify the body. If this is impossible, one third should be given to eating, and one third to drinking, and one third to breathing.” “Stomach is the house of every malady. Diet is the head of every remedy. Give the soul what it habituates.”
Overeating creates serious and impending developments that lead to many dangers and difficulties. Some of these dangers are as follows:
- Overeating causes fatness, which is a serious ailment, since it brings about heart troubles, hypertension, nephric defects, and diabetes.
- Overeating causes the digestive system to encounter many diseases due to the extension and reduction of the stomach, such as ulcer and the like.
- Immoderation in eating causes problems of fecundity. Modern medical surveys have proven that the immoderation in having food, especially the fatty, affects the activities of the glands and the sexual reproduction. In some cases, it may lead to barrenness.
- Overeating may cause mental defects and idiocy.
Food mastication:
Islam has urged on food mastication and added it to the healthy courses due to which the physicians become unneeded. Modern medical searches have supported this fact and assured that bad mastication creates many defects to the digestive system.
Coldness of food:
Islam has banned from having hot food. The Prophet (s) said, “Cool the food. The hot food lacks bless.” Physicians have proven that having hot food creates dental defects.
Forbidden food:
Islam has forbidden some foods that ruin the health and destroy the body. Instead, it has referred to some foods that comprise essential elements. God says:
O you who believe! Eat of the good things that we have provided you with, and give thanks to Allah if him it is that you serve. He has only forbidden you what dies of itself, and blood, and flesh of swine, and that over which any other name than that of Allah has been invokes. But whoever is driven to necessity, not desiring, nor exceeding the limit, no sin shall be upon him. Surely, Allah is forgiving, merciful. Forbidden to you is that which dies of itself, and blood, and flesh of swine, and that on which any other name than that of Allah has been invoked, and the strangled animal and that beaten to death and that killed by a fall and that killed by being smitten with the horn, and that which wild beasts have eaten.
The dead animal:
The dead animal is that departs life before legal slaughtering. Specialists mention several damages of the animals that depart life naturally. They say, “Animals are not died unless there is a reason. If it is a disease, it is still in that animal’s carcass that is poisoned by unnatural materials that harm man even if fire sterilizes it. Such carcasses are similar to the fermented food that is harmful even if it is sterilized from germs. Having the meat of such carcasses may lead to death.”
“All of the natural qualities and vital materials of carcasses are missed as soon as death occurs. If such fresh carcasses are eaten, a gastric colic and tense enterotoxins occur. In case such carcasses had been dead for a long time, they are changed into lethal poisons that damage the human body totally, such as hemiplegia, apoplexy, and sudden death. Sometimes, it may cause barrenness.”
Animals that are dead due to senility carry damages similar to the diseased. Senility results in the disintegration of all of the tissues that affects the nutritive values of the meat and its digestibility, which create gastronomical diseases.
Blood:
Islam has forbidden having blood, because it is the hotbed of germs. They breed and spread in the blood to carry poisonous secretions. Blood, when consumed, causes hurray in the gastric tissues in addition to other serious diseases. The blood of diseased animals causes high temperature and hypertension.
Pork:
Trichinosis is a disease that pork causes. It is very serious. It is accompanied by increasing tense, sometimes hematic, diarrhea, colic, high fever, apathy of powers, painful aches in the knuckles, aridity in the larynx and the respiratory organs, and clear facial intumescence, especially near the eyes, in addition to general impuissance. It may cause death.
In 1983, an English physician discovered this serious disease while he was anatomizing a body of a man who had eaten pork excessively. Owing to consecutive experiments, the physician discovered that the disease had been caused by a worm called Trichina, and lived in the intestines of the mammary animals such as rats, mice, dogs, and pigs. This worm, however, breed in pigs more than other animals, because this parasite animal eats carcasses. A great part of the operative sacs of these worms enters the bodies of those who eat pork. Afterwards, the tissues of those sacs dissolve in the intestines, and the worms begin to spread all over the body to cause the previous diseases.”
Such diseases are commonly widespread in the Western countries since people there have the pork legally. Webney Widexon says, “This disease is common in some provinces in France, Germany, Britain, and Italy. It is approximately nonexistent in the eastern countries, since the religion there bans the pork.” Other physicians state the following matters:
- It is not possible to decide whether a single swine does not carry these worms unless microscopes check each of the organs accurately. This is impossible since this process will lead to the expiration of the pork.
- Each female of these worms gives birth of about 1500 fetuses in the mucus membrane of the intestine of the diseased; thus, millions of these female fetuses distribute all over the organs via the blood circulation. They gather in the intentional muscles to cause tense pains and muscular inflammations that effect the intumescence and the inflexibility of the muscular tissue. This produces tumors that extend to all of the muscles.
This disease is cureless. For technical reasons, no remedy has been effective yet. Pork carries some decayed germs. It also carries the paratyphoid that causes tense toxins associated by taut inflammations in the digestive system. Death may occur in few hours.
The previous horrible damages that are evolved from having pork reveal the deep scope of the Islamic legislation and the genuineness of its prohibition.
The strangled:
Islam has forbidden the meat of the strangled animals. Physicians have proven that strangulation causes instant rotting, and makes the meat tend to blackness and fetor.
The beaten to death:
The meat of the beaten to death animals are also instantly and uneatable.
The killed by a fall:
The meat of animals that are killed due to falling is uneatable because it is decayed and blackened.
The smitten:
The meat of the animals that are killed due to fighting with other animals is uneatable because of its instant decay and blackening.
The devoured:
Islam has also bans the meat of the devoured animals. The wild animals usually have the carcasses that carry the fatal germs that move to the devoured animals to pollute their meat totally. This naturally causes problems to health.
Jurists have discussed the rulings of the forbidden food in details. These meats cause serious problems that may lead to physical collapse and infliction with diseases.
INTOXICANTS
Intoxicants are the base of every crime and misfortune. They deform the human beings and seize their minds to lead to tremendous evils.
Prohibition of intoxicants:
Islam has forbidden the consuming of intoxicants totally, and considered it as one of the major sins and misfortunes. The holy Quran has ordered us to refrain from intoxicants. God says:
Intoxicants and games of chance and sacrificing to stones set up and dividing by arrows are only an uncleanness; the Shaitan’s work. Shun it therefore that you may be successful.
The Prophet (s) said, “God has cursed the wine, its consumer, butler, purchaser, vendor, presser, squeezer, and the one who carries it, and the one to whom it is given.”
“Three sorts of people will not be in the Paradise. They are the drunkards, the sorcerers, and those who severe family relations.”
Imam as-Sadiq (a) said, “The drunkards are the same as the pagans are. Intoxicants are the chief of every sin. The consumers of intoxicants are belying God’s Book. If they acceded to God’s Book, they would abstain from the matters that are forbidden there.”
Imam as-Sadiq (a) said, “He who consumes intoxicants his entire life, is not different from the pagans. Those who abstain from intoxicants for God’s fearing, God will admit them to the Paradise and quench their thirst from the pure sealed drink.”
The terrible damages of intoxicants:
The addiction to intoxicants causes physical downfall and destruction. Modern medical writings have mentioned the great damages of intoxicants.
Damages on birth:
The descendants inherit many defects from the intoxicants. The descendants of drunkard parents carry the effects of weak structures and the affliction of serious disorders -the outcome of which is idiocy, general paralysis, or barrenness. It may also lead to the newborns’ death. In addition, the offspring of the drunkards may be afflicted by painful deformities such as inequality of the brain, shortness, and edema, and retardation of mental powers such as frailty of memory, fatuity, and the like. Many physicians, such as Bogonus
, Shawn, Stoker, Dingo and others, confirm this fact.
Damages on blood and heart:
The analysts of intoxicants have proven that the effective element of the intoxicants is alcohol or the spirit that easily leaks into the blood without need to disintegrate. The accompanying materials may dissolve in the stomach into a material called aldehyde, and distribute to all of the tissues and organs. A little of that material composes carbonic or acetic acids. As evidence, the physicians say that if an amount of a drunkard’s blood is brought near fire, it will be burnt like wine and spirit.
The intoxicants cause the heart to beat rapidly because of the irregular activity of the cardiac muscles. Withering and disintegration are the results of the reduction of the cardiac activities. It also causes blood pressure on the walls of the blood vessels. This induces the skin to sweat. Some physicians add that the addiction to intoxicants is within the three major causes of arteriosclerosis, which is a serious disease that causes cardiac damage and the explosion of brain arteries. This produces hemiplegia and cureless paralysis.
Damages on liver and kidney:
Intoxicants, which the body absorbs, pass by the liver via the blood stream and cause damages and inflammations of the hepatic cells. When such inflammations become chronic, a swelling and cirrhosis occur in the liver. Doctors Hill and Doth Howard confirm these facts.
Intoxicants cause the reduction of diuresis owing to the extension of the nephric blood vessels. A considerable amount of alcohol comes out from the kidney to cause serious inflammations.
Effects on the stomach:
Physicians have emphasized that alcohol will dissolve into aldehyde and acetic acids when it mixes with the ingredients of the stomach. It also hastens the pepsin and the residuals of perthite and other enzymes. Pepsin is the most important element that helps in digestion. The precipitation of this element hinders the digestive processes and agitates the mucous membrane of the stomach. This creates the extension of the blood vessels and the effluence of the glands of the gastric sap. Addiction to intoxicants ruins the efficiency of the gastric sap and causes dyspepsia. The drunkards always suffer pains in the stomach.
Physicians have stressed that the addiction to intoxicants causes the following diseases:
- Hepatic swelling that leads to edema
- Nephritis that causes general toxemia
- Hemiplegia
- Hysteria
- General nervous disorder
- Pulmonary defects that lead to tuberculosis
- The deficiency of immunity against lethal diseases such as typhoid and meningitis
The addicts to intoxicants cannot resist such diseases or benefit by aids or modern medication, such as penicillin and other antibiotics.
The addiction to intoxicants causes many economic damages. The drunkard will eventually be dragged to wasting and squandering in addition to gambling, fornication, impudence, and other dishonest matters.
Means of controlling the intoxicants:
The malignant defect of consuming the intoxicants is the most influential element of terminating the health and the life. The following are some means of controlling it.
- The ruling authorities should ban the intoxicants categorically and destroy the factories and the devises of filtration in addition to imposing a strict punishment upon the traffickers and merchants of intoxicants.
- All of the print media should be used for broadcasting the terrible damages of the intoxicants.
- Jurists, educationists, and the health organizations should control and expose the damages of the intoxicants.
- Sport clubs should be established so that the youth will practice the various sports and other useful activities.
- Propaganda and commercials of intoxicants should be banned.
SEXUAL DEVIATION
Islam has forbidden all sorts of sexual deviation since they cause collapse of the general health and lead to serious diseases.
Fornication:
Islam has forbidden fornication regarded it as the worst of the forbidden acts. God says:
And do not go nigh to fornication. Surely, it is an indecency and evil is the way.
Moreover, God considers fornication as polytheism and murder. He says:
And they who do not call upon another god but Allah and do not slay the soul, which Allah has forbidden except in the requirements of justice, and who do not commit fornication. And he who does this shall find a requital of sin. The punishment shall be doubled to him on the day of resurrection. And he shall abide therein in abasement.
Damages of fornication:
Health failure and ruination of the principals of life are the most horrible damages and serious dangers of fornication.
Syphilitic diseases:
Fornication is the main cause of the syphilitic diseases. They affect the nervous, respiratory, lymphatic, digestive, and genital tracts of the human body. They also affect the bones, knuckles, the ductile and ductless glands, skin, eye, and ear so gravely that death is its only cure. The sufferings of misfortunes and the pains of such diseases are terribly intolerable. Detailed exposition can be read in the books of medicine.
Gonorrhea:
Gonorrhea is one of the fatal diseases that affect the urinal ducts. It causes blindness to the fornicators’ newborns. Many other disadvantages of fornication are exposed in details in the books of medicine.
Syphilis:
Syphilis is the worst disease. It is called the ape of diseases. It affects any organ or tissue. In the first phase, a hard ulcer emerges in the body. In the second, red spots affect the organs totally. In the third, the main system of the body is affected. If the brain is affected, mental defects, such as insanity, may occur. If the medulla is affected, paralysis may occur. If the heart and the blood vessels are affected, heart troubles may occur.
If it affects the pregnant women, it directly influences the fetuses that may be affected by inherent deformities. In some cases, the fetuses may be dead.
Chancroid:
Chancroid is a soft red cureless chancre that has a negative effect on the human body. Detailed exposition of this disease can be seen in the books of medicine.
We have proven some of the lethal diseases that affect the perpetrators of fornication. This crime, however, results in barrenness, dishonor, destruction of the family’s entity, and other social damages.
The strict punishment:
Islam has decreed the harshest punishment for the perpetrators of this crime. Married fornicators should undergo stoning. Some jurists rule that the married fornicators should be whipped and stoned. This rule applies to both Muslim and non-Muslim male and female. The bachelor fornicators should be sentenced to one hundred lashes. God says:
As for the fornicatress and the fornicator, flog each of them giving a hundred stripes. And let not pity for them detain you in the matter of obedience to Allah, if you believe in Allah and the last day. And let a party of believers witness their chastisement.
Some jurists have issued that a group of people should witness the application of the whipping so that they would take example and stay away from this act. This firm procedure eradicates the social corruption and poses dams and barriers before everyone that intends to perpetrate this crime. The French legislation in this regard is the weakest. It considers fornication as a crime only when perpetrated by the husband if it is committed in the wives’ home. Anyhow, the punishment is no more than a fine of a few Franks. Wives that commit adultery are sentenced to detention. Actually, such punishments do not eradicate the crime of fornication that ravages many souls.
SODOMY
Sodomy is unquestionably the worst moral crime and the most terrible category of irregularity and deviation. Syphilitic diseases that destroy the health and life will eventually affect the sodomite. Likewise, many social dangers, including the reduction of matrimonial rates, stem from this phenomenon that creates a harsh decrease in the birth rate. Islam has constituted strict punishments for this crime. Perpetrators of sodomy should be sentenced to one of the following punishments:
- Killing by sword
- Burning
- Building a wall around them
- Throwing from a high place
The sodomised individuals should be sentenced to death penalty if they are adults, sane, and discerning. If the sodomised or the sodomites are children, they should undergo the punishment of chastisement.
This strict ruling is constituted for eradicating this crime and warning people against it. Formerly, the crime of sodomy was lawfully banned in Britain, but it was legislated due to the importunate persistence of the Parliament there. Actually, the British government has led the people to great calamity since this crime destroys the family and the social life.
MASTURBATION
Islam has banned masturbation for being the vilest means of pleasing the sexual lust. Masturbators are afflicted by mental defects in addition to innate frailty and depression.
Protective methods:
- Early marriage eradicates all types of sexual irregularity, most of which are originated from bachelorhood. The Prophet (s) said, “Marriage saves two thirds of the religion. You should fear God in the other third.” “The vilest of the dead are the bachelors.” “Bachelors form the majority of people of the hell-fire.”
Marriage guards against committing such vices and protect from falling in the depths of immorality.
- Sexual cultivation and exposing the disadvantages may help in getting rid of this disgusting habit.
- Removal of sexy movies and the other lusty media, such as sexy magazines and books, guards against this ill manner.
- The practice of sports and artistic exercises, and reading useful and disciplinary books, are methods that protect against masturbating.
- The implementation of definite activities, such as general cleanness, leaving the bed as soon as possible, and the engagement in useful matters, protects against the habit of masturbation.
PROHIBITION OF COPULATING WITH THE MENSTRUOUS
Islam has forbidden copulating with the menstruous for avoiding many diseases. God says:
And they ask you about menstruation. Say: It is a pollution; therefore, keep aloof from the women during the menstrual discharge and do not go near them until they have become clean.
Modern clinical studies have proven that copulation with the menstruous injures the health of the spouses. This is because the blood of menstruation contains various microbes and germs that cause inflammation. The women’s internal membranes congest during the menstruation. Any copulation may rupture these membranes and cause the infection of the microbes to spread to other places, effecting women’s health. In many cases, such copulation may cause nervous disorders.
RELAXATION
Carnal relaxation is one of the programs of the Islamic physical education. Human beings should not bring about mental and physical fatigue, which is a banned danger. Relaxation is a recommendable matter. The Prophet (s) said, “Your mind enjoys rights that you must keep. Your body enjoys rights that you must keep. Your spouse enjoys rights that you must keep. Your eyes enjoy rights that you must keep.”
“Your essence is as same as your pack. You should be lenient to it.” This means that one should not overburden or neglect himself and should treat any frailty that may affect. The Prophet (s) said, “Relax from time to time.”
Relaxation protects against many diseases that are originated, in most cases, from overworking, exhaustion, and behavioral instability that causes diseases and defects.
ATHLETIC EDUCATION
Islam has been deliberately caring for the athletic education for its being a significant element for composing the physical vitality and activity. It has legislated a number of courses in this regard.
Racing:
Racing is a contract legislated for exercising competition and readiness to fight. The Prophet (s) said, “No racing except in spears, feet, or horses.” It is also legislated for strengthening the body and activating the muscles. Jurists have concerned with racing. They dedicated chapters for discussing its rulings and ethics.
Archery:
Archery stands for the exercising of fighting processes and taking up arms. This exercise creates physical powers, activates muscles and matures the verve. It also teaches willpower and self-reliance.
Hunting:
Hunting stimulates the organs, activates the muscles, initiates activity, and empowers the body, because it requires movement, walking, and other athletic motions. The Muslim kings, in the early ages of Islam, were fond of hunting, yet they practiced it for amusement. Books of the Islamic jurisprudence expose explicitly the legality, illegality, and conditions of hunting.
PHYSICAL BENEFITS OF WORSHIP
In addition to the elevation of morals, disciplining of mentalities, and connection to the Creator, the Islamic rites aim at amending health, training the body, activating the muscles, and empowering the will.
Prayer:
Prayer is the believers’ ascent and the offertory of the pious. It is the sole sanctuary when ideas, grieves, and pains seize the mentalities. Prayer enables the minds to connect directly with the Creator, shunning the thorough material and personal interests. That saves against the destroying depression and the terminating anxiety. Prayer, fundamentally, implies mind inclination and mental turnout. Prayers lose essence and factuality if they lack those two items. God threatens those who perform the prayers physically while they are unaware of its purport and factuality:
So, woe to the praying ones, who are unmindful of their prayers.
The performance of prayers while the soul is tending, succumbing, and calming to God and His potentiality will certainly save against the life pains that foist diseases and misfortunes to the body. Many reports have asserted that the prayer brings about health in addition to the innumerable benefits in this world and the Hereafter and large powers of athletic advancements. As the late imam Mohammed Hussein al-Kashiful-Ghitta, discusses the clinical and physical advantages of prayers, he says, “The required in all of the movements and stillness of prayers is settlement and stability. In standing erect or sitting, each organ should be stabilized in its exact position along with performing all of the movements that activate the whole knuckles and organs with a new movement. Standing erect, sitting, bending, prostration, various conditions of raising the hands and conjoining the arms intervened by suppliant sayings, recital and praises in definite times of universal peculiarity, like dawn, midday and sunset. All these are objects to learn lessons and refer to the signs of the excellent creation and the Supreme Creator, along with various fields of thinking. Each of these movements has physical advantages. The genuflection, for instance, empowers the abdominal membrane because of causing it to reduce, prevents its relaxation, and alerts the viscera and the intestines to the straight pulses. This saves the body against tense constipation. Besides, there are many other advantages. The ritual prostration is another example. It reduces the muscles and bones of the breast more tensely, activates the diaphragm, alerts the stomach to throw its contents, and saves it from symptoms of the painful extension. Subsequently, all these activities and certain conditions, which are orderly arranged, are athletic movements that greatly influence the activity of the organs and the reduction, power, and cohesion of the muscles. They also play a considerable role in alerting the sensitive nerves, stimulating the blood circulation, igniting the instinctive heat that prepare a consonant internal environment and animating the powers of sound reasoning. It is commonly familiar that the functions of the muscles are not only activating the body movement to other places. They surely have more significant and communal functions, which are influencing all of the limbs and systems of analysis and respiration, and alerting the digestive system and the spine. Those movements are healthy exercises and natural sport that influence each organ distinctively. They are designed so regularly in definite times per day. They are clinical prescriptions and magnificent models of immunity for the knuckles, the nerves, the heart, the lungs, the stomach, and the head. The ritual prayer is physical, mental, moderate, and quiet sport that grants, if performed in their exact times, willpower, time respect, order, fulfilling the pledge, keeping the promise, and the like good manners. These sports are highly elevated from those childish sports. The prayer is only cleanness, purification, lessons, thinking, athletic activities, mental efforts, and spiritual disclosure. The simplest result of prayers, if performed properly with their functions and practices, is guaranteeing the performers’ enjoining the good and forbidding the evil.”
Dr. Mustafa al-Haffar, the specialist in the diseases of the digestive system, was asked about the advantages of the ritual genuflection and prostration of the prayers. He answered, “The genuflection capacitates the muscles of the abdominal membrane and helps in contracting the stomach for performing its digestive function properly. It also helps the intestines in emitting the digestive residuals naturally. The ritual prostration pushes the air in the stomach to the mouth to release it from extension that causes digestive pains and cardiac reflections.” Dr. F. Azure, the specialist in the nervous diseases and knuckles, exposes the physical benefits of the prayer. He says, “Prayers of Muslims, altogether with the genuflection and prostration, strengthen the back muscles and tender the vertebrae, especially if the prayer is performed in early age. Moreover, it materializes immunity from the diseases of muscles that exceed the spine. Different sorts of nervous defects, that cause tense pains and muscular spasm, may occur due to the weakness of muscles.”
Fasting:
Hadiths have stressed that fasting protects against the hell-fire and its chastisement. It is actually the most influential means of spiritual sports, willpower, and customs of endurance. It is the healthiest means of reforming the digestive system. Dr. A. Ismail states that the fasting is the only remedy that protects against many diseases, and the best prescription of the following defects:
-The fasting is prescribed for treating the chronic disorders of the intestines that are associated by fermentation of the albuminous and amyloid materials. Fasting -which is the abstinence from water and food from dawn to sunset- is the most successful way of purifying the intestines and treating the states of fermentation.
- It is also prescribed for treating the excessive fatness that is the result of overeating and the paucity of activities. In this case, fasting is the best curable method provided that it is accompanied by moderation during having the meal of breaking the fasting, and drinking water during the post-midnight meal.
- It is also prescribed for treating the spontaneous blood pressure. This disease is increasingly spreading due to luxury and psychic agitations. In such cases, Ramadhan is the month of grace and bless, especially for the excessively weighty.
- It is prescribed for treating diabetes. This disease spreads with the pressure of blood. It is often associated by the excessive weight. Hence, fasting is the beneficial treatment since the proportion of saccharine decreases with the retreat of the weight. Five hours after having a meal, the sugar in the blood reaches lower than the natural term in cases of slack saccharine urination. Ten hours later, it reaches lower levels. Before the discovery of the insulin, fasting, with some nutritious notices, was the best treatment of this disease, especially for the fat.
- It is prescribed for treating the tense and chronic nephritis that is associated by exudation and tumefaction.
- It is prescribed for treating the heart troubles that are associated by tumefaction.
- It is prescribed for treating the chronic arthritis, especially for the fat, such as the forty year old ladies. It has been noticed that fasting was the best cure, for this disease, since it has exceeded the other means of electricity, injections, drugs, and modern medicine.
It may be cited that fasting, in these cases, needs clinical prescription, while it is imposed on the healthy only. This is quite correct, but fasting protects against these diseases.
The Prophet (s) said, “Fast, so that you will be healthy.” Fasting protects against many diseases and leads to mental disciplinary and good traits.
Pilgrimage:
Rites of the pilgrimage are considerable activities that strengthen the muscles, activate the bodily movements, and alert the organs. It is also the most notable Islamic conference by which Muslims would benefit greatly if they take as the occasion of discussing their political and economic problems.
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Author: Baqir Sharif al-Qarashi
