{"id":29574,"date":"2021-06-25T11:47:39","date_gmt":"2021-06-25T03:47:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/new-wp\/?p=29574"},"modified":"2021-06-25T11:47:39","modified_gmt":"2021-06-25T03:47:39","slug":"miracles-and-medicine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/miracles-and-medicine\/","title":{"rendered":"Miracles and Medicine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In facing the Covid-19 pandemic, Muslims in\nMalaysia are simultaneously confronted with the religion-science tension,\nmostly in the form of fiqh<\/em>-medicine controversies, caused by polemical\nstatements made by certain parties via online media regarding a number of\nissues such as the government-imposed restrictions on the performance of\ncertain religious activities and routines as well as the validity of\nimmunization initiatives on religious grounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All the\naforementioned despite a famous saying attributed to Imam al-Shafi\u2018i (d.\n820CE), one of the founders of the major Sunnite legal schools (al-fiqh<\/em>),\nwhich sums up knowledge as consisting of two kinds: knowledge of fiqh<\/em>\nwhich pertains to (the preservation of) religion and knowledge of medicine\nwhich pertains to (the health of) human body. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ensuing\ntension is made worse by a large segment of the so-called religiously inclined\nMuslims either ignoring or being ignorant of, not only a more comprehensive\nperspective, but also the original intent, of fiqh<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this regard,\nit is important for us to bear in mind that as a scholar who knew well about\nImam Abu Hanifah (d. 767CE), also founder of another major Sunnite legal\nschool, al-Shafi\u2018i most probably intended by fiqh<\/em> in his aforementioned\nsaying a meaning that is not restricted merely to knowledge of religious laws\nbut includes as well the original meaning of fiqh<\/em> as profound\nunderstanding of matters of religion in its entirety. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such\nunderstanding encompasses and is rooted in religiously and epistemologically\nmore fundamental knowledge which Abu Hanifah referred to as al-fiqh al-akbar<\/em>\n(the major science of religion) and which provides the foundation and framework\nfor fiqh <\/em>in the legal sense and thus renders the latter purposeful and\nmeaningful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is this major fiqh<\/em>\nthat was later refined in formulation, articulation and elucidation by\nsucceeding scholars and became known by such other titles as \u2018ilm usul\nal-din <\/em>(the science of the principles of religion), \u2018ilm al-\u2018aqa\u2019id <\/em>(the\nscience of the religious creeds), and more technically, \u2018ilm al-kalam <\/em>(philosophical\ntheology).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Defects in fiqh<\/em>\nof this major and more comprehensive kind have led such segments of Muslims to\nentertain misplaced confidence in Allah\u2019s omnipotence at the expense of the\nvarious health measures validly issued on the grounds of medicine and fiqh<\/em>\nin the legal sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inherent thus is\ntheir reliance on mere possibility of miracles which they believe can be\ngranted when linked to genuine religious acts, pitted against empirically\nverified medical or scientific data. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For instance,\nsome of them regard it possible that the infectious nature of the Covid-19\nvirus not affect those who are really observant of such acts as attending\nregular congregational prayers as performed during normal conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In warding off\nsuch misplaced confidence, it is therefore pertinent that such Muslims pay\nattention to an explanation supplied by Imam al-Ghazzali (d. 1111), a great\npolymath and also a leading jurist in the Shafi\u2018ite legal school, pertaining to\nsimilar empirical matters of his time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf someone argues (regarding the\ncutting off of one\u2019s neck being associated with one\u2019s death) \u2018how can you be\ncertain of this when masters of \u2018ilm al-kalam<\/em> . . . hold that beheading\nis not cause of death, nor is eating cause of satiation, or fire cause of\nburning, but Allah Most High creates burning, death and satiation next to<\/em>\n(\u2018ind<\/em>) the presence of such matters, but not by<\/em> (bi<\/em>)\nthem?\u2019, we will then reply . . . that a master of \u2018ilm al-kalam<\/em>, if\ninformed of his son\u2019s neck having been cut off, will not doubt his death, nor\nwill people of intelligence doubt that too. For, he does acknowledge the\noccurrence of death although he is disputing the mode of the relation (between\nbeheading and one\u2019s death). The dispute thus pertains to whether death is an\n(inherent) necessary concomitance (luzum daruri<\/em>) with no possibility of\nchange in its course or is by way of Allah\u2019s customary acts (jaryan\nsunnatullah<\/em>) in executing<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His\neverlasting Will which admits neither replacement nor change. HENCE, THE\nDISPUTE ACTUALLY CONCERNS THE MODE OF THE ASSOCIATION (WAJH Al-IQTIRAN<\/em>)\nBUT NOT THE ASSOCIATION ITSELF (NAFS AL-IQTIRAN<\/em>). Therefore, do\nunderstand the aforementioned (properly) and know (well) that doubt about the\ndeath of one whose neck has been cut off is mere devilish insinuation (waswas<\/em>)\nwhereas belief in his death is certain and not susceptible of doubt!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is important\nfor us to bear in mind that al-Ghazzali issued the above explanation while\ndiscussing empirical matters (mujarrabat<\/em>). The Malay word \u201cmujarab<\/em>,\u201d\nwhich in its common usage connotes medical effectiveness and efficacy, is\nactually derived from the aforementioned Arabic word. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is also\nimportant for us to realize that such explanation was given by him in his\nfamous work on logic, i.e. Mi\u2018yar al-\u2018Ilm<\/em> (The Balance Scale of\nKnowledge).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is in fact\nal-Ghazzali who, in the introduction to al-Mustasfa<\/em>, his magnum opus in\nIslamic Jurisprudence (usul al-fiqh<\/em>), has made it incumbent upon\njurists, as on any other specialist, to have good mastery of logic before they\ncould be considered to be so qualified, thus paving the way for the subsequent\nincorporation of logic as a necessary subject in the Muslim educational\ncurricula of yester years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Unfortunately, as far as the present-day\nMuslim educational curriculum is concerned, logic has diminished in\nsignificance and in a great number of cases has been excluded. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hence, in order\nto curb the above tension from getting worse and minimise its recurrence in the\nlong run, the religious education of Muslims at large should be reassessed and\nimproved along the lines formulated by such great Muslim luminaries as the\naforementioned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In facing the Covid-19 pandemic, Muslims in Malaysia are simultaneously confronted with the religion-science tension, mostly in the form of fiqh-medicine controversies, caused by polemical statements made by certain parties via online media regarding a number of …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_analytify_skip_tracking":false,"_wpzoom_pinterest_image_url":"","_wpzoom_pinterest_hidden_image":"0","_wpzoom_pinterest_description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[225],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","category-225","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29574\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}