Hamid Arshat | Pakar Sakit Puan

Chapter I: The Word of Al’Mussawwir

Allah is Al'Mussawwir: ‘The Bestower of Form’. We write this book as Muslims with an Islamic perspective. By Muslim, I mean those who submit to truth through the performance of deeds that actively acknowledge this truth. By Islam, I mean all such human activity that engenders the domestic peace and leads to success, both here and in the Hereafter.

Since the fall of the apple upon Sir Isaac Newton’s head, medical science has progressively taken a materialist approach to therapeutics that has reduced the human being to little more than a living machine. This paradigm is a platform of essentially reactionary speculations, centered on principles that regulate the lower (animal and mineral) kingdoms, and which principles are then scientifically applied to Homosapiens to the exclusion of the higher laws that govern mankind’s physical being. This acute case of myopic logic contributes to the present miasma of new diseases and dysfunctions of infinite complexity and perplexity. Our Creator has most certainly endowed us with ‘formative forces’:

He (God) it is Who forms you in the wombs as He wills.” 3:6, Al- Imran, Al’Qur’an

These forces manifest in a magnificent splendor that constantly confront the conscious observer with nothing short of an all-embracing reverence.

Formative forces are metaphysical directives that guide the genetic expression of whatever follows. Once expressed, the personage formed does become subject to insult from the lower kingdoms, and will react to them vigorously according to inherent faculties and superlatively ‘hidden’ reserves, such as stem cells, etc. However, there comes a point when laws governing the lower kingdoms may overwhelm the person according to his/her singular capacities (limitations of strength or restorative reserves). If this occurs, laws governing the animal, plant, and mineral kingdoms begin to modify or control the human ‘form’, and may subsequently inhibit or destroy the inherent functions that maintain the capacity for healthy expression.

Bearing this simple but empirical theory in mind, let us consider cancer for a moment. Without a doubt, cancer is the number one pandemic of the modern world. Never before has mankind witnessed the like of its current multiplicity of expressions. The materially oriented scientist seeks an answer (cure) in particulate matter, and gives but a faint nod to the psychology of ‘stress’ as a contributing factor in the immune suppression process, but he never fully recognizes the metaphysical life forces that govern genetic, and hence, formative processes. Ultimately, cancer represents an active destruction of what was once superbly formed ─ cancer is a dysfunctional return to chaos (disorganization) ─ by reducing the ‘living form’ to its material (non-living) components. Therefore, its presence announces an anti-formative (destructive) process that has been in position for quite some time prior to the demise of that which was formed.

The question remains then: What does the disorganized process of cancer actually oppose?

In simple terms, it may be said that this destructive process (cancer) opposes the divine will (Holy Spirit/The spirit of Allah) which created the thing formed;

vis-à-vis the interruption, and destruction of an ongoing genetic (seed contained) expression of life.

We are not concerned here with the natural aging process, but with matters that actually accelerate morbidity, so that what lives dies prematurely via the loss of natural function, which otherwise would not normally occur. This premature morbidity is the automatic ‘default’ status of two natural determinants: one being life and the other being death.

Surely, life expresses itself only to face death, and though death is the ultimate determinant of physical existence, its premature manifestation is naturally opposed as long as the thing formed behaves (taqua) according to life giving principles that protect it from unseasonable morbidity.

Therefore, life is generated from life and supported by deeds that conform (work with the form) as spoken by al’Mussawwir, and premature death or debilitating illness is the absence of conformity (obedience) to Allah’s word “Be”, as expressed by the inherent regenerating and restorative powers expressed by these formative energies.

In other words, when man ceases to cooperate with al’Mussawwir’s word through obedience to His law, he automatically opens the door to debilitating illness and premature death.

When man walks towards God, God runs to man with more grace and help; but to the contrary, when man walks away from God through disobedience to life sustaining principles, God also withdraws the protective grace that maintains that person’s or community’s life in health. It’s really quite simple, and it is naturally and normally an automatic process of reversal towards chaos. There is nothing at all supernatural about it.

Hence, since the living form is ultimately reduced to its mineral components in death, the mineral kingdom may be said to be a closer expression of death than is the plant, animal, and human kingdoms respectively; as the latter three are all reduced to minerals when death occurs. The mistake that modern medical science has made is therefore threefold:

(1) A blatant disregard for the empirically evident formative principles.

(2) The equating of human bio-dynamic processes with those of the animal and plant kingdoms (lower life forms).

(3) And the neglect of principles that differentiate between that which is bio-active (alive) and that which is inert or dead (mineral).

If principles governing all four kingdoms were equivalent expressions of formative forces, what then differentiates the mineral realm from the biological realm ─ genes alone?

To make such an assumption is comparable to the imagination that nano-rocks formed themselves into genes quite by chance in some ancient mud pond struck by lightening, which is a proven statistical absurdity! Life is not a spontanoues combustion, but an ordered universe based on form and function as willed by Allah the bestower of Forms.

Therefore, the challenge presented to medical scientists is to realize the existence of something greater than nano-rock technology in their cogitations over an approach to curative therapeutics, which is, after all, what most aspire to.

This is fundamentally the philosophical position of Islam and the Authors of this book with respect to health.

Hence, it guides our every attempt to define knowledge (research and development) and apply (medical practice) appropriate remedies for any given cause of increasing morbidity.

Our goal is to discover principles, define and correct behaviors, and administer this knowledge, which, when applied therapeutically, will oppose the life destructive processes by actually stimulating or restoring our linkage to the God-given inherent formative forces, and thereby, have a small hand in the miracle of creation’s ongoing expression.

We must not put the 'cart in front of the horse', however, and therefore begin with abasic discussion of wisdom (Hikmah) regarding the responsible duties of a man and woman towards each other. In doing so, we began with Allah (swt) above as al Mussawir (The Bestower of Form), and will follow with remarks on the concepts of Faith, Grace, Work, Growth, knowledge, Ignorance, and finally, Success in marriage: the Mosque in which the Mystery of Life should be responsibly reproduced. After the introduction of these 'leading' thoughts', we will discuss the religious duties of the husband, the wife, the extended family, and the community, followed by a chapters on human sexuality, the processes of conception, pregnancy, childbirth, the post-partum care of both mother and child, infertility, and common medical complications.

We also discuss the challenge and impact of modern life. This is done in terms of the materialism that has disrupted the human cycle of life by causing deviations that distract men and women from the Creative Intent of the oft repeated 'miracle of birth'.

These deviations are essentially reactionary and commonly expressed in terms such as the feminist response to the modern phenomena of irresponsible 'boy-men'. This is primarily because modern men, as vicegerents of Allah and imams in marriage, have defaulted on their responsibilities. This default status of modern men, directly affects the conditions which foment the deviations of illness and malady in the reproductive realm.

Wherever it is possible, we present remedies for both the spiritual and correlative physical problems in terms of the conventional as well as adjunctive (holistic) therapies and interventions. It is our hope that the reader obtains some useful knowledge and understanding of what is actually required of them as responsible Muslims in the respective role as husband or wife, male or female, father or mother. Such understanding will enhance their response to any medical intervention or assistance when necessary, insh'Allah. Thus, we will have taken a further step towards the fulfillment of our responsibilities as doctors (Teachers), with the help of Almighty Allah, al’Mussawwir.