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tibb nabawi
“Physicians are agreed that when treatment is possible through diet, there should be no recourse to medicine, and when treatment is possible through a simple, there should be no recourse to a compound.”
Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyya - “Medicine of the Prophet”
“The arising of disease can be said to be the result of an excess, or plethora, which is called an ‘obstruction’ in Tibb. Such excess is said to exist either as an overabundance of the quantity or quality of the humor”
Hakim Chisti
These obstructions can be the result of heat or cold, moisture or dryness.
Exposure to actual dryness (winds)
Administration of drying substances (vinegar, salt)
Lessening intake of food and beverages (starvation, fasting)
Excessive motion
Hakim Chisti
Dryness and roughness of skin
Insomnia
Wasting
intolerance of dry type of foods
Moistening foods gives comfort and pleasure
Suffering greatly during autumn
Hot water and light oils readily absorbed by the skin
Hakim Chisti
SUNNAH DATES IN DECEMBER 2021, in shaa Allah
Saudi Calendar
Tuesday 21 December 2021 - ends at sunset, 3.57pm
Thursday 23 December 2021 - ends at sunset, 3.58pm
Saturday 25 December 2021 - ends at sunset, 3.59pm
UK Moon-sighting - Maghreb
Wednesday 22 December 2021 - ends at sunset, 3.57pm
Friday 24 December 2021 - ends at sunset, 3.58pm
Sunday 26 December 2021 - ends at sunset, 4.00pm
Sunset marks the end of the day in the Islamic calendar.
SOURCE NOTES
Each month we publish the Sunnah Dates based on (1) the Umm al-Qura calendar and (2) the Moroccan Ministry of Awqaf announcements.
There are differences of opinion about the calendar and methods for sighting the new moon. We do not decide who is right nor impose one opinion over others. We simply offer a service to all members of the community whatever view they take about the matter. And Allah knows best.
SUNNAH DATES IN MAY/JUNE 2021, in shaa Allah
UK- Europe - Saudi Arabia - North Africa
Saturday 29 May 2021
Monday 31 May 2021
Wednesday 2 June 2021
Sunset marks the end of the day in the Islamic calendar.
SOURCE NOTES
Each month we publish the Sunnah Dates based on (1) the Umm al-Qura calendar and (2) the Moroccan Ministry of Awqaf announcements.
There are differences of opinion about the calendar and methods for sighting the new moon. We do not decide who is right nor impose one opinion over others. We simply offer a service to all members of the community whatever view they take about the matter. And Allah knows best.
Assalamu Alaykum and Ramadan Mubarak
SUNNAH DATES IN APRIL-MAY 2021, in shaa Allah
UK- Europe - Saudi Arabia
Thursday 29 April 2021
Saturday 1 May 2021
Monday 3 May 2021 (a Bank Holiday)
UK - Europe - North Africa
Friday 30 April 2021
Sunday 2 May 2021
Tuesday 4 May 2021
Sunset marks the end of the day in the Islamic calendar.
SOURCE NOTES
Each month we publish the Sunnah Dates based on (1) the Umm al-Qura calendar and (2) the Moroccan Ministry of Awqaf announcements.
There are differences of opinion about the calendar and methods for sighting the new moon. We do not decide who is right nor impose one opinion over others. We simply offer a service to all members of the community whatever view they take about the matter. And Allah knows best.
SUNNAH DATES IN MARCH 2021, in shaa Allah
UK - North Africa - Europe - Saudi Arabia
Monday 1 March 2021
Wednesday 3 March 2021
Friday 5 March 2021
*** The Islamic Day ends at Sunset ***
Suyuti in his “Prophetic Medicine” said,
“Fresh cheese is cold & damp; dried cheese is hot & dry. Its excellence is moderate. Damp cheese is a very fattening food, but salted cheese makes one thin although it increases the sexual urge."
Saudi Arabia Calendar - UK
Saturday 30 January 2021
Monday 1 February 2021
Wednesday 3 February 2021
UK - North Africa - Europe
Sunday 31 January 2021
Tuesday 2 February 2021
Thursday 4 February 2021
Sunset marks the end of the day in the Islamic calendar.
SOURCE NOTES
Each month we publish the Sunnah Dates based on (1) the Umm al-Qura calendar and (2) the Moroccan Ministry of Awqaf announcements.
There are differences of opinion about the calendar and methods for sighting the new moon. We do not decide who is right nor impose one opinion over others. We simply offer a service to all members of the community whatever view they take about the matter. And Allah knows best.
A new January 2021 study by the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausane in the field of chronobiology sees Western medicine finding the first steps on its way towards a concept known for many hundreds of years in the field of Chinese Medicine as to time and the organs of the body. And in Unani Tibb medicine regarding time and position of the liver.
The study found that, “many of the liver's genes seem to be both zonated and rhythmic, meaning that they are regulated by both their location in the liver and the time of the day. These dually regulated genes are mostly linked to key functions of the liver, e.g. the metabolism of lipids, carbohydrates, and amino acids,”
"The work reveals a richness of space-time gene expression dynamics of the liver, and shows how compartmentalization of liver function in both space and time is hallmark of metabolic activity in the mammalian liver,"
A 2015 study by the National Institute of Unani Medicine of menopause transition symptoms said,
“Dynamic changes occurs in reproductive and nonproductive tissues and production of [protoplasm] decreased to such an extent that it is insufficient to maintain [innate heat] and all the [power] starts deteriorating. In [late adulthood] because of change in [temperament] towards [coldness] …[amenorrhea] can occur naturally. Additionally, the production of [blood] is decreased from liver, whatever little is produced, tends to be towards coldness. This leads to clinical manifestations associated with [amenorrhea] such as fatigue, loss of appetite, weight gain, hirsutism, headache, backache, neck pain, general myalgia, arthralgia, nervousness, anxiety, depression, and insomnia.”
Ginger, pictured, is classified as a warm and moist food.
Reference
Anas [rAah] said, “I served the Prophet [pbuh] for ten years. He never once upbraided me. He never asked me why I had done anything that I had done nor asked me why I had left undone anything that I had left undone.”
Normal hiccups are a temporary inconvenience. Persistent Hiccups (2-30 days) are miserable. Alhamdulillah. Intractable Hiccups (30+ days) … I can’t imagine that.
I write this having had Persistent Hiccups for 7 days.
The hiccups stopped for periods of an hour, or two to four hours. As soon as they do, that’s when I slept. Whatever the time of day or night. Otherwise, sleep deprivation will replace the hiccups as the major problem. Usually I was woken by the onset of hiccups or they start again as soon as I got out of bed. The hiccups were sometimes normal hiccups. But there were two other types of hiccups. One can be described as “hicc-up-up-up”. The other, the most unpleasant, was a hiccup but with a very clammy, sticky roof of the mouth with the tongue getting stuck to it. The hiccups seemed the most worse in the evening and best or disappeared around 2am.
Do not take any of the medical treatments set out here, except under the care of a professional. For myself, as a qualified Hijama Practitioner, qualified Chinese Medicine Practitioner and Hakeem, I feel I’m safe ground with all of these treatments, except, of course, the western medicine and for that I defer completely to GPs and Consultants in the NHS and private practitioners.
Stay connected with your current practice, whatever that is. It’s a time when you are forced to re-connect. And it is, therefore, a blessing. Reach out. Ask for help. Submit. Especially at night, especially just before dawn. My personal mantra (it’s on my phone screensaver) is, “Allah is totally aware of my circumstances and He only wants the best for me.”
Cultivate your fighting spirit. Martial arts mentality (if we fight, we might both get hurt, but it’s me who’s going to win), strength training (when the gyms reopen). Fight the fear (that it is never going to stop).
It is very useful to have as much support and love from a partner, family and friends as you can. Reach out. Ask for help.
I am following western medicine protocols via Emergency GP services at the local hospital, Chinese Herbal Medicine, Unani-Tibb (Islamic Medicine), western herbal medicine, folk remedies and home remedies.
I have not yet done acupuncture – it’s difficult to do that on yourself for this particular condition (there are some points on the back) and the acupuncture clinics are just now reopening (as part of the Covid-19 lockdown re-opening rules). And by the time they went, there was no longer any need to make an appointment. I will now be getting a TCM diagnosis from one of my teachers at the College of Chinese Medicine and pursue acupuncture and herbal medicine as advised.
These are the things that I did, with varying degrees of success. My approach was to do a lot of things at once. Because it may be the combination of treatments is the solution. Sometimes, there is no time to do things sequentially. One needs to find a solution and then work back and eliminate what’s not part of the solution.
This list is not in any particular order but the more successful ones I have mentioned first (sort of, as things are evolving and changing). This list is not exhaustive.
Fasting
Intermittent Fasting - with warm water
Hijama - wet cupping
First line A&E medicines – immediate effect but heavy-duty side effects. Ask a lot of questions before giving consent. Some of the medicines are anti-psychotic drugs. It felt like a sledgehammer to crack a nut.
Second line Emergency GP medicines
Oxymel – honey and vinegar mix
Oxymel plus Blackseed Oil
Shadow Boxing – mouth closed, elbows tucked in tight
Chicken soup
Ice cream *
Straight back in prayer, standing, bowing and prostration
Vagus nerve stimulation. Qur’an, Dhikr, Wird, Dua, Ruqiya, Singing (in an appalling flat-toneless way)
Chinese Herbal Medicine Formulas – combinations of Hai Feng Teng, Feng Fang, Huo Po, Ban Xia, Chen Pi, Shen Qu, Yu Yin, Bai Dou Kou, Da Huang
Vaping with CBD oil
Distractions - an absorbing film, an interesting conversation (my hiccups went for 2 hours after I started chatting with the paramedics about acupuncture for their bad backs), surprises (the garden parasol flying into next door’s garden).
Drinking water from the wrong side of the glass ***
Ice cold water *
Literally, “a spoon full of sugar” **
Rocking back and forth in fetal position
Being rocked back and forth in a fetal position
Standing on your head
Sucking a lemon (then you get to make lemonade)
Sunbath of kidneys
* My concern about the cold treatments is that they introduce a cold-dampness into the system and intuitively this is a cold-damp problem, rooted in a cold-damp type of constipation/wind imbalance. Here, I am using ‘wind’ in both the western sense and the Chinese Medicine sense. Indeed, the cold treatments seem to give some immediate relief but longer time were probably only exacerbating the problem.
** Normally, I would avoid sugar at all costs. The dampness and heat is problematic.
*** “I think hiccup cures were really invented for the amusement of the patient's friends.” Bill Watterson
A 28 March 2020 post by Hakim M. Salim Khan M.D. (M.A.) M.H. F.G.N.I. D.O. Principal of the College of Medicine and Healing Arts on his website said,
“We often hear on the news and through the health services that the most vulnerable people to Covid-19 are, for example:
Those with heart diseases.
Those with lung and respiratory diseases.
Those with weak/compromised immune systems.
The elderly.
Congruent with this, Unani Tibb: Whole-Person Healthcare and Medicine can provide further insight using the time-tested wisdom-based understanding of the four temperaments.
Each person is assessed according to their own unique, individual combination of energetic qualities (the above diagram shows each category of temperament, the season it corresponds to, and its energetic qualities.)
According to this understanding, flu-like symptoms are usually the result of a temperamentally cold condition. This means that those with Phlegmatic (winter) and Melancholic (autumn) temperaments need to take extra care when it comes to diseases of this nature.”
Avicenna in the Canon of Medicine said,
“Some think that strength of body depends on abundance of blood; that weakness is associated with paucity of blood. But it is not so.”
“It is rather this, that the state of the body determines whether the nutriment will be beneficial to it or not.”
“Others again, believe that whether the humours be increased or lessened in amount, the maintenance of health depends on the preservation of a certain quantitative proportion between the several humours, one to another, peculiar to the human body. But that is not exactly correct.”
“The humours must, besides that, maintain a certain constant quantity. It is not a matter of the composition of one or other humour, but of (the body) itself; but the proportions which they bear one to another must also be preserved.”
Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya in “Prophetic Medicine” said, “The Prophet [pbuh] used to drink honey with cold water, and this is an especially effective method to preserve health.“
As-Suyuti said, “Beef inclines to coldness and dryness and is hard to digest. It generates spleen. It is better eaten as veal. From Suhi'b comes the statement: You must drink cows’ milk, for it is a cure. The fat of beef is a medicine. It is best eaten with pepper and cinnamon.” Al-Qayyum classified this as a weak hadith.
In Galen’s “On the Natural Faculties”, he says,
“we have only to consider what the stomach contains—phlegm, bile, pneuma, [innate] heat, and, indeed the whole substance of the stomach. And if one considers along with this the adjacent viscera, like a lot of burning hearths around a great cauldron—to the right the liver, to the left the spleen, the heart above, and along with it the diaphragm (suspended and in a state of constant movement), and the omentum sheltering them all—you may believe what an extraordinary alteration it is which occurs in the food taken into the stomach.
In Galen’s “On the Natural Faculties”, he says,
“For the same reason [against pouring boiling water on honey], [honey]is easily transmuted into bile in those people who are naturally warm, or in their prime, since warm when associated with warm becomes readily changed into a disproportionate combination and turns into bile sooner than into blood. Thus we need a cold temperament and a cold period of life if we would have honey brought to the nature of blood.
“Therefore, Hippocrates not improperly advised those who were naturally choleric [bilious][hot/dry] not to take honey, since they were obviously of too warm a temperament. “
“So also, not only Hippocrates, but all physicians say that honey is bad in bilious [hot/dry] diseases but good in old age; some of them having discovered this through the indications afforded by its nature, and others simply through experiment … honey is good for an old man and not for a young one, that it is harmful for those who are naturally bilious [hot/dry], and serviceable for those who are phlegmatic [cold/wet]. “
“In a word, in bodies which are warm either through nature, disease, time of life, season of the year, locality, or occupation, honey is productive of bile, whereas in opposite circumstances it produces blood.”
