A
47-year-old housewife who recently started using Islamic medicine emerged tearfully
from an exorcism, speaking of newfound tranquility after a turbulent period.
Also, her abdominal pains are finally easing.
Suratmi,
who suffers from an ovarian cyst, has been taking a mix of herbal medicine
harking back to the dawn of Islam, as well as undergoing exorcisms at a clinic
in Jakarta.
She is
among a growing number of Muslims in Southeast Asia turning away from Western
medical care in favor of al-Tibb al-Nawabi, or Medicine of the Prophet, a
loosely defined discipline based on the Quran and other Islamic texts and
traditional herbal remedies.
"I
heard that so many people have been healed, so I hope Allah can help me. I
followed His path here," said Suratmi, who like many Indonesians goes by
one name.
The Islamic
medicine trend is often associated with fundamentalists who charge that
Western, chemically laced prescriptions aim to poison Muslims or defile them
with insulin and other medicines made from pigs. Members of terrorist groups
have been involved in Islamic medicine as healers and sellers, while some
clinics are used as recruiting grounds for Islamist causes.
But the
bulk of those seeking out Islamic clinics, hospitals and pharmacies, appear to
be moderate Muslims, reflecting a rise in Islamic consciousness worldwide.
"Islamic
medicine carries a cachet that, by taking it, you are reinforcing your faith -
and the profits go to Muslims," says Sidney Jones, an expert on Islam in
Southeast Asia with the International Crisis Group.
Islamic
medicine, toiletries and beauty products have become a big business with a
customer base in Southeast Asia alone of roughly 250 million Muslims.
The
industry's advertising is as gimmicky as any in the West.
Capitalizing
on the popularity of U.S. President Barack Obama, who spent four of his
childhood years in Indonesia, one company produces a popular anti-stress
concoction called Obahama - in a corruption of an Indonesian phrase for herbal
medicine.
Siwak-F,
also exported to the Middle East, is hailed as "toothpaste just like the
Prophet used to use."
The industry
also is going high-tech.
Malaysia's
Petronas University of Technology is developing an application for mobile
devices to query what Islamic remedies are recommended for anything from
toothaches to depression, says Hanita Daud, one of the developers.
Like much
of Islamic medicine, it's grounded on the saying that "Allah did not
create a disease for which he did not also create a cure." This is taken
from Prophet Mohammed's teachings known as hadiths, which along with the Quran
make frequent references to diseases, remedies and healthy living.
What is
termed classical Islamic medicine developed in medieval times when it far
outshone that in Christian Europe, and exerted a significant influence on it.
Practitioners
say many ingredients in today's treatments were used in Mohammed's time,
including honey, olive oil, bee pollen, dates and black caraway - which one ad
claims is "a cure for every disease but death."
In
Indonesia, traditional medicine really took off after a government promotional
campaign in 2009, says Brury Machendra, owner of the Insani Herbal Clinic in
suburban Jakarta where Suratmi and up to 400 other patients per month seek
treatment.
Only one
such clinic existed in the Depok suburb two years ago, but now there are 20,
with 70 others waiting for government permits.
Machendra,
who also is secretary-general of the Traditional Herbal Medicine Association of
Indonesia, says most Indonesian Muslims don't doubt conventional medicine. But
he says Indonesia's health services are so poor and expensive that many people
seek out alternatives.
His clinic
offers herbal medicine, a bloodletting treatment known as bekam and exorcisms
in which a white-gloved therapist places a hand on a patient's head while
chanting verses from the Quran.
An exorcism
costs about $12, while Machendra's government-certified herbal products such as
the anticancer BioCarnoma and anti-diabetes BioGlukol go for no more than $5
for 60 capsules.
He
acknowledges that clinics such as his benefit from traditional Muslim rules
forbidding certain ingredients and that many fundamentalists "tell people
not to go to infidel doctors and say that buying Western medicine is
forbidden."
Jemaah
Islamiyah, an al-Qaida-linked militant network that is essentially banned in
Indonesia, is believed to have links to some herbal manufacturers and operate
many of the country's Islamic medicine clinics, International Crisis Group
says.
But Jones
says the clinics are aimed more at building solidarity among Islamists rather
than recruiting militants.
Some
doctors are trying to bring Muslim elements into the Western tradition.
"We
practice evidence-based medicine but we incorporate the spiritual for both our
patients and staff," says Dr. Ishak Mas'ud, director of Al Islam hospital
in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur.
This
approach, he says, allows such normally taboo practices as abortions and pig
heart transplants if these can save lives.
"I
don't agree with some clinics which say that, 'This is Islamic, so it has to be
good,' " says Ishak, who was trained in Australia and Great Britain.
The 60-bed
hospital, which attracts patients as far away as Somalia and Saudi Arabia,
stresses holistic diagnoses, refrains from giving definite prognoses since
"death is in the hands of Allah," and believes it is wrong to
practice medicine with profit in mind, he says.
Fees are 20
to 30 percent lower than at most Malaysian hospitals.
"I am
just the instrument of Allah and doctors must tell their patients this,"
Ishak says. "You know doctors can be arrogant. They will tell you that
they can cure you in five days and five days later you can be six feet
underground. It's not me that is healing. We are not powerful. In Islamic
medicine, this is the key, the main concept."
Related Article:
 |
| A
man receives a treatment of bekam, or blood-letting by use of suction cups, at Insani Herbal Clinic in Depok on the outskirts of Jakarta. A growing number of Muslims in Southeast Asia are turning away from Western medical care in favor of al-Tibb al-Nawabi, or Medicine of the Prophet. (AP Photo/Irwin Ferdiansyah) |
No comments:
Post a Comment