The Science of Physics and Avicenna

This studies:

• bodies from their motion and stationariness.
• the heavenly and the elementary bodies (substances)
• the human beings, animals, plants, and minerals created from those elementary bodies.

• the springs and earthquakes in the earth
• the clouds, vapors, thunder, lightning, and storms in the atmosphere
• the beginning of motion in bodies - that is, the soul in the different forms in which it appears in human beings, animals, and plants.

The books of Aristotle on the subject are available to scholars.

• They were translated together with the other books on the philosophical sciences in the days of al-Ma’mun.
• Scholars wrote books along the same lines and followed them up with explanation and comment.

The most comprehensive work written on the subject is Avicenna’s* Kitab al-Shifa*.

In it, Avicenna treats all the 7 philosophical sciences.

• Avicenna later on abridged the Kitab al-Shifa in the Kitab an-Najah and the Kitab al-Isharat.

In a way, he opposed Aristotle on most physical problems and expressed his own opinion on them.

Averroes, on the other hand, abridged the books of Aristotle and commented on them, but followed him and did not oppose him.

The people of the East are concerned with Avicenna’s Kitab al-Isharat.

• The imam Ibn al-Khatib wrote a good commentary on it.
• The same was done by al-Amid
• Another commentary was written by Nasir-ad-din at-Tusi, who is known as Khawajah (Khoja), an ‘Iraqi scholar.
  • He investigated many of the problems of the Isharat and compared what the imam (Ibn al-Khatib) had to say about them.
  • He went beyond Ibn al-Khatib’s studies and investigations.

24. The Science of Medicine

Medicine is a craft that studies the human body in its illness and health.

The physician attempts to preserve health and to cure illness with the help of medicines and diets, but first he ascertains the illness(es) peculiar to each limb of the body, and the reasons causing them. He also ascertains the medicines existing for each illness.

Physicians deduce the (effectiveness of) medicines from their composition and powers. They deduce (the stage of) an illness from signs indicating whether the illness is ripe and will accept the medicine or not.

These signs show themselves in:

• the color of the patient
• the excretions
• the pulse.

The physicians in this imitate the power of nature, which is the controlling element in both health and illness.

They imitate nature and help it a little, as the nature of the matter underlying the illness, the season of the year, and the patient’s age may require in each particular case.

The science dealing with all these things is called medicine.

Certain limbs are occasionally discussed as individual subjects and are considered to (form the subjects of) special sciences. This is the case, for instance, with the eye, the diseases of the eye, and the collyria (used in the treatment of eye diseases).

Scholars have also added to this discipline the study of the uses of the parts of the body, that is, the useful purpose for which each limb of the animal body was created.

This is not a medical subject, but it has been made into an annex and subdivision of medicine. Galen has written an important and very useful work on this discipline.

Galen is the leading ancient authority on medicine. His works have been translated (into Arabic). He is said to have been a contemporary of Jesus and to have died in Sicily on his wanderings while in voluntary exile.

His works on medicine are classics which have been models for all later physicians.

There have been leading physicians in Islam of surpassing skill, such as:

• ar-Razi
• al-Majusi
• Avicenna.

There have also been many Spanish physicians. Most famous among them was Ibn Zuhr.

In contemporary Muslim cities, the craft of medicine seems to have deteriorated because the civilization has decreased and shrunk.

Medicine is a craft required only by sedentary culture and luxury.

Civilized Bedouins have a kind of medicine which is mainly based on individual experience.

They inherit its use from the shaykhs and old women of the tribe. Some of it may occasionally be correct.

However, that kind of medicine is not based upon any natural norm or upon any conformity of the treatment to the temper of the humors.

Much of this sort of medicine existed among the Arabs.

They had well-known physicians, such as al-Harith b. Kaladah and others.

The medicine mentioned in religious tradition is of the Bedouin type.

It is not part of the divine revelation. Such medical matters were merely part of Arab custom and happened to be mentioned in connection with the circumstances of the Prophet, like other things that were customary in his generation.

They were not mentioned in order to imply that that particular way of practicing medicine is stipulated by the religious law.

Muhammad was sent to teach us the religious law.

He was not sent to teach us medicine or any other ordinary matter. In connection with the story of the fecundation of the palms, he said:

“You know more about your worldly affairs (than I).” 730

None of the statements concerning medicine that occur in sound traditions should be considered as law.

The only thing is that if that type of medicine is used for the sake of a divine blessing and 731 in true religious faith, it may be very useful.

However, that would have nothing to do with humoral medicine but be the result of true faith. This happened in the case of the person who had a stomach-ache and was treated with honey, 732 and similar stories.