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Chapter V: Oneness of God and Trust in God

God's decree. The Prophet said in a well known tradition :
Whatever angels I passed by ( in my journey to heaven ) they told me : Order your followers to take to cupping. He ordered for, its extensive use. The Prophet also said to take cupping on 1 7, 19 and 21st day of the month, or else one may perish owing to blood pressure. Some say that blood pressure causes death in many cases. By order of God, it causes death and by its eviction, one can escape death. There is no distinction between ejection of injurious blood from body and to drive it out from a house. To give it up is not God reliance. It is pouring water upon fire in order to extinguish it or it is like preventing injury when it is about to come in a house. There is one tradition in which the Prophet said : He who takes cupping on Tuesday on the 17th of every month cures his disease of a year.

He ordered many companions to use medicine. He operated upon Saad bin Muazby taking out a vein. He cauterized Saad-bin Jarabah. Once there was pain in the eye of Hazrat Ali. The Prophet said to him : Don't eat this fresh date. Eat vegetables with bread of thin wheat. It is better for you. There was pain in the eye of Suhail. He saw him eating dried grapes and said : You have got pain in your eye and you are eating dried grapes ? He said : I am eating from another side. The Prophet smiled a little at his word. The Prophet used to apply collyrinth in his eye every night, take cupping every month and take purgative every year.
He took medicine many times to cure the sting of scorpion and other animals. It is said that when revelation used to come to him he felt pain in his head and applied Mehdi to it. Sometimes he applied dried earth after it was powdered to an wound.

It is reported that when once Moses fell ill, a man of Banu Israil came to him, diagnosed his disease and said to him : If you use this medicine you will surely recover, He said : I will not take medicine until I am cured without medicine. His illness as a result continued for a long time. Then the Prophet said to Moses :
There is a well-known experimented medicine for this disease.
We treated it with that medicine and cured ourselves. He said : I will not use this medicine. So his illness began to increase. Then God revealed to him : By My honour and glory, I will not cure you till you use the medicine prescribed by the people. Then he said to them : Give me the medicine you have prescribed for me.
Then he took the medicine and recovered. This raised doubt in

236 TAUHID AND TAWAKKAL VoMV

his mind and then God revealed to him : You wanted to baffle My laws by relying on Me. Who else except myself created the quality or recovery in medicine ?

Source: Imam Al-Ghazali, Ihya Ulum al-Din (Revival of the Islamic Sciences)
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