Yasir Qadhi – On Homeopathy Between Religion and Science – Ask Shaykh YQ #152

			We have a next question. Brother shady, shady, shady fool, I guess brother Sharif. from Pakistan, he
emails and he asks, whether homeopathy or homeopathy, both pronunciations are there where whether
homeopathy is halal or not? That is the question. Okay. One
		

			out of seven,
		

			poverty in Asia? No, he him. First ku
		

			ku.
		

			Now this is a question that requires a little bit more detail. I know this is rapid q&a, I know that
I promised you but for this one, I need to go just a little bit, even though I'm not going to go
into the amount of detail I personally would like to you see, dear brother in Islam rather shady for
when you ask a share something you need to understand what is the role of the share? What question
are you asking? Is it something that an Islamic scholar should be talking about or not? So there's
two angles to look at this from. And I'm going to separate both of these angles, and I will comment
on both of them. But on one of the angles, I'll be commenting as a regular human being just like you
		

			were having a conversation and not coming from an Islamic background not coming from a shared
paradigm. And the second response, it will be from the Islamic scholarly background. So the first
angle, is that when you say, is it permissible, you know, is homeopathy you know, something we
should do? Right? Should we practice homeopathy or homeopathy? I mean, technically, it's homeopathy,
but everybody says homeopathy, so again, just FYI. So you're asking now that can we practice
homeopathy? And I say, if you're asking
		

			whether homea homeopathy is something that is effective, that answer is not something that an
Islamic scholar is necessarily trained to give you. an Islamic scholar does not study the various
types of medicines because there are many different methods of medicines, you have your Vedic
medicine, you have the the medicine is the common you know, Western medicine, you have nature, a
natural nature of it, which is natural, you have herbal medicine, you have the ancient Greek
medicine, the University medicine, which is in boxes, called the Hakim tradition, as well, you have
you know, all of these different types of types of methods of how to cure diseases. So when you ask
		

			a chef, about all of these different types of things, it's not the job of a religiously trained
person to discuss with you the pros and cons of Ayurvedic, you know, versus nature versus homeopathy
versus herbal, you know, versus, you know, whatever else you mean acupuncture, let's say, right?
It's not the job of a person trained in Azhar, Medina, to comment on the pros and cons of the
different methods of medicine. And if somebody does that is his personal opinion. So you ask the
question, I will tell you my personal opinion, first and foremost, as you know, your brother in
Islam yourself, as somebody who is educated, who has degrees in engineering and studies and reads
		

			and what not that I think personally, that homeopathy is not an effective mechanism of curing any
type of disease at this is my personal opinion. And I have the right to my opinion, no study in the
world, no double blind peer reviewed study in the entire world has demonstrated that homeopathy has
any more than what is called a placebo effect. And in fact, there is the complete absence and I
mean, complete absence of any sound statistical evidence that homeopathy works in any form, shape or
fashion. The founder of this discipline, the founder of this type of method 200 150 years ago, is a
gentleman by the name of Samuel haddenham, Hani handyman. And this particular doctor, he believed
		

			that this is an ancient mythology, basically, he believed that diluting a very small amount of a
chemical to an infinitesimally small amount will actually have a profound impact on the body. And so
he believed that there's certain things called the theory of miasms. And there's things in the body
of different types of fluids. And again, this is all outdated. This is something that the ancient
Greeks believed it's not true. Biologically, it's not true. But there's this notion of different
types of fluids and different types of interactions. And he believed that depending on the disease
or whatnot, if you were to give an astronomically small tincture of a certain chemical that it would
		

			impact the body in a positive manner, and the
		

			Reality is that Firstly, not only is there no correlation between the tincture and the med and the
in the chemical and the body, but secondly, the astronomically infinitesimally small quantity is
actually ludicrous. So one example to give you an indication 12 c solutions. So they have something
called concentration six c 12, c 18, C, a 12 c solution, a 12 c solution is the equivalent of taking
a pinch of salt, and dropping it into the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans combined, right? Imagine
if you had that quantity of water, non salty, and you added a pinch of salt
		

			to that level of dilution, you expect something to have an impact on you. So me as an engineer, as a
chemist, chemist, to me a chemistry major as somebody who understands, you know, a compounds and
molecules and whatnot, this is ludicrous to think that something of that nature is going to impact
the body, it is simply not the case. And as I said, there is not a single, actual medical document
that proves the efficacy of homeopathy. However, all of this having been said, guess what, this is
my personal opinion, you can throw it out the window, no problem. It's my personal opinion, as Yes,
it'll call the now as the person of Islamic knowledge, you're asking, as a chef, I will say, you
		

			know what, I have to look at it from an Islamic perspective. And by the way, I am saying it doesn't
work. And there are members of my own family that are irritated at my position, and they swear, and
they give us some that it works and what not. And of course, this is a placebo effect. And whether
they took it or not, if they think it works is good for them. It doesn't actually work. placebos
also work as we know, but my point being so what that's my opinion, I can say something you have the
right to disagree with it from an Islamic perspective, from a surety perspective, any medication
that is based upon what the person believes is physical science, and not metaphysical, what the
		

			person believes to be a cause and effect, and not something that is supernatural, that would be the
default would be that it is permissible, unless something is done within it. That is how long so if
you go to any one of these medicine types of like, what, whether it's acupuncture, or whether it is
allopathy, or whether it is homeopathy, or whether it is herbal, and you think that there's a cause
and effect, that's your way of looking at it, that when you do this, this happens, then guess what,
from an Islamic perspective, the default is that you are that is permissible, and that something
Haram is done. However, if you're going to somebody that is invoking the spirits, you go to a
		

			shaman, you know, in the deserts, or the you know, the Maasai tribe, and you go to some shaman,
witch doctor over there, who is invoking the dead spirits and whatnot. Now, this isn't actually the
issue is a no, no, no, you cannot do that you cannot go to supernatural causes or powers that would
now be something that is how long if not even a type of shit. Now that perhaps you're also asking
about homeopathy, because there's a amount of alcohol that is used? If that is the reason why you're
asking it wasn't in the question. This is the reason if that is the reason why you're asking. So
realize I have given a much longer lecture about alcohol being present in medicines. And I have said
		

			that, if the alcohol is not something that is intended in and of itself, that for to be to be
medicinal, but rather it is something that is a solvent. And if it is not enough to make you
intoxicated, it's a very small amount, then in shallow tality, is permissible. And this is, for
example, cough syrup, and whatnot comes under this thing as well. Therefore, these are the two main
conditions that you do not take alcohol for the sake of alcohol, rather, the alcohol or the ethanol
is there because that's the technical thing is ethanol is there to preserve the substance that you
want to get to. And the quantity that you would consume in a regular timeframe is not enough to make
		

			you drunk. In this case, it is overlooked and you are forgiven for this amount. And so if that is
why you're asking then that is not an issue in and of itself, and therefore technically speaking
from a shutter a perspective, even if I think from a chemical perspective, it is ineffective. That's
my opinion, from a Chaturvedi perspective. homeopathy is halal and Allah subhanho wa Taala knows
best