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 *. 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