Posted by Abu Iyaad
Thursday, Oct 10 2024
Filed under Miscellaneous
This is a small selection of many statements from the scholars of the Muslims in which they explain the domain of doctors and scholars. With respect to determinations, evaluations and judgements about the benefit or harm, the validity or invalidity (from a scientific and evidential point of view), the safety or efficacy of medical treatments, or measures, or discussion of medical theories and their evidences, this is not the domain of a scholar. However, the scholar can give fatwā when a person comes and asks about certain affairs, wanting to know a ruling, without that scholar having to be a specialist. He can give a conditional answer, as we see in some of the statements below, and often, he will defer the matter to a specialist with respect to medical claims or assumptions.
Shaykh Ibn ʿUthaymīn on Scholars and Doctors Having Their Own Domains[1]
Shaykh Ibn ʿUthaymīn (رحمه الله) said:
None is asked about knowledge (in a particular discipline) except its people. So a doctor is not asked except about medicine, and is not asked about Sharʿiyy knowledge. And the Sharʿiyy scholar is asked about Sharʿiyy knowledge and is not asked about medicine, if he does not have knowledge regarding it.
Shaykh al-Fawzān on Taking Medication for Depression[2]
[The questioner] says: Esteemed Shaykh, may Allāh grant you succeess. What is the ruling on taking medications against depression when a person is depressed, with the knowledge that these medications have side-effects on his health? Is it permissible for him to take them.
Shaykh al-Fawzān answered:
This is returned back to the physicians, it is returned to the psychiatrists, they are responsible for this. When they determine that there are multiple harms, greater than the harm of depression, they will not allow it. And it would not be allowed, not medically, nor legislatively.
Shaykh Ṣāliḥ al-Fawzān deferred[3] the issue to the physicians, to what they determine, as it is their field. This is not the role of the scholar of the Sharīʿah to make evaluations of medications. However, on the basis of what the physicians say or conclude, he can deliver a verdict if someone comes to him to seek it, or he may give a conditional answer.
Shaykh al-Fawzān: Ask the Doctors About Medical Affairs
Shaykh al-Fawzān was asked on 20 October 2024 the Nūr ʿalā al-Darb series regarding some health and beauty treatments.[4]
Her third question is: “What is the ruling on putting banana or yoghurt on the face?”
Shaykh al-Fawzān: “There is no harm in that if there is benefit in it. These are medical affairs, ask the doctors about them. If there is benefit in them, then there is no harm.”
It is not the role of the scholar to evaluate on the benefit or harm or safety or efficacy of treatments, unless he has knowledge regarding the matter. That is the role of physicians and specialists. However, scholars give fatwā for the application of legislative rulings to matters.
Shaykh Bin Bāz on a Woman Use Birth Control Pills For Health Reasons[5]
[The questioner] says about herself: I am sick, and the doctors diagnosed my condition as a heart defect, and my husband wants children, but out of fear for my health I started using birth control pills. Am I right [in doing so], or what? May Allah reward you with good.
Shaykh Bin Bāz answered:
This requires consultation with specialist doctors. If there is harm and danger for [your health] in not taking these pills, then there is no harm. If these pills are not necessary and your husband does not agree to them, then leave them. In conclusion, this goes back to asking specialist doctors. If you are in need of this, then there is no problem. If there is a way to do without them, then you must leave them unless your husband gives permission to use them. We ask Allah to grant us and you well-being.
Shaykh Bin Bāz on a Boy Claimed to Have X-Ray Vision[6]
Listener Muḥammad Aḥmad ʿAli Ṭāhir from Jeddah, Al-Muṣafāh district, sent a message saying: I heard that a child has two eyes as sharp as X-rays. Scientists tested him and brought him a pregnant woman. He said that she was pregnant with two children, and that was confirmed. Allāh the Sublime and Exalted says in Surat Luqman: “Indeed, Allāh has knowledge of the Hour. And He sends down the rain and knows what is in the wombs. And no soul perceives what it will earn tomorrow, and no soul perceives in what land it will die. Indeed, Allah is Knowing and Acquainted.” (31:34-) We would like you to kindly clarify that. May Allāh reward you on our behalf with a thousand goods.
Shaykh Bin Bāz answered:
As for the authenticity of the existence of this child, this is returned to the doctors those that specialise in vision, [the boy] that the questioner referred to. As for the child knowing that the pregnancy is two children, this is a matter of investigatoin, whatever the case may be and whatever is claimed about the sharpness of his sight. However, assuming that he found this, some doctors may know this through new methods and procedures, because this is not from the knowledge of the unseen, after the pregnancy is in the womb, and after it is formed in the womb, it is not from the knowledge of the unseen. The angel has seen it by the command of Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, for Allah, the Sublime, commands the angel to create it as a male or female, complete or incomplete in creation, and all of that is written, as it has come in the authentic ḥadīths from the Messenger of Allah (صلى الله عليه وسلم).
Shaykh Ibn ʿUthaymīn on Vaccination Against Diseases and Reliance[7]
Shaykh Ibn ʿUthaymīn (رحمه الله) was asked: “Does vaccination against diseases negate reliance?”
He answered:
Vaccination against diseases, if it is of known benefit, then this is from the means, similar to when a person shields himself from cold before it comes. As for when it is just conjectures and delusions, then no.
The Shaykh gave a conditional answer, and explained the ruling in connection to Sharīʿah principles. As for verification (taḥqīq) of the basis of the ruling, as to whether a vaccination is of actual benefit or not, or safe or not, then it is not the role of the scholar to determine this. It is deferred to physicians and specialists.
Note that the Shaykh said: "As for when it is just conjectures and delusions, then no." So the scholars have already given answers in these types of issues, so when we have a situation where claims about particular vaccines are verifiably delusions, lies and fraud, then the ruling is already clear.
This applies to all medical claims, medications, treatments and measures. Their benefit or lack thereof, or their harm, or their safety, or their efficacy, or their scientific validity or invalidity, that is not the domain of a scholar. The scholar explains legislative rulings on the basis of what is brought to him, and if he requires verification before giving a ruling, he will defer the matter to specialists for investigation, and when they return their opinion, then he can give a legislative ruling where it has been sought.
Footnotes
1. https://alathar.net/home/esound/index.php?op=codevi&coid=59158 فتاوى نور على الدرب (الشريط رقم 317).2. https://youtu.be/HAOvA6Qsn9U?si=ZtQc0X3rTrWhhTYz
3. The word “defer” means to pass on something to someone else who has greater knowledge and expertise, for them to make determination in the matter (Merriam-Webster). In Arabic it would be (أحال يُحيل إحالة), which means to make a referral to a competent authority.
4. Source: Nūr ʿalā al-Darb—recording. 20 October 2024.
5. https://binbaz.org.sa/fatwas/15547/حكم-استعمال-حبوب-منع-الحمل-بغير-اذن-الزوج
6. https://binbaz.org.sa/fatwas/17240/حكم-ادعاء-معرفة-بعض-المغيبات
7. https://alathar.net/home/esound/index.php?op=codevi&coid=126855
