AJI-Bokhary narrated that Ibn Mas’ud said:
“Verily Allah has not made your cure in that which has been forbidden for you”.
In the Sunan [Abu Dawood and At- Termezey] it is narrated that Abu Hurayrah said:
“The Messenger of Allah has disallowed using impure (prohibited} substances for medicinal purposes.”
Imam Muslim narrated that Tariq Ibn Suwayd AlI-Ju’fi said that he asked the Prophet about alcohol and that he has disallowed it or hated that he makes it. He said, “I only make it for medicinal purposes.” The Prophet said:
In the Sunan, it is narrated that the Prophet was asked about All-Khamr [alcohol] for medicinal purposes. Prophet “ said:
“ Verily that is not a cure, rather it is a disease..”
[Abu Dawood and At-Termezey].
Muslim narrated that Tariq bin Suwayd AI-Hadhrami said, “I said, ‘O Messenger of Allah! There are some vines in our land that we squeeze (for alcohol) and that we drink from. ‘ He said, ‘Do not do it.’
So I went back to him and said, ‘We use it for medicinal purposes. ‘ He said:
“It is not a cure. Rather, it is a disease. ” [Abu Dawood and At- Termezey].
An-Nasa’y narrated that a doctor mentioned using frogs to make medicine and the Prophet prohibited killing the frog for that purpose. [Abu Dawood, Ahmad]
Using what Allah has prohibited in medicines is an evil act according to religion and the mind. As for religion, we mentioned several Ahadeeth on this subject. As for the mind, Allah has prohibited whatever substances He has prohibited because they are impure. Further, Allah has never disallowed a good, beneficial matter for the Muslims, as He has decided in the case of the Children of Israel:
“For the wrongdoing of the Jews, we made unlawful for them certain good foods which had been lawful for them, and for their hindering many from Allah’s Way”.
Allah has prohibited some matters and substances because of the harm that they carry and to save His slaves from such harm. It is not suitable that the slaves to seek these harmful substances for medicinal purposes. Even if such substances appear to have an effect on the disease, they bring about a more serious illness in the heart because they are impure and unclean. In this case, the sick person who uses what Allah has disallowed for medicinal purposes might be able to remove the physical illness but would cause himself a more serious disease in the heart.
Further, the Muslims are required to avoid what Allah has disallowed while using them in medicine means that one will not avoid them, as the religion requires. This is the opposite of what the prohibitions seek to achieve. What Allah has prohibited is a disease as the religion states by the tongue of the Messenger.
Therefore, Muslims are not allowed to use it as medicine. Furthermore, prohibited substances affect the heart and soul and make them impure, since the various substances that the body consumes affect the body. When a substance causes an evil outcome in the body, the nature of the body will acquire this evil temperament, What about if the substance is impure and evil itself? In this case, when the substance is impure, the body becomes impure, as well. This is why Allah has prohibited impure types of foods, drinks, and clothes because of the evil effects that such substances have on the body and soul.
In addition, allowing using prohibited substances for medicinal purposes will, later on, encourage taking these substances to satisfy desire and lust, especially when the heart likes such substances. This is especially the case when the heart thinks that such substances cure the illnesses of the body, thus making them even more desirable and likable. Religion, on the other hand, has closed the door to consuming or using prohibited substances. There is a contradiction if the religion closes the door to using prohibited substances on one hand and opens the door to using them in other instances on the other hand.
Prohibited substances that people might use in medicine carry more types of harm than the harm that they might remove. For instance, the mother of all evil substances, alcohol, which Allah has not made a cure or a remedy, is very harmful to the brain, which controls the body, according to the doctors and many scholars of Fiqh (Islamic Jurisprudence). Hippocrates, for example, said while discussing serious illnesses, “Alcohol has a seriously harmful effect on the brain because it reaches the brain quickly along with some other harmful substances that the body contains, thus causing harm to the brain.” The author of Al-Kamil said, “Drinking [alcohol] brings harm to the brain and the nervous system.”
There are two other types of disallowed medicines, that the heart does not like, such as snake meat and poisons. Such substances are heavy on the heart and the stomach [let alone being dangerous] and are thus a disease, not a cure. There are some other medicines that are not disliked themselves, such as some drinks that pregnant women take. These substances carry more harm than benefit, and consequently, the mind and the religion corroborate on disliking them.
There is another wisdom behind disallowing taking prohibited substances as medicine. That is a condition that the medicine works is one’s belief that it would work and bring the cure by Allah’s blessing. Indeed, whatever is beneficial is blessed, and the more benefit it carries, the more blessing it will bring about. In addition, what the people consider the most blessed is the substance that they think carries the most benefit. The Muslim, on the other hand, believes that what Allah has disallowed is not beneficial or blessed.
Consequently, he will not have a good idea about the disallowed substance and his system will not accept it. Rather, the stronger the slave’s faith is, the more he hates the disallowed substances and believes that it is impure. In this case, if the save takes such a substance, it will indeed be a disease not a cure for him, unless he believes that it is pure and thus his dislike for it subsides. Therefore, the believer will not accept the disallowed substance and will consider it a disease, otherwise, he will be contradicting the Faith.
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