A growing number of Muslims in southeast Asia are giving up on western style medicine as "un-Islamic", in favor of al-Tibb al-Nawabi, or "Medicine of the Prophet", a loosely defined discipline based on the Quran and other Islamic texts and traditional remedies.
Originally popular only among fundamentalists, it is now extending into the mainstream, as a way for more moderate Muslims to demonstrate their faith, and pay Muslims for health care instead of western companies.
One such traditional hospital stresses "holistic" diagnoses, refrains from giving prognoses, as "It is in the hands of Allah". One such patient was using herbs and multiple exorcisms to rid herself of an ovarian cyst.
Others experience blood-letting, and other medical practices that were superior to their European equivalents in medieval times. |