health as a human right in islam-part 2

Health as a Human Right in Islam

Farhad Zargari, MD, PhD

Contents

1. Introduction

2. Protection of the Human Body

3. Importance of Health in Islam

4. Health Factors

5. The Right to Health

5.1- Responsibility for Oneself

5.2- Responsibility of Society

5.3- Responsibility of State

6. References

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3. Importance of Health in Islam

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Importance of Health in Islam

Health is a necessary condition to the preservation of life. Indeed, it is an essential requirement for the establishment of God’s law in human life, for it is only healthy human beings that can properly implement this law in human society.

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Hence, Islam places health as second in importance to faith. The Prophet(PBUH) says: “Second to faith, no one has ever been given a greater blessing than health”.

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"After faith, no one was given anything better than health and well-being".

The Prophet (PBUH):


In another hadith, the Prophet(PBUH) defines the relative importance of health and wealth: “Wealth is of no harm to a God-fearing person, but to the God-fearing, health is better than wealth”.

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Narrated by Usamah Bin Shareek : ‘I was with the Prophet (PBUH), and some Arabs came to him asking, “O Messenger of Allah, should we take medicines for any disease?”

He said, “Yes, O You servants of Allah take medicine as Allah has not created a disease without creating a cure except for one.” They asked which one. He replied “old age.”

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Another hadith gives us the proper perspective of the essential things in life: “Whoever of you gets up in the morning feeling physically healthy, enjoying security and having his food for the day is like one who has the world at his fingertips”.

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By contrast, health places on us a great responsibility, for which we are accountable to God. The Prophet(PBUH) says: “The first thing every servant of God will have to account for on the Day of Judgement is that God will ask him: ‘Have I not given you a healthy constitution?’”

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The Prophet(PBUH) is also quoted as saying: “No one will be allowed to move from his position on the Day of Judgement until he has been asked how he spent his life, how he used his knowledge, how he earned and spent his money, and in what pursuits he used his health”.

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Imam Ali (PBUH) said: “Health is the best of blessings.”

In another narration, he says, “One of the blessings [of God] is the abundance of wealth; however, better than abundance of wealth is the sound health of the body.”

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Imam Ja’far as-Sadiq (PBUH) said, “A believer who is physically strong is better than a weak believer.” It is in this sense that our body is considered to be the trust given to us by Allah, and we have to safeguard and protect this trust in the best possible way.

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Islam directs people’s attention to this blessing and alerts them to the fact that many people end up making a great loss as a result of their casual and negligent attitude to it.

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The Prophet(PBUH) says: “Many people give themselves a raw deal with regard to two blessings: health and spare time”. Hence, he urges people to make the best use of their health and enjoy it.

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The Prophet(PBUH) is quoted as saying: “Make the best use of five things before the onset of another five:

your life before your death,

your health before your illness,

your free time before being busy,

your youth before your old age and

your wealth before you end up in poverty”.

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Prophet Muhammad(PBUH) in a very important statement divides all knowledge to two kinds and attributes one kind to medical knowledge which is concerned primarily with protection of human health and wellbeing:

Science is of two kinds:

One attends to the soul (the science of religion),

and the other attends to the body (the science of body-medicine)

This indicates the significance Islam is placing on human health.

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health as a human right in islam-part 2

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