Atheist objections on Hijaama( a Sunnah of Holy Prophet Muhammad صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم) and its answer
Written by....Dr Ahead Hassan
Cupping therapy is an ancient form of alternative medicine in which a therapist puts special cups on your skin for a few minutes to create suction.
The first documented uses are found in the teachings of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad. According to Muhammad al-Bukhari, Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj Nishapuri and Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Muhammad approved of the Hijama (cupping) treatment.
The Holy Prophet Muhammad s.a.w said Indeed, the best of remedies you have is hijama, and if there was something excellent to be used as a remedy then it is hijama.
The atheist put objection on this sunnah that it is a pseudo science and has no benefits.
According to atheists,Cupping is poorly supported by scientific evidence.In their 2008 book Trick or Treatment, Simon Singh and Edzard Ernst write that no evidence exists of any beneficial effects of cupping for any medical condition.A 2011 review found tentative evidence for pain but nothing else.
There haven’t been many scientific studies on cupping.
One report, published in 2015 in the Journal of Traditional and Complementary Medicine, notes that it could help with acne, herpes zoster, and pain management.The way it works is unclear but might involve the placebo effect.
That’s similar to the findings from a 2012 report, published in PLoS One. Australian and Chinese researchers reviewed 135 studies on cupping. They concluded that cupping therapy may be effective when people also get other treatments, like acupuncture or medications, for various diseases and conditions, such as:
Herpes zoster
Acne
Facial paralysis
Cervical spondylosis
But those researchers noted many of the studies they reviewed could have been biased and that better studies are needed.
Cupping has been characterized as pseudoscience by some researchers.
American cancer society stated that: "There is no good evidence it has any benefit on health and there are some concerns it may be harmful".However Tham et al in reply to previous statement concluded that: " Cupping, on the other hand, is known to be an effective alternative to needles in stimulating acupoints in acupuncture treatment. One of the major advantages must be that the transmission of blood-borne diseases" and added: "The American Cancer Society notes that acupuncture can help control chemotherapy-related nausea and vomiting"
In 2015 review of systematic reviews, the researchers concluded that: "Cupping may be beneficial for pain-related conditions such as: herpes zoster, low back pain, and other conditions like: acne, and facial paralysis and in 2016 systematic review, the researchers concluded: "Cupping can be used for musculoskeletal pain, neck pain, Carpal tunnel syndrome, and brachialgia.
Cupping is generally safe when applied by trained professionals on people who are otherwise healthy.
There are many autoimmune diseases in which filtering of blood in form of plasmaphsresis is done to remove toxic substances from body as kidneys can not filter all toxic substances.
Cupping helps improve immune function by moving blood and lymphatic fluid throughout the body, which is why it’s been associated with reductions in lung diseases (especially chronic coughs), allergies, infections and asthma.
While cupping therapies using heat have the longest history in Asian countries like China, Japan and Korea, a similar practice called “wet cupping” has also been used in the Middle East for centuries. Recently, cupping has become more popular in the U.S. and other Western nations too, as some doctors have started implementing cupping and acupuncture into their patients’ treatment plans for naturally alleviating symptoms of pain, congestion and chronic infections without the need for drugs.
A 2012 report published in the Journal PLoS ONE reviewed 135 studies on cupping therapies published between 1992 and 2010. Researchers concluded that cupping is more than just a placebo effect — it has benefits similar to acupuncture or herbal treatments for treating various digestive, skin, hormonal and inflammatory diseases.
It should not be done in children below 10,adults more than 70 years of age,pregnant,very weak and those who are recovering from surgery.
Researchers have studied cupping primarily in China, finding benefit in conditions such as anxiety, depression, back pain, varicose veins, high blood pressure, eczema, acne, fertility, arthritis, fibromyalgia, diabetes, anemia, shingles (herpes zoster), insomnia, and gout.
While the quality of some of these clinical trials is not to U.S. standards, the findings of actual benefit are significant, especially given the low risk of the side effects.
Recent reviews of existing research on cupping therapy’s effectiveness found that most evidence supports cupping therapy’s potential benefits for pain management as well as helping people with persistent coughs, back problems, and conditions such as shingles
However, even these researchers have advocated for more study.
Additionally, researchers have cautioned against some of cupping’s more adverse effects, especially for wet cupping.
Even bloodless cupping has the potential to cause problems, such as keloids, panniculitis, damage to surface arteries and veins, and more but it is safe when performed by trained processional.
if you have a bleeding disorder, or take medicine like aspirin or ibuprofen where bleeding is a potential side effect, you might want to skip cupping till you are free from these drugs and disorders.
The scientists conducted a systematic literature review of clinical trials on cupping therapy based on available clinical studies published from 1958 through 2008.They concluded that the majority of the 550 included studies showed that cupping is of potential benefit for pain conditions, herpes zoster, and cough and dyspnea.
Finally,their meta-analysis revealed that cupping therapy combined with other treatments, such as acupuncture or medications, showed significant benefit over other treatments alone in effecting a cure for herpes zoster, acne, facial paralysis, and cervical spondylosis.
In conclusion, the results of this systematic review suggest that cupping therapy appears to be effective for various diseases/conditions, in particular herpes zoster, acne, facial paralysis, and cervical spondylosis. However, the main limitation of our analysis was that nearly all included trials were evaluated as high risk of bias. As such, it is necessary to conduct further RCTs that are of high quality and larger sample sizes in order to draw a definitive conclusion.
So while earlier researches showed no benefit but later researches showed it can be beneficial.so benefit can not be denied based on scientific grounds.It should be remembered that till this time,researches are going on and they are showing some benefits and further researches may give more evidence of benefit.
Cupping is not recommended as a replacement for typical treatment.But there are many body conditions and diseases especially autoimmune diseases in which this therapy has a beneficial role by removing harmful antibodies,so it has more protective effect than a therapeutic effect.
So new research shows that cupping therapy which is a sunnah of our prophet s.a.w is not free from medical benefits and further researches in this field are going on and as aa muslim we believe that science is lagging behind religion and o n e day it will show all benefits of this sunnah of Prophet Muhammad S.a.w insha_Allah.
References:
http://www.healthline.com/health-news/olympic-cupping-therapy-is-It-in-their-heads
http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/mobileart.asp?articlekey=199489
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