Conceptualization of health and diseas in Qur`anic context and its implications on modern medical practices

Background: Health, disease and sickness are complex medical concepts that indispensably related to human life. The analytical study of such concepts is essential for medical philosophy which aims at perfection of healthcare methods. The critical question on such attempt however emanates from the fact that these concepts are elusive. The World Health Organization (WHO) has defined Health as “a state of complete physical, social and mental well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”; but this attempt, in fact, describes what ‘should be’ rather than ‘what is’. The two major questions raised by above fact are about (i) the sickness / disease as described by the physician and as experienced by the patient (ii) what is the proper method of treatment if the two concepts (of doctor & patient) are not identical. Objective: The main objective of this paper is to examine the above two questions and explore the Qur`anic approach on health, disease and illness. The paper investigate role of Qur`anic approach on promoting the prevailing conventional method of medical philosophy. Along the way, the paper discusses the ideal relationship between the physician and patient according to Qur`anic perspective. Methodology: This paper adopts the analytical method of medical philosophy in which certain psycho-physiological concepts, such as health and disease, are examined. Such an analytical study is important because misconception in turn affect the therapeutic strategies. Results: the medical philosophers who attempted to capture meaning of health and disease have established two major approaches of explanation: (i) the normative approach which based on socio-cultural judgments; and (ii) descriptive approach which explains ‘disease’ based on measurable evidences. The Qur`anic approach is potential to play a major role in bridging the gap between the above two approaches. Conclusion: factors affect human health are classified into two major groups: (i) external, such as environment and habits; and (ii) internal (inherent) such as genetic and aging. Both the scientific and religious approaches are necessary to deal with the two types