Preface

The Author and His Works

1. The Metaphorical Interpretation of the Baring of the Shank (Kashfu 'S-Saq)

2. The Metaphorical Interpretation of "The Hand (Al-Yad)"

3. The Breathing of the Spirit (into man) (Nafkhu 'l-Arwah)

4. Metonym and Metaphor (in the Qur’an)

5. The Attribution of Scheming: beguiling and Mockery to Allah

6. The Attribution of Forgetfulness to Allah

7. The Attributes of Allah (Sifat Allah)

8. The Belief concerning the Origination of Human Actions

9. Concerning Human Actions (faslun fi af‘Ali 'L-khalq)

10. Predestination and Free Will (Al-Jabr wa 't-tafwid)

11. The Belief concerning Allah's Intention and Will (Al-Mashiah Wa 'l-Iradah)

12. The belief concerning destiny and decree (Al-Qada’ wa 'L-Qadar)

13. The interpretation of the reports concerning Al-Qada’ and Al-Qadar

14. The Natural Religion (Al-Fitrah)

15. Concerning Human Capacity (Al -Istita‘Ah)

16. Concerning Al-bada’

17. Concerning Religious Disputation (Al-Jidal)

18. The belief concerning the tablet and the pen (Al-Lawh Wa 'L-Qalam)

19. The Metaphysical Meaning of the Throne (Al-‘Arsh)

20. Concerning Souls and Spirits (Al-Arwah wa 'n-Nufus)

21. What Ash-Shaykh Abu Ja‘far has described about Death

22. The Belief concerning the questioning in the Grave

23. What Ash-Shaykh Abu Ja‘far has mentioned about Divine Justice

24. Chapter on Al-A‘raf

25. The Belief concerning the Bridge (As-Sirat)

26. Chapter concerning Al-‘Aqabat

27. The belief concerning reckoning and balance (Al-Hisab wa 'l-Mizan)

28. Concerning Paradise and Hell (Al -Jannah wa 'N-nar)

29. The Point of Unbelief

30. Concerning the descent of revelation (Nuzulu 'l-Wahy)

31. On the Revelation of the Qur’an (Nuzulu 'l-Qur’an)

32. The Belief on Impeccability (Al-‘Ismah)

33. Chapter on Excess and Delegation (Al-Ghuluww wa’t-Tafwid)

34. On Dissimulation (At-Taqiyyah)

35. That the ancestors of the prophet were monotheists (Muwahhidun)

36. Concerning the interpretation of the verse 42:43

37. On Prohibition and Permission (Al-Hazr wa 'l-Ibahah)

38. On Medicine (At-Tibb)

39. On the Divergent Traditions (Al -Ahadithu 'l-Mukhtalifah)

Bibliography

This text is a translation of Tashihu 'l-I‘tiqad of Abu ‘Abdillah,
Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Nu‘man, Known as ash-Shaykh al-Mufid (336/948
or 338/950 – 413/1022)


The Emendation of A Shi‘ite Creed

38. On Medicine (At-Tibb)
=========================

Abu Ja‘far medicine . . ."says: "Our belief concerning the reports on
ash-Shaykh al-Mufid, may Allah have mercy upon him, says: Medicine is a
proper science, and a discipline approved by revelation; the scholars
took their knowledge of it from the prophets. For there is no means of
diagnosing illness except by textual proof, and no means of telling the
remedy except by what is prescribed. Thus, it has been established that
the way to know this is by textual proof (sam‘) from Him Who knows the
secret essence of things, or by reports which have been handed down on
the authority of the truthful Imams, exemplified in the saying of the
Commander of the Believers, "The stomach is the seat of every disease,
and diet is the principal medicine, so let everyone keep his body to
what he is accustomed to".

Also, a remedy which might prove useful to the people of one district
might prove fatal to the people of another, and a medicine might benefit
a people of a certain habit which would not help those of another. The
truthful Imams would prescribe for one of the sick people a medicine
which proved to be harmful to others suffering from the same complaint,
without harming him, since they were aware that the cause of the illness
(in the first case) had ceased; so he who uses this medicine, uses it
after recovery without being conscious of this.

In fact, their knowledge of this was inspired by Allah, the Almighty, in
the manner of a miracle and as a supernatural proof of their distinctive
status. Thus, some people presumed that when the medicine combined with
the germs of the illness, it would benefit them; and this they were
greatly mistaken and injured others. However, this is a consideration
which Abu Ja‘far has not mentioned, though it is relevant to this
chapter. As for the interpretations put forward by him, they are quite
sound; the traditions may bear the meaning which he mentioned.


