The Philosophy of Medical Science in the Qurʾān: Its Nature, Purpose, and Modality

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Corresponding Author, Graduate of Al-Mustafa International University, Director of the Forensic Medicine Jurisprudence Department, Forensic Medicine Research Center

2 Professor at Al-Mustafa International University

3 Member of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the Islamic Republic of Iran; Member of the Health Technology Development Department, Qom University of Medical Sciences; Director of the Quran and Health Department, Al-Mustafa Community

Abstract

Objective: The philosophy of medical science, as a second-order discipline, undertakes a reflective and meta-theoretical inquiry into the nature, purpose, and methodology of medical knowledge. Given the pivotal role of medicine in promoting human well-being and the necessity of clarifying its philosophical foundations, this study adopts an innovative approach by examining medical knowledge through the lens of Qurʾānic verses and Islamic narrations. Its objective is to identify the relationship between religious teachings and the philosophical underpinnings of medical science, and to articulate a religious framework for understanding medical knowledge.
Method: The research employs a descriptive–analytical method and draws upon interdisciplinary, library-based sources, incorporating both Qurʾānic verses and transmitted traditions. While the Qur'an and the narrations do not explicitly present a formal philosophy of medicine, they articulate foundational principles, values, and metaphysical commitments that undergird medical knowledge.
Results: The findings are organized into three principal axes: the nature (whatness) of medical science, its purpose (whyness), and its mode of operation (howness) from the perspective of the Qurʾān and narrations. Numerous Qurʾānic verses address issues related to health and hygiene, thereby providing essential principles for the formation of what has been termed “Islamic medicine.” The most significant foundations related to medical knowledge in these sources are ontological and epistemological in nature. Among the ontological foundations are the createdness of the universe by God and His comprehensive sovereignty over all affairs. Two contrasting outlooks toward reality—a reductionist view confined to the material world and a holistic view encompassing all levels of existence—yield fundamentally different conceptions of health. Within the epistemological domain, medical knowledge extends beyond worldly well-being to encompass eschatological health. The order of existence is structured upon the principle of health and the prevention of illness, and the scope of health is remarkably expansive, extending from birth to post-mortem existence. This dimension is examined in the discussion of the purpose of medical science, where its necessity, aims, and ultimate ends are analyzed.
Conclusion: Health, in this framework, is not merely the absence of physical disease but includes spiritual well-being. Indeed, the essence of health is understood as equilibrium among bodily, psychological, and spiritual dimensions. In considering the modality of medical science from the perspective of Qurʾānic verses and narrations, principles such as belief in the law-governed and optimal structure of the cosmos, as well as the efficacy of supplication and communion with God in shaping human destiny, are emphasized as factors contributing to human health

Keywords

References

The Noble Qurʾān (Qurʾān al‑Karīm) .
ʿAbbās-Nezhād, Moḥsen et al., Qurʾān va Ṭibb (Qurʾān and Medicine), Mashhad: Bunyād-i Pazhūhish-hā-yi Ḥawzah va Dāneshgāh, 1385 SH (2006 CE).
Aḥmad Amīn, Islām Pezeshk bī-Dāru (Islam: The Physician Without Medicine), Tehran: Nasl-i Javān, 1368 SH (1989 CE).
al-Ḥawīzī, ʿAbd al-ʿAlī al-ʿArousī, Nūr al-Thaqalayn (The Light of the Two Heavy Ones), Qom: al-Maṭbaʿah al-ʿIlmīyah, 1383 SH (2004 CE).
ʿAlīdūst, Abū al-Qāsim, Dars-Goftār-i Falsafah-i Fiqh, Session 1: Chīstī-Shenāsī-yi Falsafah-yi Muḍāf va Aqsām-i Ān (Lecture on Philosophy of Jurisprudence: Ontology of Added Philosophy and Its Types), online: Shabakeh-yi Ijtihād, n.p .
Azdī, ʿAbdullāh bin Muḥammad, Kitāb al-Māʾ (The Book of Water), Tehran: Dāneshgāh-i ʿUlūm-i Pezeshkī-yi Īrān, Muʾassasah-yi Mutālaʿāt-i Tārīkh-i Pezeshkī, Ṭibb-i Islāmī va Mukammal, 1387 SH (2008 CE).
Bī-Āzār Shīrāzī, ʿAbd al-Karīm, Masāʾil-i Darmānī (Therapeutic Issues), Tehran: Daftar-i Nashr-i Farhang-i Islāmī, 1374 SH (1995 CE).
Dehkhodā, ʿAlī-Akbar, Lughatnāmah (Lexicon), software, n.p .
Diyāb, ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd & Qarqūz, Ṭibb dar Qurʾān (Medicine in the Qurʾān), trans. Chirāghī, Tehran: Nashr-i Ḥefẓī, n.p.
Fakhr Rāzī, Muḥammad bin ʿUmar, Tafsīr-i Kabīr Mafātīḥ al-Ghayb (The Great Commentary: Keys of the Unseen), Tehran: Asātīr, 1379 SH (2000 CE).
Ḥājibī, Muḥammad Ḥusayn, Pezeshkān-i Khodetān Bāshīd (Be Your Own Doctors), Tehran: Nashr-i Thālith, 1378 SH (1999 CE).
Ḥurr ʿĀmilī, Muḥammad bin Ḥasan, Wasāʾil al-Shīʿah ilā Taḥṣīl Masāʾil al-Sharīʿah (The Means of the Shīʿah to Attain the Issues of the Law), Tehran: Kitābchī, 1386 SH (2007 CE).
Ibn Manẓūr, Lisān al-ʿArab (The Tongue of the Arabs), Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 1990 CE.
Ibn Sīnā, Ḥusayn bin ʿAbdullāh, al-Qānūn fī al-Ṭibb (The Canon of Medicine), Cairo: Nashr al-Muthannā, 1290 AH (1873 CE).
فلسفه دانش پزشکی در قرآن: چیستی، چرایی و چگونگی | یوسف فاطم ینیا و همکاران 323
Irānī, Akbar et al., Ṭibb-i Rūḥānī (Spiritual Medicine), Tehran: Ahl-i Qalam, 1383 SH (2004 CE).
Javādī Āmalī, ʿAbdullāh, Manzilat-i ʿAql dar Hendasah-yi Maʿrifat-i Dīnī (The Status of Reason in the Geometry of Religious Knowledge), Tehran: Nashr-i Isrāʾ, 1388 SH (2009 CE).
Khosrowpanāh, ʿAbd al-Ḥusayn, Majallah-yi Pazhūhishī-yi Andīshah-yi Nowīn-i Dīnī (Journal of New Religious Thought), vol. 3, no. 10, Fall 1387 SH (2008 CE).
Kulaynī, Muḥammad bin Yaʿqūb, Uṣūl al-Kāfī (The Foundations of al-Kāfī), Tehran: Dār al-Thaqalayn, 1393 SH (2014 CE).
Majlisī, Muḥammad Bāqir, Biḥār al-Anwār (Seas of Lights), Tehran: Islāmīyah, 1386 SH (2007 CE).
Majūsī, ʿAlī bin ʿAbbās, Kāmil al-Ṣināʿah al-Ṭibbīyah (Complete Medical Art), Qom: Muʾassasah-i Iḥyāʾ Ṭibb-i Ṭabīʿī, Jalāl al-Dīn, 1387 SH (2008 CE).
Makāram Shīrāzī, Nāṣir, Tafsīr-i Namūnah (Sample Commentary), Tehran: Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmīyah, 1371 SH (1992 CE).
Miṣbāḥ Yazdī, Muḥammad Taqī, Āmūzish-i Falsafah, vol. 1, Tehran: Sāzmān-i Tablīghāt-i Islāmī, Sherkat-i Chāp va Nashr-i Bayn al-Mellal, 1369 SH (1990 CE).
Mufīd, Muḥammad bin Muḥammad, Taṣḥīḥ al-Iʿtiqādāt al-Imāmīyah (Correction of Imāmī Beliefs), Qom: al-Muʾtamar al-ʿĀlamī li-l-Fayḥah al-Shaykh al-Mufīd, 1371 SH (1992 CE).
Muqaddasī, Ḥamīd, Farhang-i Iṣṭilāḥāt-i Pezeshkī (Dictionary of Medical Terms), 12th ed., Tehran: Nashr-i Vāzhah-Pardāz, 1401 SH (2022 CE).
Muṣṭafavī Kāshānī, Jalāl, Dāru Masʾalah-yi Pezeshkī-yi Qarn (Medicine: The Issue of the Century), Tehran: Keyhān, 1391 SH (2012 CE).
Muṣṭafavī, Ḥasan, al-Taḥqīq fī Kalimāt al-Qurʾān al-Karīm (Investigation in the Words of the Noble Qurʾān), Tehran: Vezārat-i Farhang va Ershād, 1371 SH (1992 CE) .
Najafī, Gūdorz, Maṭālib-i Shageftangiz-i Qurʾān (Amazing Matters of the Qurʾān), Tehran: Nashr-i Subḥān, 1386 SH (2007 CE).
Nūr-Muḥammadī, Gholām-Reẓā, Daramadī bar Niẓām-i Jāmeʿ-i Ṣiḥḥat-i Islām (An Introduction to the Comprehensive Islamic Health System), vol. 1, Qom: Nashr-i Fiqh, 1396 SH (2017 CE) .
324 قرآن و علم، سال 19 ، شماره 37 ، بهار و تابستان 1404
Nūr-Muḥammadī, Gholām-Reẓā, Negarash-i Nowīn be Ṭibb (A New Approach to Medicine), Pazhūhish-i Ḥawzah, no. 18, 1388 SH (2009 CE).
Pāk-Nezhād, Rezā, Avvalīn Dāneshgāh Ākharīn Payāmbar (The First University of the Last Prophet), Tehran: Maktab-i Islāmīyah wa Bunyād-i Farhangī-yi Shahīd, 1363 SH (1984 CE).
Qarā Malakī, Aḥad Farāmarz, Rūsh-Shenāsī-yi Mutālaʿāt-i Dīnī (Methodology of Religious Studies), Mashhad: Dāneshgāh-i ʿUlūm-i Islāmī-yi Razavī, 1388 SH (2009 CE).
Quraishī, Sayyid ʿAlī-Akbar, Qāmūs-i Qurʾān (Qurʾān Dictionary), Tehran: Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmīyah, 1378 SH (1999 CE).
Rāghib Isfahānī, Abū al-Qāsim al-Ḥusayn bin Muḥammad, Mufradāt fī Gharīb al-Qurʾān (Lexicon of Rare Words in the Qurʾān), Tehran: al-Maktabah al-Riḍwīyah, 1332 SH (1953 CE).
Rāshdī, Ḥasan, Namāz-Shenāsī (Study of Prayer), Tehran: Setād-i Iqāmat-i Namāz va Iḥyā-yi Zakāt, 1380 SH (2001 CE).
Rezāʾī Isfahānī, Muḥammad ʿAlī, Daramadī bar Tafsīr-i ʿIlmī-yi Qurʾān (An Introduction to Scientific Qurʾān Interpretation), Qom: Nashr-i Uswah, 1365 SH (1986 CE).
Rezāʾī Isfahānī, Muḥammad ʿAlī, Manṭiq-i Tafsīr-i Qurʾān, vol. 4 (Logic of Qurʾān Interpretation), Qom: Markaz-i Bīn al-Melal-i Tarjamah va Nashr-i al-Muṣṭafā, 1392 SH (2013 CE).
Saddler, Thomas, Longman Rūyān-Shenāsī (Longman Embryology), trans. Dr. Moslem Bahādorī & Dr. ʿAbbās Shakūr, Tehran, 1398 SH (2019 CE).
Sajādī, Sayyid Jaʿfar, Farhang-i Iṣṭilāḥāt-i Falsafī-yi Mullā Ṣadrā (Dictionary of Philosophical Terms of Mullā Ṣadrā), Tehran: Vezārat-i Farhang va Ershād-i Islāmī, 1392 SH (2013 CE).
Ṭabāṭabāʾī, Muḥammad Ḥusayn, al-Mīzān fī Tafsīr al-Qurʾān, trans. Nūrī Hamadānī (al-Mīzān in Qurʾān Interpretation), Qom: Bunyād-i ʿIlmī va Fikrī-yi ʿAllāmah, 1366 SH (1987 CE).
Wāshiyān, ʿAbbāsʿAlī, Behiṣht va Ṣiḥḥat-i Maʿnavī az Manẓar-i Qurʾān (Spiritual Health and Well-Being from the Qurʾān Perspective), 1398 SH (2019 CE).
Yazdī, Murtazā, Dānestanī-hā-yi Pezeshkī (Medical Knowledge), vol. 3, Tehran: Sherkat-i Nashr-i Naqd-i Afkār, 1364 SH (1985 CE).
The Quran and Science
Volume 19, Issue 37 - Serial Number 37
January 2026
Pages 293-324

Files

History

  • Receive Date: 01 September 2025
  • Revise Date: 07 November 2025
  • Accept Date: 09 December 2025

Share

How to cite

Statistics