Full Lecture Transcript (Cleaned)
The Question: Is Homeopathy Halal? — 37:42
Brother Shariful from Pakistan emails and asks whether homeopathy — or homeopathy, as both pronunciations exist — is halal or not.
This is a question that requires a little more detail. I know this is a rapid Q&A, but for this one I need to go a little beyond, even though I will not go into the full depth.
You see, dear brother, when you ask a sheikh something, you need to understand what is the role of the sheikh. Is this something an Islamic scholar should be talking about? There are two angles to look at this from. I will comment on both — but on one of the angles, I will be speaking as a regular human being, just like you. Not coming from an Islamic background, not from a scholarly paradigm. And the second response will be from the Islamic scholarly background.
Personal Opinion: Homeopathy Is Not Medically Effective — 38:45
When you ask whether homeopathy is something effective — something we should do — that answer is not something an Islamic scholar is necessarily trained to give. An Islamic scholar does not study the various types of medicines. There is Ayurvedic medicine, Western medicine, naturopathy, herbal medicine, ancient Greek (Unani) medicine — the Hakeem tradition in Pakistan — acupuncture, and many more. It is not the job of a religiously trained person to discuss the pros and cons of each.
So let me tell you my personal opinion first. As you know, your brother in Islam Yasir — as someone who has degrees in engineering, who has studied and reads — I personally believe that homeopathy is not an effective mechanism for curing any type of disease. This is my personal opinion, and I have the right to my opinion.
Not a single double-blind, peer-reviewed study in the entire world has demonstrated that homeopathy does anything more than produce a placebo effect. In fact, there is a complete absence of any sound statistical evidence that homeopathy works in any form, shape, or fashion.
The Origins and Science of Homeopathy — 40:20
The founder of this discipline — 250 years ago, a German by the name of Samuel Hahnemann — believed that diluting a very small amount of a chemical to an infinitesimally small amount will have a profound impact on the body. He believed in a theory of miasms — different types of fluids and interactions in the body. This is all outdated; it is something the ancient Greeks believed and it is not true biologically.
He believed that depending on the disease, if you were to give an astronomically small tincture of a certain chemical, it would impact the body in a positive manner. The reality is that there is no correlation between the tincture and the body, and secondly, the astronomically infinitesimal quantity is itself ludicrous.
To give an example: a 12c solution in homeopathy is the equivalent of taking a pinch of salt and dropping it into the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans combined. Imagine that level of dilution — you expect something at that concentration to have an impact on your body? As an engineer and chemistry major who understands compounds and molecules, this is ludicrous. It is simply not the case.
As I said, there is not a single actual medical document that proves the efficacy of homeopathy. However — all of this having been said — this is my personal opinion. You can throw it out the window, no problem. I know that members of my own family are irritated at my position and swear by homeopathy. And of course — this is a placebo effect. Whether they took it or not, if they think it works, it is good for them. Placebos also work, as we know.
The Islamic Ruling: Homeopathy Is Halal — 43:18
Now, from a shar'i perspective, from the Islamic ruling: any medication that is based on what the person believes to be physical science — cause and effect, not something supernatural — the default is that it is permissible, unless something haram is done within it.
So whether it is acupuncture, homeopathy, herbal medicine — if you think there is a cause and effect when you do this, then from an Islamic perspective, the default is that it is permissible.
However, if you are going to someone who is invoking spirits — you go to a shaman, a witch doctor, someone invoking the dead — now the issue would be that you cannot do that. You cannot go to supernatural causes or powers. That would now be something haram, if not a type of shirk.
On Alcohol in Homeopathic Remedies — 44:55
Perhaps you are also asking about homeopathy because there is an amount of alcohol used in it. If that is the reason — I have given a much longer lecture about alcohol being present in medicines. I have said that if the alcohol is not something intended in and of itself to be medicinal, but rather is there as a solvent or preservative, and if it is not enough to make you intoxicated — it is a very small amount — then insha'Allah it is permissible. This is the same ruling as cough syrup.
The two main conditions: (1) you are not taking alcohol for the sake of alcohol — the ethanol is there to preserve the active substance; and (2) the quantity you would consume in a normal time frame is not enough to make you intoxicated. In this case, it is overlooked and you are forgiven for this amount.
Therefore, technically speaking from a shar'i perspective — even though I personally believe it is ineffective — homeopathy is halal. And Allah knows best.